Senior Industrial Engineer (Satellite Manufacturing)

Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; onsite at the KEZAD facility

Company

hirify.global's Orbitworks aims to make space simple and become the first commercial firm in the United Arab Emirates to mass-manufacture satellites, targeting tens of satellites annually from its 50,000-square-foot Abu Dhabi facility.

What you will do

• Own industrialization strategy and integrated delivery plans from product assessment and partner transfer through NPI, deployment, production readiness, ramp-up, and handover.
• Define build sequences, routings, assembly and test flows, manufacturing data, and design-for-manufacture, assembly, test, access, and repeatability requirements.
• Build capacity models, balance cells and workflows, and develop layouts, workstations, material flow, buffers, WIP policies, cleanroom zoning, and kitting interfaces.
• Define and deliver industrial assets including ground support equipment, test assets, utilities, and facility changes through procurement, installation, commissioning, and handover.
• Lead partner interfaces, readiness assessments, production-release decisions, pilots, and production-floor ramp-up while resolving process, equipment, documentation, training, supply, and infrastructure gaps.
• Define performance metrics and improve rate, lead time, WIP, capacity, labor, quality, and constraint performance; develop investment options, coach contributors, and establish reusable standards and decision records.

Requirements

• 7–12 years of experience in industrial, manufacturing, or production engineering, plus an engineering degree or equivalent demonstrated capability.
• Direct, hands-on experience in satellite assembly, integration, test, or comparable space hardware production, with system- or subsystem-level industrialization responsibility; general aerospace experience alone is insufficient.
• Experience owning an integrated industrialization workstream through deployment, ramp-up, and acceptance, with documented plans, milestones, resource or investment decisions, recovery actions, and measured outcomes.
• Strong capacity modeling and line-balancing skills covering mixed-product demand, process precedence, labor skills, equipment occupancy, calendars, variability, rework, and bottlenecks.
• Production engineering expertise in routings, work instructions, tooling, process control, work measurement, layout, material flow, WIP, and producibility, including translating drawings and test requirements into industrial requirements.
• Experience delivering production or test capability through requirements, procurement, commissioning, acceptance, and operational handover.
• Ability to extract technical inputs from external partners, track assumptions and gaps, and deliver a working local production solution.
• Ability to manage cross-functional work packages, dependencies, risks, and commitments without formal line authority; formal people-management experience is not required.
• Strong spreadsheet and data-analysis skills, including traceable sources, units, assumptions, and actual-versus-plan checks, plus knowledge of traceability, controlled baselines, manufacturing/test readiness, and change impact in high-reliability hardware.
• Clear technical English, concise written communication, effective shop-floor engagement, willingness to work onsite in Abu Dhabi, and ability to travel to partners as needed.

Nice to have

• Experience ramping a LEO constellation from first units into repeat production.
• Experience commissioning a cleanroom, production area, or major test capability, including utilities, safety, and contamination control.
• Experience phasing new products or upgrades into shared industrial assets while protecting existing delivery commitments.
• Discrete-event simulation and optimization experience beyond spreadsheet capability.
• Practical experience with MES, ERP, PLM, manufacturing BOM, routing, and dashboard tools.
• Ability to build labor, recurring-cost, capex, and make-versus-buy scenarios with Finance and Supply Chain.
• Applied Lean or Six Sigma experience with measured results, supplier process-capacity assessment, local supplier capability development, and coaching without formal management authority.

Culture & Benefits

• Strategic, hands-on individual-contributor role reporting to the SVP of Operations.
• Work directly on the production floor in a medium-mix, medium-to-low-volume satellite manufacturing environment.
• Scope may expand into broader portfolio ownership, technical leadership, and building an industrialization team as the business grows.