Head of Machine Shop

About the role

The Director, Machine Shop is accountable for building, scaling, and continuously improving Atomic Machines' prototype machining capability as a strategic engineering asset. This role owns the shop operating model, leadership structure, safety and compliance system, capacity planning, capital roadmap, vendor strategy, and cross-site coordination required to support rapid hardware iteration. The Director should be technically credible with machining, CAM, DFM, metrology, and fabrication processes, but the primary expectation is organizational leadership, systems design, budget ownership, and executive-level communication - not default hands-on machining.

What You'll Do

• Lead the Emeryville Machine Shop
  Own day-to-day shop operations, priorities, staffing, and execution.
  Build, manage, and develop a strong team of machinists and shop personnel.
  Create a safe, organized, high-quality prototype shop environment.
  Partner closely with Engineering, Supply Chain, Facilities, Safety, Finance, and leadership.

• Build the Systems to Run the Shop
  Put clear systems in place for job intake, planning, scheduling, execution, and real-time communication.
  Create metrics and forecasting tools to understand capacity, demand, throughput, quality, and bottlenecks.
  Use data to make trade-offs, set priorities, and communicate shop performance.
  Standardize workflows across machining, CAM, inspection, tooling, inventory, maintenance, and vendor work.

• Improve Shop Capability and Throughput
  Visualize how the shop should operate and identify layout, process, staffing, and equipment improvements.
  Improve turnaround time, quality, reliability, and engineering support.
  Decide when work should be done in-house versus outsourced based on urgency, capability, cost, and risk.
  Plan for future shop growth, including tools, equipment, staffing, and capital needs.

• Institutionalize DFM and Technical Quality
  Build a culture where machinists and engineers work together early and regularly on DFM.
  Create lightweight DFM processes that improve designs without slowing down the shop.
  Ensure the team understands machining risk, GD&T, inspection strategy, workholding, and manufacturability.
  Capture lessons learned and turn them into standards, templates, and training for the shop.

• Develop People and Culture
  Hire, coach, and develop machinists and shop leaders.
  Set clear expectations, provide feedback, and hold the team accountable.
  Build a culture of ownership, craftsmanship, safety, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
  Make sure the shop operates as a high-quality internal prototype shop, not a transactional job shop.

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What You'll Need

• 15+ years in machining, prototype manufacturing, or advanced hardware operations, including 5+ years leading teams or managers in a technical shop environment.
• Demonstrated experience scaling a prototype shop, production-adjacent manufacturing function, or technical operations group through systems, staffing, and capital planning.
• Technical credibility across CNC machining, CAM, tooling, DFM, GD&T, metrology, fabrication, post-processing, and maintenance programs.
• Experience owning operating metrics, budgets, equipment procurement, vendor strategy, and cross-functional execution with Engineering, Supply Chain, Finance, Facilities, and Safety.
• Ability to communicate from shop floor detail to executive-level strategy, including written business cases and operational reviews.
• Strong people leadership: hiring, performance management, coaching, succession planning, conflict resolution, and culture building.
• Deep people-management experience, including handling underperformance, developing leads/managers, creating accountability systems, resolving conflict, and building trust across technical teams.
• Proven experience operating or scaling a high-quality prototype shop or advanced R&D manufacturing environment, not only a transactional job shop.
• Demonstrated ability to institutionalize DFM and engineer-shop collaboration across a team without creating meeting overload or slowing urgent prototype work.
• Executive maturity and experience communicating with VP+ level leadership
• Education in engineering, manufacturing, machining, or a related technical discipline preferred; equivalent experience considered.