Machina Labs
AI-enabled robotic manufacturing for rapid production
Manufacturing Cell Technician / Operator - First Shift
Overtime, extended hours, schedule changes, and occasional weekends may be required based on production needs.
About the job
- A high school diploma or equivalent is preferred.
- Previous experience in manufacturing, fabrication, machining, assembly, or an industrial production environment is preferred.
- Strong mechanical aptitude and experience using common hand tools are required.
- Ability to read and follow work instructions, work orders, routers, travelers, and basic manufacturing documentation is required.
- Ability to safely handle and position aluminum and steel panels and components is required.
- Ability to work around automated machinery and robotic manufacturing equipment is required.
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to safety and product quality are required.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, team-oriented manufacturing environment is required.
- Reliable attendance and ability to support production schedules are required.
- Ability to stand and walk for extended periods; bend, reach, push, pull, and position materials; use hand and torque tools; work safely around machinery and robotic equipment; handle aluminum and steel panels up to approximately 5 ft. × 7 ft.; and wear required personal protective equipment throughout the workday is required.
- Safely operate machinery and associated production equipment.
- Load, unload, position, align, and secure aluminum and steel panels and components.
- Verify material, tooling, fixtures, setup, and orientation before beginning production operations.
- Follow approved work instructions, drawings, routers, travelers, work orders, and standard operating procedures.
- Monitor equipment during operation and identify alarms, defects, abnormal conditions, or process issues.
- Perform basic machine adjustments and troubleshooting within established training and authorization.
- Complete required production and quality documentation accurately and maintain material traceability.
- Perform in-process inspections and identify and escalate nonconforming material or process conditions.
- Use hand tools, torque tools, fixtures, clamps, and other production equipment safely and correctly.
- Partner with Production, Engineering, Quality, and Maintenance to resolve manufacturing and equipment issues.
- Support 5S, Lean Manufacturing, and continuous improvement activities focused on safety, quality, productivity, and material flow.
- Maintain a clean, organized, and safe work environment.
- Experience in aerospace, defense, precision manufacturing, computer numerical control, fabrication, or high-mix/low-volume production.
- Experience operating robotic or automated manufacturing equipment.
- Experience with tooling, fixtures, clamps, machine setups, and torque tools.
- Familiarity with engineering drawings and dimensional requirements.
- Experience working within ISO 9001 and/or AS9100D quality systems.
- Familiarity with 5S, Lean Manufacturing, foreign object debris prevention, and continuous improvement.
- Experience with enterprise resource planning or material requirements planning systems or electronic work instructions.
About the company
Machina Labs develops integrated manufacturing systems that combine robotics and AI to speed up design, prototyping, and production. Their systems automate the shaping, assembly, and testing of sheet metal and other parts using AI-driven optimization and digital tooling. These capabilities are tailored for aerospace, defense, OEMs, heavy equipment, energy, marine, construction, and consumer products, with a focus on large-format parts and fast, end-to-end fabrication for government and industrial customers. The goal is to shorten design-to-production cycles while improving quality and reliability for next-generation equipment.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series C
Total Funding
$173.1M
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
Founded
2019
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- February 2026 Series C raised $124 million for a 200,000-square-foot Intelligent Factory.
- Defense One reported a third factory this year, up to 250,000 square feet.
- Lockheed's JASSM qualification contract and Toyota pilots convert demos into revenue pathways.
What critics are saying
- Defense still drove 70% of revenue in 2026, leaving Machina exposed to procurement slippage.
- The third factory must prove tolerances and throughput before missile programs become production customers.
- A failed scale-up would strand expensive robotic cells and freeze Machina into a niche prototype shop.
What makes Machina Labs unique
- Machina's RoboCraftsman forms aerospace-grade metal directly from CAD, eliminating custom dies.
- It sells flexible factories, not single-purpose lines, letting customers reprogram products rapidly.
- Lockheed, Toyota, NASA, and the U.S. Air Force validate its dual-use manufacturing stack.
