Description
Leidos' Defense Manufacturing Team is seeking a Hypersonics Machining Manager to lead the establishment of a new machining facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The Machining Manager is responsible for activating, establishing, and leading a high-performing machining operation supporting future production requirements.
Essential Functions
- Facility Activation & Production Readiness: Lead facility activation and machining operation start-up, including equipment installation, commissioning, qualification, and production release.
- Develop and execute integrated readiness plans covering equipment, tooling, fixturing, CNC programming, processes, staffing, training, material flow, inspection, and production controls.
- Establish machining cells, work centers, material flow, standard work, and visual management.
- Identify and resolve facility, equipment, tooling, workforce, and process constraints impacting production readiness and ramp-up.
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Facilities, EHS, and Program Management to achieve manufacturing milestones.
Machining & Technical Leadership
- Provide operational and technical leadership for CNC machining, programming, tooling, work holding, and process optimization.
- Apply demonstrated expertise in non-metallic machining to enable an aggressive equipment activation and qualification timeline.
- Partner with CNC programming and Manufacturing Engineering to review and optimize CNC programs and machining processes to improve cycle time, tool life, quality, and equipment utilization.
- Troubleshoot complex machining and process issues and coordinate solutions with machinists and the technical support team.
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and Quality to establish machining standards, work instructions, setup procedures, and process documentation.
Safety, Quality, Cost & Delivery
- Own and continuously improve SQCD performance for the machining organization.
- Establish a strong safety culture and ensure compliance with EHS requirements and machine safety standards.
- Drive first-time-right manufacturing and reduction of scrap, rework, defects, and process variation.
- Manage labor, tooling, consumables, scrap, equipment utilization, and other manufacturing costs.
- Establish and monitor metrics including OEE, utilization, cycle time, labor efficiency, scrap, rework, and schedule performance.
- Own production execution and ensure machining capacity and output support program schedules and customer commitments.
- Lead structured problem solving and continuous-improvement initiatives.
People & Organization Leadership
- Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of machinists, CNC programmers, leads, supervisors, and manufacturing personnel.
- Establish workforce plans, training requirements, and qualification processes to support facility activation and production ramp.
- Recruit, develop, and retain machining talent.
- Promote a culture of accountability, technical excellence, safety, quality, and continuous improvement.
- Maintain a visible, hands-on leadership presence on the manufacturing floor.
Key Performance Expectations
- The successful candidate will establish a safe, capable, scalable, and production-ready machining operation, with measurable improvement in:
- Facility and equipment readiness
- Production capacity and utilization
- CNC process stability and capability
- Schedule and delivery performance
- First-pass yield and quality
- Scrap and rework
- Labor and manufacturing cost
- OEE and equipment effectiveness
- Workforce capability and staffing readiness
- Overall SQCD performance