BE-7 Lunar Engine Value Stream Leader Verified today
About the role
You will be responsible for financial and manufacturing operations for BE-7 Lunar Lander Engine systems in Huntsville, Alabama. This is a hands-on leadership position requiring you to communicate vision, strategy, and tactics for cost-effective manufacturing while collaborating across the design lifecycle to improve manufacturability, reduce cost, and accelerate lead times.
Your responsibilities
- Champion safety and quality culture where first-time quality is the standard across all functions, from engineering to the production floor.
- Build and develop the value stream's team and organizational architecture to scale operations rapidly, applying Blue Origin's Leadership Principles.
- Lead an integrated organization including manufacturing engineering, quality, tooling, supply chain, and production toward operational excellence.
- Own the complete thruster system manufacturing flow from raw materials through final acceptance testing, ensuring accountability for safety, quality, cost, and schedule performance.
- Radically improve production efficiency by optimizing factory flow, increasing throughput, and enhancing first-pass yield. Drive design-build-test cycle times from months to days.
- Lead initiatives to deliver cost-effective, high-quality operational performance to meet high-volume rate targets.
- Collaborate with Program and Design Engineering to influence product design through Design for Manufacturability (DFx) initiatives, delivering step-change reductions in cost, cycle time, and lead time.
- Oversee development and implementation of data-driven systems with a lean approach. Execute impactful improvements for safety, quality, cost, and delivery speed.
- Disseminate operational takeaways and standardize processes within the value stream and across Blue Operations to drive enterprise-wide improvement.
Required qualifications
Education: BA or BS degree in Engineering, Physics, or related technical field, or equivalent experience with demonstrated progressive responsibility increases.
Leadership Experience:
- 10+ years of manufacturing leadership experience in complex production environments (aerospace, automotive, medical device, or similar high-precision industries).
- Proven track record building or transforming successful production operations organizations and leading large-scale change management initiatives.
- Experience leading, growing, and developing large teams in a multi-business unit integrated supply chain organization.
- Demonstrated success leading cross-functional teams including Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Tooling, Supply Chain, and Production.
Technical and Operational Excellence:
- Strong knowledge and applied experience in Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies, including value stream mapping, continuous improvement, and statistical process control.
- Advanced knowledge in designing and building delivery of manufacturing, production, assembly, procurement, and logistics in high-volume, high-complexity environments.
- Deep technical understanding of aerospace valve designs and propulsion hardware with demonstrated ability to influence design decisions to improve manufacturability, reduce cost, and accelerate production rates.
- Deep understanding of work cell standard work creation, management, and tracking deviation from standards.
- Experience managing capital improvements, factory layout optimization, and operational budgets.
Strategic and Cultural Leadership:
- Strong business insight with demonstrated experience challenging the status quo, inspiring change, and motivating individuals to develop and implement new ways of thinking and doing business.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills with teams, customers, and suppliers.
- An attitude of world-class mission assurance, quality, attention to detail, and dedication to operational excellence.
Preferred qualifications
- Master's degree or equivalent experience in engineering, operations, or business.
- 15+ years manufacturing experience in aerospace including launch vehicles, aircraft, helicopters, propulsion systems, rocketry, or high-pressure fluid systems.
- Experience across multiple manufacturing processes including metal machining, composites, aerostructures, welding, and harness fabrication.
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt certification.
- Track record scaling production from development/low-rate to high-rate production environments or greenfield facility stand-up and major production line transformations.
- Experience with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems; strong familiarity with digital twin development and implementation.
Employment requirements
Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
Background check required for all positions. Additional checks may apply depending on role requirements.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, vision insurance
- Basic and supplemental life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- Short and long-term disability
- 401(k) with company match up to 5%
- Education Support Program
- Stock options for all regular employees (20+ hours/week)
- Paid time off: up to 4 weeks per year plus up to 14 company-paid holidays
- Performance bonuses and eligibility subject to role type and job level (not guaranteed)