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Benefits
Flexible Work Hours
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↓ -5%1 year growth
↓ -7%2 year growth
↓ -5%Ed Mehr, a former SpaceX engineer, founded Machina Labs to address a critical manufacturing bottleneck: replacement parts for US Air Force cargo planes that can take four years to produce. His solution uses robotic arms to shape sheet metal in weeks, eliminating the need for expensive custom dies that can cost up to $1 million each. The LA-based startup has attracted contracts from the US Air Force, NASA, and Lockheed Martin. Defence supply chains face significant pressure, with 87% of programmes citing supply-chain issues as scaling bottlenecks. Machina's system uses two robotic arms that mould metal like clay, guided by real-time feedback software. Each robotic cell costs roughly $1 million, significantly less than traditional stamping lines. The company prioritises flexibility over volume, betting that modern manufacturing and defence needs require adaptable production rather than high-volume output.
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Pentagon missile buildup changing the factory floor. Startups are bringing software, robotics and manufacturing methods developed around commercial space into a defense industry under pressure to produce weapons faster HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The Pentagon's push to replenish missile inventories is creating an opening for a new class of manufacturers that say the problem isn't simply a shortage of factory space. It is how those factories are built. Startups such as Machina, Hadrian and Freeform are applying software, robotics and highly automated production techniques to aerospace and defense manufacturing, challenging a model that has long relied on dedicated machinery, specialized tooling and skilled labor to make relatively small numbers of complex parts. Some of the new manufacturing technology grew out of the commercial space industry. At this year's Space and Missile Defense Symposium, Los Angeles-based Machina is displaying a 16-foot fuselage for a hypersonic vehicle that it manufactured for Ursa Major, a company that is expanding from rocket propulsion into complete hypersonic missile systems. Machina co-founder and chief executive Edward Mehr, who previously worked at SpaceX and Relativity Space, says the hardware is an example of how AI can be applied not to designing weapons, but to controlling the machines that manufacture them. "Missile programs are not constrained by design. They are constrained by production," Mehr told SpaceNews. Machina recently received a qualification contract from Lockheed Martin supporting the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, a long-range cruise missile built for the Air Force. The agreement is significant for Machina because it puts an assembly made with the company's manufacturing process through qualification for an operational missile program. Lockheed is also an investor in Machina through Lockheed Martin Ventures. Mehr said manufacturing fuselage structures for hypersonic missiles has become "a big area of growth for us." Machina's manufacturing platform, called RoboCraftsman, uses robotic arms to progressively shape sheets of metal into aerospace structures. The company uses artificial intelligence to give robotic equipment more autonomy over how it performs a physical task. "Our use of AI and robotics allows us to build flexible manufacturing systems that can switch between processes and geometries while reducing the need for dedicated tooling," Mehr said. Mehr said traditional programs can require tens of millions of dollars in dedicated equipment and long setup periods before the first production hardware is available for testing. Machina's argument is that a programmable factory can compress that transition because much of the change resides in software rather than in a new set of dies and machinery. Equipment previously producing automotive hardware, for example, could be reprogrammed to begin making a missile structure after receiving the digital design, he said. "Under the traditional model, a significant design change or a new missile component can require another investment in tooling, equipment and production setup," Mehr said. "With our system, much of that change can happen through software rather than by building another dedicated manufacturing line." Machina is looking to demonstrate that its approach can consistently meet the tolerances, quality requirements and production rates demanded by major weapons programs. The company is preparing to scale. Machina raised $124 million earlier this year to help finance a new 200,000-square-foot U.S. factory intended to move the technology from lower-volume work into larger production runs. Its customers also include NASA and Toyota.
Machina Labs, a leader in advanced manufacturing and robotics, today announced it has closed a Series C financing totaling $124 million and the development o...
Machina Labs, a Los Angeles-based robotics startup, has raised $124 million to build a large-scale robotic manufacturing facility. The company plans to construct an "Intelligent Factory" spanning over 18,580 square metres, focused on mass-producing missile structures and airframes. The facility, significantly larger than Machina's current sites, will be located in New Mexico, Texas, Alabama or Nevada. Investors include Lockheed Martin Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, Woven Capital and Abu Dhabi-based EDGE Group's Strategic Development Fund. Machina's "RoboCraftsman" cells use AI-guided robotics to shape metal parts directly from CAD files, eliminating the need for custom dies that cost up to $1 million each with 50-week lead times. The company currently generates 70% of revenue from defence contracts and 30% from commercial clients.