Operations Lead — Swellcycle

Position: Operations Lead

Reports to: CEO

Status: Full-time, exempt — 40 hours/week

Location: On-site, Santa Cruz, CA

Schedule: Monday–Friday, with occasional evenings and weekends as needed based on business needs. Some holiday work may be required.

About Swellcycle

Swellcycle is on a mission to revolutionize manufacturing and make it more sustainable. We’re starting with surfboards — designing and producing 3D-printed surfboard cores for shapers, teaching digital shaping classes (Shape3D Foundation, Shape3D Advanced, and Akushaper Basics), and offering scanning services, online board orders, and merch — but our work reaches well beyond the water into custom print projects like museum replicas, sculptures, and more. We sit right where craft meets modern, sustainable manufacturing — and we’re growing fast.

We’re a small, hands-on team. Everyone here wears a few hats, ships real work every week, and cares about getting boards (and the people who ride them) where they need to be.

About the role

The Operations Lead keeps the engine running — from a raw 3D print all the way to a finished, shipped board. You’ll own production flow, vendor relationships, materials, and the systems that tie sales and production together. You’re equal parts hands-on technician and big-picture systems thinker.

What you’ll do

• Run production coordination end to end: print → surfacing → lamination → finishing. Keep the production team on top of what needs to be made and ahead of deadlines.

• Lead the production team — coordinate the technician and any future production hires, set daily priorities, and keep the team accountable to quality and deadlines.

• Operate and manage the printers: start prints, set up and troubleshoot G-code, and keep the print farm running efficiently.

• Manage vendors, especially glassing shops — owning relationships, contracts, scheduling, and quality expectations.

• Order materials and supplies, and keep inventory at healthy levels so production never stalls.

• Connect sales to production: make sure every closed deal flows cleanly into production, and that both sides communicate throughout the build.

• Own quality control across cores and finished boards — define what “good” looks like and hold the line on it.

• Handle shipping and logistics, including domestic and international (UPS, customs clearance and documentation).

• Build and maintain systems and SOPs so the operation can scale, especially as the OEM/shaper pipeline grows.

• Keep workshop safety standards high (resins, composites, fumes, equipment).

• Continuously improve — bring a critical eye to bottlenecks, costs, and margins, and propose better ways to run things.

What you bring

• 5 years of management and operations experience, ideally in a manufacturing or production environment.

• Engineering/technician skills in 3D printing and composites — you understand both the machines and the materials.

• CAD software proficiency (and comfort with slicing/print-prep software).

• Software fluency: eCRM (e.g. HubSpot), project management (e.g. Airtable), and website/e-commerce (e.g. Shopify) — plus the ability to set up automations and integrations between them.

• Experience leading or coordinating a small team or shop floor.

• A structured, systems-oriented mind and genuine ownership over outcomes.

Bonus points

• Hands-on surfboard construction or glassing experience.

• Familiarity with HubSpot’s Order/fulfillment tracking and Shopify ↔ HubSpot sync.

• Experience scaling a small production operation or B2B/OEM fulfillment.

• A real connection to the ocean and surfing — it helps you understand our product, our customers, and our community.

Success profile — first 6–12 months

What you own: the full path from raw print to finished, shipped board — production flow, the print farm, vendors, materials, and the systems that hold it together.

By the end of your first 6–12 months, you’ll have:

• Taken full ownership of daily production — the team knows what to make and stays ahead of deadlines, with you running the print farm day to day.

• Documented the operation — production runs on clear SOPs, not on memory, and is ready to scale with demand.

• Made vendor and material supply reliable — glassing and other vendors are well-managed, and inventory never stalls a build.

• Cleaned up the sales → production handoff so every closed deal flows through without things getting lost.

• Delivered measurable improvement in at least one of: lead time, quality (lower defect/rework rate), or cost — and scaled capacity to meet growing OEM/contract demand.

Who thrives here

• Proactive — you spot what needs doing and start before being asked.

• Calm under pressure — start-up pace, tight deadlines, and shifting priorities are the norm, not the exception.

• Strongly organized — you can hold several projects at once without dropping the ball.

• A clear communicator — you keep the team in the loop and make handoffs clean.

• Owner mindset — you treat the company’s problems as your own and see things through.

• Autonomous and growth-hungry — you figure things out, and you want to get better every month.

The logistics

• Full-time, ~40 hours/week. Occasional weekend and holiday work is part of the job.

• External events. You’ll help represent Swellcycle in person — including booth duty at surf competitions and demos.

• On-site in Santa Cruz, CA — non-negotiable. We’re a small team and being in the same space together is core to how we work. This is not a remote or hybrid role.

Physical requirements & work environment

• Able to lift and move boards, materials, and equipment (up to ~50 lbs) and to stand or be on your feet for extended periods.

• Comfortable working in a shop environment around resins, dust, fumes, and machinery, using proper protective equipment (PPE).

• Manual dexterity for operating printers, hand tools, and finishing equipment.

• Occasionally on call to handle production issues outside normal hours.

Compensation

• $80K/year base salary

• Performance bonus (tied to production, quality, and delivery targets)

• Early-stage equity

• Health insurance (medical, vision, and dental) and 401(k)

We’re a lean, well-positioned seed-stage company, and we offer equity-forward packages for people who are excited to build.

Equal Opportunity

Swellcycle is an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to building a diverse team and an inclusive workplace, and we welcome applicants of every background. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.

How to apply

Please attach a cover letter, a resume, and two professional references to your application our our website:

https://swellcyclesurfboards.com/pages/career