Industrialization Project Leader

Role Summary

The Industrialization Project Leader owns the day-to-day operational execution of industrialization projects, acting as the connective tissue between global Product and System Engineering teams, the NPI team, plant operations, and equipment/tooling suppliers. The role drives manufacturing feasibility work, plant process changes, and supplier-led equipment projects, and uses lean manufacturing methods on the floor to hit production rate and quality targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with Product and System Engineering teams across the globe and with the NPI team, ensuring industrialization needs are represented early in design decisions.
• Ensure manufacturing feasibility assessments are properly prepared, documented, and communicated to the relevant stakeholders, flagging risks and constraints before designs are released to production.
• Lead communications with the plant team when defining new process protocols and executing changes, ensuring updates are clearly documented, validated, and adopted on the floor.
• Lead suppliers on scope of work and industrialization plans, ensuring equipment and process improvements are aligned with AST's requirements for safety, quality, and productivity.
• Manage supplier qualifications, equipment build/acceptance, and process ramp-up for outsourcing and technology-transfer projects.
• Act as a key team member in identifying new methods and innovative techniques — including automation, robotics, and digital manufacturing solutions — to make AST products more competitive and reliable.
• Extensively apply lean manufacturing tools (e.g., value stream mapping, standard work, SMED, line balancing) to set priorities and deliver required production rates and quality targets.
• Support capacity modeling, throughput analysis, and factory/line layout design for new and existing production lines.
• Drive root cause analysis and structured problem-solving on process, quality, or throughput issues, using data (Excel, Minitab, JMP, or equivalent) to track cycle time, yield, and performance metrics.
• Coordinate with Quality and EHS to ensure new equipment and process changes meet applicable safety and quality management standards.
• Provide frequent, clear status updates to the Industrialization Manager and cross-functional stakeholders on project timelines, risks, and open actions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience in industrialization, manufacturing engineering, or process engineering, ideally including supplier-facing project work.
• Demonstrated experience leading equipment qualification, process transfer, or ramp-up projects with external suppliers.
• Working knowledge of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma tools; Green Belt certification (or equivalent) preferred.
• Comfortable working with global, cross-functional teams and adjusting to multiple time zones.
• Proficiency with data analysis tools (Excel, Minitab, JMP, or equivalent) for performance and quality metrics.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate between plant-floor teams, suppliers, and engineering stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel to plant and supplier sites as needed.
• Aerospace, satellite, automotive or other regulated-hardware manufacturing background (e.g., AS9100 IATF16949 environment) is a plus.

Related / Equivalent Job Titles in Industry

Organizations use varying titles for this scope of work depending on industry and seniority. Common equivalents include:

• Industrialization Engineer
• Industrialization Project Manager
• Manufacturing / Industrial Engineer
• Manufacturing Team Leader
• Manufacturing & Industrialization Group Leader
• Lead Industrialization Engineer
• NPI Engineer / NPI Project Engineer
• Process Engineer, Industrialization

This job description may not be inclusive to the duties and responsibilities listed. Additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time or the scope of the job may change as needed by business demands.