Prototype-to-Production Manager (Manufacturing)

Location: Rancho Dominguez, California, United States

Salary: $130,000–$160,000 base salary, dependent on experience, knowledge, and interview performance.

Company

Motivo is a project-based company delivering mechanical and electrical system design and prototype builds across mobility and automotive, aerospace, robotics, and clean energy.

What you will do

• Lead the Launch division and a matrixed team spanning manufacturing, engineering, sourcing, fabrication, and program execution.
• Define, deploy, and improve a manual-first Minimum Viable Line approach for low-rate initial production and repeatable output before high-volume scale investment.
• Establish review gates, pilot-build objectives, and production handoff standards that move programs from concept validation to reliable execution.
• Make senior product realization decisions and balance technical requirements with manufacturability, production readiness, speed, flexibility, and cost.
• Assess client opportunities, determine whether design-only or integrated Launch support is appropriate, and develop batch-build and production-readiness cost models.
• Build sourcing and operational systems covering supplier qualification, make-or-buy decisions, lead-time strategy, commercial negotiation, and fit-for-purpose ERP, PLM, PDM, or MES tools.

Requirements

• 8+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, industrial engineering, operations, NPI, or product realization, ideally involving electromechanical hardware.
• Demonstrated success owning transitions from development builds to pilot production, low-volume manufacturing, or scaled manufacturing, including planning, risk, and cross-functional execution.
• Ability to build or formalize operating systems, processes, and governance from the ground up in quickly scaling or prototype-to-production environments.
• Strong command of DFM, DFA, process validation, PFMEA, production line design, test strategy, and manufacturing tradeoff decision-making.
• Strong understanding of supplier qualification, sourcing strategy, cost structure, negotiations, and operational planning.

Nice to have

• Experience in automotive, aerospace, robotics, autonomous systems, energy, or other advanced hardware sectors with complex design-to-production transitions.
• Familiarity with quality and regulated manufacturing environments, including ISO 9001, AS9100, or IATF 16949.
• Familiarity with Lean Six Sigma, value stream mapping, root cause analysis such as 5 Whys, and process-waste elimination.
• Experience in high-mix, low-volume settings and bridging engineering agility with operational discipline.
• Comfort operating as a senior individual leader while building toward broader organizational leadership responsibilities.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on varied and challenging mechanical and electrical engineering projects.
• Opportunity to define a core company capability with autonomy and a path toward broader ownership.
• High-quality insurance, a 401(k) match, and generous vacation time.
• Monday–Thursday 4/10 workweek.
• Profit-sharing bonuses tied to overall company performance, with transparency into company financial results.