Manager, Automation and Controls Engineering (Aerospace & Defense)

Location: Torrance, California, United States; support facility ramp and production scaling at Midland, Texas, and the Project Ranger campus in New Mexico.

Company

hirify.global is an early-stage aerospace and defense company developing advanced defense systems, including solid rocket motors and hypersonic hardware.

What you will do

• Lead the automation and controls engineering team through technical direction, hiring, mentoring, prioritization, and performance management.
• Own the design, review, qualification, commissioning, production release, and support of automated work cells, robotic systems, motion-control systems, PLC/HMI/SCADA architectures, and safety-rated controls.
• Establish standards for controls design, programming, documentation, industrial networking, and system integration across development and production sites.
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Tooling, Quality, Design, and Operations on work-cell concepts, equipment selection, process changes, and Design for Automation.
• Manage vendors, capital planning, spare parts, continuous improvement, data collection, MES interfaces, process monitoring, and traceability.
• Report automation readiness, reliability, risk, cost, and schedule metrics to senior manufacturing leadership while ensuring functional safety, hazardous-location, and energetic-materials requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field required; a master’s degree is preferred.
• 8+ years of automation, controls, or manufacturing equipment engineering experience in aerospace, defense, or complex process manufacturing, including the relevant manufacturing experience.
• 3+ years leading engineers or serving as a technical lead on automation and controls programs.
• Demonstrated success designing, commissioning, and sustaining industrial automation systems in a production environment.
• Strong experience with Rockwell, Siemens, Beckhoff, or equivalent industrial automation platforms; robotics; servo and motion control; and machine vision.
• Proficiency in PLC programming, HMI/SCADA development, industrial networks including EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, and Profinet, and safety PLCs.
• Working knowledge of electrical design tools, system architecture, manufacturing-equipment integration, tooling and process-engineering constraints, functional safety, hazardous-location requirements, and production-system design.
• Understanding of aerospace quality systems, including AS9100, and configuration control for control systems.
• Ability to lead and develop engineers while retaining technical credibility, collaborate across Manufacturing, Tooling, Design, and Operations, communicate technical risk, schedule, and cost, and solve problems hands-on with a safety-first and reliability-focused approach.
• Access to export-controlled information is required; employment or contractor hiring is contingent on the ability to access applicable information without additional export licensing.
• Classified-information or restricted U.S. Government site access may require a U.S. Government security clearance, government authorization, citizenship, or other eligibility requirements if designated for the role.

Nice to have

• Direct automation and controls experience with solid rocket motor, munitions, or energetic-materials manufacturing equipment.
• Experience in fast-paced defense or space manufacturing environments and scaling automation from development to high-rate production.
• Prior people leadership of an automation or controls engineering team.
• Familiarity with ITAR programs, classified manufacturing, and energetic-materials facilities.
• Experience improving equipment uptime, cycle time, or process capability through automation.

Culture & Benefits

• Early-stage environment with significant ownership and direct impact on defense-system development and production.
• Collaboration with cross-functional engineering, manufacturing, tooling, quality, design, and site-operations teams.
• Generous benefits package; details are provided on the hirify.global Careers page.
• Equal opportunity employer with reasonable accommodation available throughout the application and hiring process.