Lead, Manufacturing Engineering, DFM

About this role

HADRIAN - MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE

Hadrian is building autonomous factories that help aerospace and defense companies manufacture rockets, satellites, jets, and ships up to 10x faster and up to 2x cheaper. By combining advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we are reinventing how America produces its most critical parts.

We’re accelerating our mission with the launch of Factory 3 in Mesa, Arizona, a 290,000-square-foot facility creating 350 new jobs. We are expanding rapidly to support thousands of future hires, launching Hadrian Maritime to expand into naval production, and introducing a Factory-as-a-Service model that delivers complete systems instead of individual parts.

Hadrian is backed by leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and Andreessen Horowitz, our fast-growing team is united around reindustrializing American manufacturing for the 21st century and beyond.

About this role:

DFM (Design for Manufacturability) is the front of Hadrian's manufacturing system: the function that turns a customer RFQ into a manufacturability, cost, and risk decision. Every part passes through it before it reaches the floor, and how fast and how well that work moves directly determines how much new business Hadrian can take on.

We are seeking a Lead Manufacturing Engineer to own the operational engine of that function. You will lead a growing team of manufacturing engineers who assess and quote parts at high volume, and you will be accountable for how quickly and how reliably that work moves. This is an operations-and-people leadership role first. You will treat the quoting process as a production system: design the workflow, run the queues, measure throughput at every step, find and remove the bottlenecks, and coach a team through demanding, high-volume decision work while keeping them engaged and growing.

This is one of two Manufacturing Engineering Lead roles in DFM. You and a peer Lead will divide the team and its work between you and run the function as one system, partnering closely to balance load and hold common standards. How that division lands (by functional focus, by contract type, or by customer segment) will be shaped as the team scales, so you will help define your own scope as much as inherit it.

You will work across the company, partnering with Sales on intake and commitments, with Supply Chain and Applications Engineering on the inputs that gate quoting, and with the software teams that build the tools your team runs on. As Hadrian scales from two factories toward five-plus and expands into new manufacturing domains, you will build the operational structure that lets this function grow without losing speed or control.

Key responsibilities:

Workflow & Throughput

- Own the daily quoting workflow end to end: intake, triage, queues, and work-in-process

- Treat the process as a production system: instrument it, see where work hangs up, and remove the bottlenecks

- Design and maintain the operational mechanics (WIP limits, prioritization, intake metering) that keep throughput high and predictable

- Drive measurable improvement in quoting speed and reliability as volume grows

Performance Measurement & Operating Cadence

- Build and run the team's operating cadence: a daily and weekly read on whether the team is on track

- Define and maintain throughput and performance metrics at the process-step level

- Report performance clearly upward, and use it to drive decisions rather than just describe status

- Make the state of the function visible to leadership and to partner teams

Team Leadership & Development

- Lead, coach, and develop a team of manufacturing engineers

- Keep a team doing high-volume, repetitive decision work engaged, challenged, and growing

- Build the bench: onboard and ramp new engineers and develop the skills the function needs as it scales

- Set clear expectations and hold the team to them, so the team performs without constant intervention

Cross-Functional Coordination

- Own the working relationship with Sales on intake, capacity, and commitments

- Coordinate with Supply Chain, Applications Engineering, and other partners on the inputs that gate quoting

- Partner with software and product teams to improve the tooling the workflow depends on

- Manage stakeholders so partner teams trust the function's output and its cadence

Continuous Improvement

- Identify and drive operational improvements to how the function works

- Build repeatable processes and documentation that let the team run consistently and scale

- Contribute to how work is routed, prioritized, and escalated

Qualifications:

- 3+ years in manufacturing engineering, operations, or a closely related technical field

- Working knowledge of CNC machining and precision manufacturing, enough to lead engineers making manufacturability and cost decisions

- Experience leading people or directing the work of others (as a manager, team lead, or project/process owner)

- A track record of improving how work gets done: making a workflow, process, or operation measurably faster or more reliable

- Strong cross-functional communication and comfort operating in ambiguity

- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field, or equivalent hands-on manufacturing experience

Preferred Qualifications

- A proven track record building and developing a team: hiring, coaching, and managing performance at scale

- Experience managing high-volume or queue-based work and the metrics that govern it

- Experience in estimating, quoting, cost engineering, or a similar decision-at-throughput function

- Background running operations as a workflow (process engineering, production control, program or throughput management, or similar)

- A track record of keeping teams motivated through repetitive or transactional work

- Experience in high-growth or scaling manufacturing environments

- Familiarity with da

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