Lead Manufacturing Engineer

Wanna join the adventure?

Loft Orbital is looking for a Manufacturing Engineering Lead to help scale the way we build spacecraft.
This is a hands-on, player-coach role combining technical leadership with direct Manufacturing Engineering execution. You’ll spend approximately half of your time providing technical direction, prioritizing work, and mentoring Manufacturing Engineers, while remaining deeply involved in the day-to-day engineering required to build, troubleshoot, and improve our spacecraft production processes.

You’ll work directly on the production floor and partner closely with AIT, Design Engineering, Production Planning, Supply Chain, and Quality to translate spacecraft designs into robust, repeatable manufacturing processes. From developing work instructions and tooling to resolving production issues and improving manufacturability, you’ll personally own engineering work while helping the broader team operate effectively and scale.

What Success Looks Like:

You’ll be successful in this role by being equally comfortable leading the team and doing the work yourself.
You’ll help Manufacturing Engineers prioritize and solve difficult problems while personally developing processes, supporting technicians, troubleshooting production issues, and driving spacecraft builds forward. Over time, your work will help turn spacecraft designs into increasingly repeatable, scalable, and production-ready manufacturing processes, enabling Loft to increase production capacity without compromising the quality and reliability required for flight hardware.

About this Role:

• Act as a hands-on Manufacturing Engineer, directly supporting spacecraft assembly, integration, and production alongside the Manufacturing Engineering team.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing process plans, detailed work instructions, routings, BOMs, and other production documentation required to execute spacecraft builds.
• Provide hands-on engineering support on the production floor, working directly with technicians to troubleshoot assembly and integration issues and remove production blockers.
• Develop and validate manufacturing processes, tooling, fixtures, equipment, and production layouts required for spacecraft assembly and integration.
• Lead root cause investigations for manufacturing and production issues and implement effective corrective and preventive actions.
• Review engineering designs and documentation for manufacturability, providing actionable Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) feedback to Design Engineering.
• Manage and maintain EBOM/MBOM/PBOM alignment, routings, work orders, and manufacturing documentation within ERP/MRP/MES environments.
• Identify and execute continuous improvement initiatives that improve quality, throughput, repeatability, ergonomics, and production efficiency.
• Lead Manufacturing Engineering activities across spacecraft builds, helping prioritize work and providing technical direction while remaining accountable for your own engineering deliverables.
• Mentor and support Manufacturing Engineers, helping develop their technical capabilities and establishing consistent Manufacturing Engineering practices across the team.
• Serve as a technical liaison between Engineering and Operations, ensuring engineering intent is translated into clear, controlled, and executable processes on the production floor.
• Identify and implement new manufacturing technologies, equipment, tooling, and automation that enable Loft to scale spacecraft production.

Must Haves:

• 8+ years of professional experience in Manufacturing Engineering, Production Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline within aerospace, spacecraft, or another complex high-reliability hardware environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical leadership or mentorship while remaining a hands-on individual contributor within a manufacturing or production environment.
• Strong hands-on understanding of complex hardware manufacturing and assembly processes, including electronics assembly, hand soldering, harness fabrication, mechanical assembly, bonding/polymerics, and/or precision hardware integration.
• Ability to read, interpret, and provide feedback on engineering documentation including mechanical drawings, GD&T, electrical schematics, CAD models, wire lists, BOMs, and engineering specifications.
• Experience personally developing and maintaining manufacturing process plans, assembly instructions, routings, BOMs, and production documentation under configuration control.
• Experience working within ERP/MRP/MES systems and understanding the relationship between EBOMs, MBOMs/PBOMs, routings, work orders, inventory, and production execution.
• Demonstrated experience solving complex production problems through structured root cause analysis and corrective action.
• Strong understanding of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement principles, with demonstrated experience improving manufacturing quality, efficiency, or throughput.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills with the ability to work effectively across Engineering, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Production teams.
• Willingness and ability to work on-site in Golden, Colorado, including significant hands-on support directly on the production floor.

Nice to Haves:

• Previous experience manufacturing, assembling, integrating, or testing spacecraft or other spaceflight hardware.
• Previous hands-on experience as an aerospace or spacecraft technician.
• Experience with aerospace manufacturing and workmanship standards such as AS9100, IPC-A-610, IPC/WHMA-A-620, J-STD-001, NASA standards, and/or ECSS.
• Current or previous IPC workmanship certifications.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.
• Experience designing manufacturing tooling, fixtures, production layouts, or assembly aids.
• Experience scaling manufacturing operations from low-volume development builds toward higher-rate production.
• Experience implementing or improving ERP, MRP, or MES systems and manufacturing data structures.
• Experience with manufacturing automation, data analysis, or scripting tools such as Python.

Some of Our Awesome Benefits:

• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance option for employees and dependents
• Flexible Spending (FSA) and Health Savings (HSA) Accounts offered with an employer contribution to the HSA
• 100% employer paid Life, AD&D, Short-Term, and Long-Term Disability insurance
• Flexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave, and 12 paid holidays
• 401(k) plan and equity options
• Daily catered lunches and snacks
• International exposure to our team in France
• Fully paid parental leave; 14 weeks for primary caregiver and 10 weeks for secondary caregiver
• Carrot Fertility provides comprehensive, inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support
• Off-sites and many social events and celebrations
• Relocation assistance when applicable

*Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented people tend to only apply when they meet 100% of the qualifications. At Loft, we value respectful debate and people who aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions. We strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check all the boxes.

Who We Are

Loft: Space Made Simple.

Founded in 2017, Loft provides governments, companies, and research institutions with a fast, reliable, and simple way to deploy missions in orbit.

We integrate, launch, and operate spacecraft, offering end-to-end missions as a service across Earth observation, IoT connectivity, on-orbit AI, national security missions, and more. Leveraging our existing space infrastructure and an extensive inventory of satellite buses, Loft is reducing years-long integration and launch timelines to months. With more than 30 missions flown, Loft’s flight heritage and proven technologies enable customers to focus on their mission objectives.

With a growing fleet on track to reach 30 satellites by 2027, we are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, CA | Golden, CO | and Toulouse, France to meet accelerating demand for space infrastructure.

As an international company your resume will be reviewed by people across our offices so please attach a copy in English.

State law requires us to tell you the base compensation range for this role, which is $125,000- $190,000 per year. This is determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities. The salary range for this role is intentionally wide as we evaluate individuals based on their unique experience and abilities to fit our needs. Most importantly, we are excited to meet you, and see if you are a great fit for our team. What we can’t quantify for you are the exciting challenges, supportive team, and amazing culture we enjoy.