Member of the Growth Staff - Expansion

Member of the Growth Staff — Expansion

About Ironstead

American industry is facing a global capacity crisis: at first glance, defense and hard-tech companies are achieving record-setting momentum, software and AI are progressing at light speed, and investors are realizing the two are more powerful when put together.

Yet the current and emerging industry titans are bottlenecked by the fragmented foundation of American manufacturing. Nearly every notable hardware contract is delayed, programs are on hold due to overcomplicated engineering and a lack of supporting supply, and there is no relief in sight.

Ironstead is answering this call to arms; we are answering the call to make American industry the global standard once again. Our mission is to better serve the US industrial base, the warfighter, and the American people.

To achieve this, Ironstead is uniting the fragmented manufacturing base into a scalable engine, built atop our own AI intelligence layer to compound our efficiencies and capabilities. Our team hails from the busied halls of decade-defining companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Palantir. Our investors include Palmer Luckey (Anduril), the Dassault Family (SolidWorks), Sierra Nevada Corporation, as well as executive leadership at Palantir and a dozen more of hard tech's most prominent and momentous companies.

Our team is seeking team members who are leaders amidst ambiguity, champions in their craft, and emboldened by the vision and promise of a stronger future. The future of American industry will be built on the shoulders of Ironstead: every rocket, plane, defense system, nuclear reactor, and autonomous boat will need the parts we deliver. What will you do to support them?

Location: El Segundo, CA or New York, NY (with frequent travel)

The Role

Reports to: Head of Growth Owns: Top-of-funnel deal sourcing, portfolio development

Ironstead is scaling its acquisition engine and that starts with a full pipeline of real, qualified targets — most of which won't come from an inbound list. This role exists to go find them: in person, on shop floors, through the kind of relationships that get built by showing up rather than sending an email. At Ironstead this role is the face and reputation of Ironstead's own industrial revolution, this is a role of integrity and authenticity.

This is not a desk-bound sourcing job. It's built for someone with a strategic mind who has experienced supplier development or supplier visits — someone who's used to getting on a plane, walking a shop floor they've never seen before, and within an hour, having the owner or plant manager treating them like a trusted peer rather than an outsider. One day you'll be in a factory and the next you'll be advising deal terms with company leadership and planning what capabilities Ironstead will seek next.

This combination of comfort with travel, genuinely high EQ, and experience or willingness to learn about machine shops is paramount to being able to walk an owner through the biggest event in their career. Everything else is teachable.

What You'll Own

● Building and running Ironstead's outbound sourcing motion: identifying, prioritizing, and personally engaging owner-operators of machine shops and precision manufacturers who fit our acquisition thesis

● Travel to visit shops and owners in person — this is the primary mode of sourcing, not a occasional add-on to desk research

● Building genuine, lasting relationships with owners, brokers, industry association contacts, and referral sources across the manufacturing base

● Reading a shop and its owner quickly and accurately: is this a real opportunity, is the owner actually ready to sell or partner, and is this worth the pipeline's time

● Handing off qualified, warm targets into Ironstead's pipeline (CIM Review / Onsite) with enough context that the next stage isn't starting cold

● Keeping a disciplined, well-documented pipeline of relationships in progress — this role runs on volume and follow-through, not one-off wins

What You Bring

● 2-5 years of experience in supplier development, buyer-type roles, customer-facing manufacturing roles, or design roles with experience finding and onboarding suppliers. Preferably at hardware startups or fast-paced manufacturing companies.

● Real comfort with heavy, sustained travel — this role is on the road more than it's in an office

● Extremely high EQ: you build trust with people fast, read a room accurately, and know how to have an honest conversation with an owner who may be anxious, proud, guarded, or all three at once

● A genuine interest in manufacturing and machine shops — you don't need to be an engineer, but you should be curious enough about a shop floor to ask good questions on it

● Self-direction — this role generates its own pipeline rather than working from someone else's list

● Persistence without being pushy — you can stay in a relationship for months before it turns into anything, without the owner feeling chased

Nice to Have

● Experience in machine shops, welding, or post-processing.

● Existing relationships with business brokers, industry associations, or machine shop networks

● Experience specifically in aerospace/defense supply chains or precision machining

● A sales or business development background layered on top of the supplier-facing experience