Manufacturing Lead, Production & Scaling

We are looking for an experienced and tenacious Manufacturing Lead to join our team. In this role, your primary responsibility will be to juggle projects focused on the production and scaling of our novel textile manufacturing method, Vega™, through project planning, requirements management, and strategic resourcing. We’re looking for someone with experience in complex integrated hardware development who is excited about the risks and rewards of joining an early-stage startup.

About Us

unspun is a robotics and digital apparel company, with a mission to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and intentional manufacturing.

Included in Time's Best Inventions & Fast Company's World Changing Ideas, unspun aims to rapidly transition the trillion-dollar apparel world into one that is more intentional, inclusive, and efficient by focusing on the overlap between sustainability and profitability.

We’ve developed a proprietary and patent-pending technology at the crossroads of 3D printing and automated textile manufacturing. By skipping the flat 2D fabric stage, we can additively build custom apparel products from the ground up- straight from yarn to final product. If additive manufacturing, industrial automation, and synchronized systems of hundreds of sensors & actuators gets you excited, we’d love to talk!

About You

As our first Manufacturing Lead on unspun’s Engineering Operations team, you'll leverage your technical prowess and project management skills to catapult unspun into our next growth phase. You're jazzed by the (slightly daunting) opportunity to build manufacturing processes from scratch, scaling our first product with innovation and efficiency. You'll collaborate with our hardware and textile engineers, and cultivate our in-house manufacturing team. Your battle scars from past hardware scaling challenges are worn with pride, and you thrive in the turbulence of early-stage development. The never-ending fight against entropy doesn't discourage you; instead, you relish optimizing processes, reining in costs, and upholding product quality. You're a pro at high-level communication but aren't afraid to dive into the weeds with cross-functional teams.

What You'll Do

• Lead the scaling of our bus-sized Vega™ machine production from beta design to deployment of hundreds of units, implementing efficient processes that optimize costs, quality, and sustainability
• Drive and communicate critical design and manufacturing decisions to Contract Manufacturers (CMs), balancing risk, cost, scalability, and product quality
• Develop and implement robust processes for information handoff between R&D and operations, including change control procedures and comprehensive documentation practices
• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing manufacturing team, identifying and filling key expertise gaps
• Establish and monitor strong metrics for communicating and confirming reliability/quality across a complex supply chain
• Collaborate closely with engineering teams on Design for Manufacturing (DFM), focusing on material selection, process optimization, and precision machining needs for large moving assemblies
• Engage in design reviews, technical discussions, and DFM, providing critical insights from a manufacturing perspective
• Continuously optimize manufacturing processes for efficiency, quality, and sustainability

Ideal Qualities

• 5+ years of proven experience in engineering and manufacturing, preferably with large industrial equipment
• Deep understanding of manufacturing processes, quality assurance, and production scaling techniques, with expertise in DFM principles
• Strong proficiency in quality management and change control processes (e.g., APQP, PPAP, FMEA) and experience with industry-standard MES software
• Proven track record in project management, mentoring junior engineers, and building high-performing teams
• Excellent communication skills, able to translate complex technical concepts across diverse teams and guide suppliers in efficient manufacturing methods
• Adaptability, innovative problem-solving skills, and comfort with ambiguity in a fast-paced startup environment
• Commitment to sustainability and experience in sustainable manufacturing practices

Bonus Points

• Experience taking a single product from beta design to manufacturing thousands of units
• Knowledge of textile or apparel manufacturing processes
• Experience with automated or robotic manufacturing systems
• Background in sustainable or carbon-reducing manufacturing initiatives

If you don't meet all of the requirements listed above, but can make up for it with a voracious passion to learn how to do so, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Our philosophy

We won’t roll our eyes if your socks don’t match. We get it. But then, if you spend those extra few minutes in the morning matching your socks and shirt, we get that too. Our workspaces are sometimes spotless and sometimes chaotic, and we celebrate messy exploration. We work through complex problems but generate simple and elegant solutions. We strive to look at things differently, and never do anything solely because “that’s the way it’s always been done.”

We’re a team of designers and engineers, industry-veterans and serial entrepreneurs, artists and developers. We’re aspiring chess masters and climbers, bakers and photographers. Originally spun out of Stanford and the University of Colorado, we now call the Bay Area home, with strong ties to Hong Kong. We are looking for teammates who share our desire to work on ambitious problems and leave the world better than we found it.

unspun is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to being a diverse team that reflects a broad range of background, thought, and experience. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, status as an individual with a disability, status as protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristics. Women, minorities, and people from underrepresented backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

Benefits

The salary range for this role is $138,000 - $168,000 USD, annually, plus 0.05% - 0.08% equity.

Benefits include:

• self-regulated vacation policy
• comprehensive (gold & platinum) health/dental/vision insurance
• company sponsored 401k and HSA or FSA
• monthly gym membership or relevant online education grant of up to $150/month
• pre-tax commuter benefits
• incentive stock options