What are the responsibilities and job description for the Manufacturing System Engineer position at Astra?
Manufacturing Systems Engineer
Digital Systems & Operations | Alameda, CA (On-site) | Full-Time
Department: Manufacturing
Reports To: Head of Operations & Manufacturing
Classification: Exempt, Full-Time
Location: Alameda, CA — On-site (manufacturing environment)
ITAR Requirement: Must be a U.S. Person per 22 CFR 120.62 (U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident) due to access to export-controlled technical data
About Astra Space Systems
Astra Space Systems designs and manufactures spacecraft propulsion and launch systems. Our Spacecraft Engines line is in serial production and scaling toward high-volume rates; our Launch Rocket is progressing through design validation toward first flight. We run a modern digital manufacturing stack — Odoo 17 ERP, ION MES, and PLM — within an AS9100-aligned quality system, and we are investing heavily in AI-driven operations intelligence.
Position Summary
Astra is hiring a Manufacturing & Industrial Engineer to industrialize Spacecraft Engine production — engineering the processes, factory flow, capacity, and manufacturing systems required to reach true high-volume rate, and preparing the production system that will build our Launch Rocket.
This role is grounded in classical industrial and manufacturing engineering: process definition and standard work, time studies and line balancing, factory layout and material flow, capacity and constraint analysis, tooling and workstation design, and rate-readiness planning. What makes it different is the toolset: you will encode your process engineering directly into Odoo 17, ION MES, and PLM, and leverage Claude (Anthropic) and related AI platforms to model capacity, detect constraints, assess schedule risk, and deliver decision-ready production intelligence in real time.
Our planned AI-driven growth only works if it is built on sound manufacturing engineering. Routings, standard times, work centers, and BOMs are the foundation every metric and AI-generated insight stands on — and in this role, you own that foundation.
Key Responsibilities
Industrial Engineering & Production System Design
• Define and optimize manufacturing processes — process flow, operation sequencing, standard work, and documentation that scales cleanly to high-volume production.
• Perform time studies, line balancing, and takt analysis — establishing accurate standard times and the operating cadence for each production rate step.
• Design factory layout and material flow — work cells, point-of-use material, WIP staging, and flow paths that minimize travel, handling, and queue time as volume grows.
• Build capacity and constraint models across equipment, tooling, test stands, and labor — identifying bottlenecks and defining the investments required at each rate milestone.
• Develop the rate-readiness roadmap — industrialization plan with process maturity gates, labor-hour and learning-curve models, and triggers for automation and robotics investment.
Manufacturing Engineering & Floor Operations
• Own routings, work instructions, and travelers with production and quality — engineering operations, standard times, work centers, buy-off points, and data capture deliberately, synchronized with engineering change.
• Partner with design engineering on producibility — design-for-manufacturing feedback, production impact assessment of engineering changes, and clean BOM incorporation from PLM to the factory.
• Specify tooling, fixtures, and workstation equipment to improve repeatability, reduce cycle time, and design out error opportunities at the bench.
• Spend regular time on the floor — walking builds, observing work order execution in ION MES, and correcting the process or the data when the physical and digital diverge.
• Lead continuous improvement via value-stream mapping, constraint analysis, and lean / Theory of Constraints — measured in cycle time, first-pass yield, WIP, and throughput.
Manufacturing Systems & AI-Driven Operations Intelligence
• Serve as process authority for the digital stack — governing operation types, routings, work centers, BOMs, inventory routes, and lot/serial traceability across Odoo 17, ION MES, and PLM so the systems model the factory as it actually runs.
• Own master data and the digital thread — part numbers, revisions, and BOM alignment between PLM, Odoo, and ION — so every metric, schedule, and AI output is built on clean data.
• Feed Claude and related AI platforms with ERP/MES/PLM context via APIs, MCP connectors, and structured datasets — building the analyses that matter to a manufacturing engineer: capacity utilization, constraint detection, schedule risk, yield trends, and shortage impact.
• Publish dashboards and automate reporting — throughput, WIP, schedule adherence, OTD, yield, scrap/rework, supplier OTD, and inventory health, plus automated standups, program reviews, and action-item tracking from live system data.
• Establish guardrails for responsible AI use — access controls, ITAR data handling boundaries, AS9100-consistent records — and train planners, supervisors, and engineers on AI-assisted workflows.
Required Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in Industrial, Manufacturing, or Mechanical Engineering — or equivalent practical experience in discrete manufacturing.
• 3 years of industrial or manufacturing engineering experience in production — including several of: process development, routings and work instructions, time studies, line balancing, capacity analysis, factory layout, tooling specification, or floor support.
• Deep manufacturing operations literacy — work orders, routings, BOMs, work centers, and MRP logic, with the floor time to speak the language of technicians, planners, and supervisors.
• ERP and/or MES experience (Odoo, SAP, NetSuite, Epicor, ION, Tulip, or similar), including configuration of routings, work centers, BOMs, and traceability.
• Data fluency — Python and SQL, JSON/REST APIs, and experience joining production data across enterprise systems.
• Applied LLM/AI experience (Claude, Microsoft Copilot, or comparable) for analysis, summarization, or workflow automation — including prompt design and validating output accuracy.
• Excellent communication skills — translating ambiguous needs into concrete processes, metrics, and automated deliverables, and defending recommendations with data.
• U.S. Person status required per ITAR (22 CFR 120.62): U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Preferred Qualifications
• Rate scale-up experience — low-rate/NPI to high-volume serial production in aerospace, automotive, or hardware manufacturing, including automation and robotics deployment decisions.
• Aerospace or regulated manufacturing background (AS9100 / ISO 9001) — NCR/CAPA, lot/serial traceability, first article inspection (AS9102).
• Formal continuous improvement training — Lean, Six Sigma, or Theory of Constraints.
• Direct Odoo 17 experience (manufacturing configuration, ORM, scheduled actions, external API) and/or ION MES integration.
• Anthropic API experience (MCP connectors, tool use, agentic workflows, Claude Code) or similar AI integration frameworks.
• Discrete-event simulation or capacity modeling experience for evaluating layout and rate scenarios.
Equal Opportunity
Astra Space Systems is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. This position requires access to information subject to U.S. export control laws (ITAR/EAR); applicants must be U.S. Persons or eligible for required authorizations.