Member of Technical Staff – Principal Manufacturing

About Ironstead

Ironstead Industrial Inc. acquires precision machine shops and manufacturing businesses in aerospace/defense, maritime, and commercial sectors, and rebuilds them into modern, data-driven operations. We don't run playbooks from a spreadsheet in another state. We parachute in, work shoulder to shoulder with machine operators, and rebuild the operating system of the business from the inside. IronsteadOS, our purpose-built operating platform syncing customer design to final inspection & logistics, is the backbone of that transformation, but the platform only works if someone on the ground earns the trust to implement it.

The Role

Ironstead is seeking a Member of Technical Staff, Principal Manufacturing to serve as a senior technical authority for Design for X across our manufacturing platform. Your job is to answer one of the most important questions in manufacturing before it becomes expensive: Can we build this reliably, at the required quality, cost, lead time, and scale? You will review complex customer designs, identify manufacturing risk early, and work directly with customers, design engineers, suppliers, machinists, manufacturing engineers, and quality teams to turn product intent into a robust production strategy.

Unlike a DFM role focused narrowly on whether a feature can be machined, this role looks across the complete manufacturing system: process selection, assembly, inspection, supply chain, tooling, automation, quality, cost, and scalability. The strongest candidate will be equally comfortable challenging a tolerance on a drawing, selecting a manufacturing process, helping architect a production cell, and standing on the shop floor during a difficult first-article build.

Responsibilities

Manufacturing Industrialization

• Architect a unified portfolio wide view of manufacturing capabilities and constraints to drive scalable industrialization.

• Translate complex product designs into robust manufacturing strategies, defining process sequences, capital equipment specs, advanced workholding, inspection plans, and production readiness roadmaps.

• Drive strategic sourcing and capital allocation decisions, evaluating internal capacity, portfolio network leverage, supplier development, automation opportunities, and CapEx investments.

• Lead root cause resolution for critical production failures involving process capability, tolerance accumulation, assembly, tooling, material behavior, and flow bottlenecks.

• Spearhead digital manufacturing workflows within IronsteadOS, integrating automated design reviews, algorithmic quoting, and software enabled process planning across the network.

Design for Excellence

• Author a standardized Ironstead DfX framework, codifying design rules, process selection logic, review checklists, and gate criteria into a repeatable enterprise playbook.

• Evaluate CAD models, technical drawings, and engineering specifications to drive early design alignment across manufacturability, assembly sequence, inspectability, and unit economics.

• Identify high risk design features, evaluating aspect ratios, thin-wall dynamics, tight tolerance stacks, joining constraints, and tool reach before committing to production.

• Challenge overly conservative drawing requirements, isolating functional non-negotiables from non-essential specs that drive up cost, lead time, or manufacturing yield loss.

• Drive DfX principles across multi-disciplinary manufacturing methods, including multi-axis machining, sheet metal fabrication, additive manufacturing, casting, forging, and specialized post processing.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, manufacturing, aerospace, industrial engineering, or a related technical discipline

• Significant experience designing, manufacturing, or industrializing complex mechanical products.

• Strong knowledge of GD&T, tolerance analysis, materials, surface finishes, inspection, and process capability.

• Experience taking products from design review through first article and stable production.

• Strong shop floor problem solving skills with the ability to balance product performance, manufacturing risk, quality, cost, lead time, and scalability.

• Willingness to travel extensively (60-80%) and embed on-site at Ironstead portfolio facilities for extended periods, including some nights/weekends during critical transition windows

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Deep experience in one or more of machining, fabrication, assembly, additive manufacturing, castings, forgings, or special processes.

• Experience with NPI, PPAP, PFMEA, control plans, production readiness reviews, or industrialization.

• Experience developing manufacturing cost models or supporting complex quoting decisions.

• Experience building automated or software assisted DfX tools.

• Experience with CAD, CAM, PLM, MES, ERP, QMS, or quoting systems.

Additional Requirements

• Ability to work extended hours, including nights and weekends, during active deployment windows

• Ability to pass any background/export-compliance screening required for defense-related client sites (ITAR-sensitive facilities)

• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR/export control considerations

Ironstead Industrial Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.