Vice President of Operations and Production - Firefly Aerospace

ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE

As an end-to-end space transportation company, Firefly Aerospace is on a mission to enable our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime! Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

SUMMARY

As Firefly’s Vice President (VP) of Operations & Production, you will leverage your previously demonstrated ability to successfully manage operations and internal production departments at our expanding facilities as we ramp production of the launch vehicle and spacecraft components and assemblies of Firefly’s product lines. These products include not only two launch vehicles, but also our Blue Ghost Lunar Landers and Elytra, our on-orbit transfer vehicle.

The ideal candidate for this position will be an individual with high energy and the ability to inspire others and foster a collaborative learning and success-oriented team culture within our innovative and fast-paced aerospace production environment.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Strategically lead the transition from an R&D environment to an initial low-rate and eventual full-production rate cadence for launch vehicle components and assemblies.
• Establish and mature safety, quality, and performance as core tenets to all production operations. Ensure the culture of our operations starts and ends with the absolute requirement that we keep our team, our products and our customer payloads safe.
• Work with the COO and Firefly team to strategically optimize manufacturing operations, footprint, building layout and lean component and assembly flow.
• Lead the organization responsible for the internal manufacturing of launch vehicle and spacecraft components, and engine assembly for all Firefly products.
  • Departments and responsibilities under this position include: machine shop, tube shop, fluid components manufacturing, production tooling, composite structures manufacturing and assembly, electronic components (avionics) and wire harness manufacturing, and engine assembly.
• Properly staff and oversee all responsible departments in support of vehicle level production programs and internal IRAD efforts.
• Establish department standards for lean production techniques to achieve required rate, efficiency, and cost objectives.
• Create project plans, integrated master schedules, and budgets for internal production and development programs.
• Oversee production schedules for component manufacturing, engine and structure assembly, and overall vehicle integration and test to meet overall required product delivery rates and dates.
• Provide guidance for the operations team as needed and approve training opportunities.
• Identify areas of production non-conformance and work with manufacturing engineers to reduce or eliminate discrepancies.
• Work with the engineering, programs, and supply chain teams to implement manufacturing cost-reduction initiatives and deliver on the associated vehicle cost reduction objectives.
• Oversee the development of all manufacturing support tooling for existing and emerging Firefly components and assemblies.
• Closely coordinate and build relationships with all technical and support departments strengthening communications, collaboration, and effective workflows required to deliver company success.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Technical Background

• Bachelor of Science in Operations Management, Mechanical Engineering, or similar program or organizational management fields.
• 15+ years of industry experience in scaled R&D for complex small to large fabricated bodies in a low to medium rate production operations. Experience with Space Systems is a plus, but not required.
• Proven ability to utilize lean and other continuous improvement methodologies to drive strong operational performance in EHS, Quality, Delivery, Cost and Cash.
• Strong track record of establishing strategy, metrics, KPIs and operating rhythms to drive successful operational execution in both NPI and production phases of the product life cycle.
• Possesses the technical background to sufficiently understand the details of products and processes vital to the successful operational execution of the manufacturing and testing of Firefly’s products.
• Well-versed in ERP production systems and business processes that are core to the overall company’s success and able to structure key metrics and KPI’s from these data sources.

• Creates and delivers on realistic timelines and expectations with predictability
• Attention to detail and organization, especially when it comes to organizing processes across a large manufacturing team

Leadership

• Strong track record of leadership experience managing a diverse, high-performing production team.
• Ability to coordinate and motivate production teams toward a common vision and set of deliverables.
• Capable of growing the team’s capabilities and aligning them with both the company’s objectives and our employees.
• Creates an environment of learning which is open to input, collaborative, and driven to deliver success.
• Demonstrable experience establishing metrics, KPIs and operating rhythms to achieve company goals using a structured process of continuous improvement to deliver results.
• Program and Project Management experience establishing project plans, integrated master schedules, budgets and tasks is highly desirable. Successful candidate will establish and lead the op rhythms responsible for manufacturing and production.
• Comfortable interacting with current and potential customers and regulatory agencies like the FCC, FAA, and Range Safety.
• Candidate must be able to convey and communicate information well using Microsoft tools – The candidate must have excellent written and oral communication skills.

Desired

• Background in SPACE, or Aerospace is desired. More important is someone with a passion to be in the Newspace industry.
• Experience in a startup environment.
• Looking for candidates with positive, visionary leadership skills and energy. Provides strong mentorship and is an engaged coach for team members.

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.