Senior Manager, Manufacturing Engineering

Atomic Machines is building the Matter Compiler™, the first in a new class of AI-native, all-digital manufacturing systems that build working machines directly from code. The Matter Compiler (MC) is aimed at micro-machines: motors and gears the size of a grain of sand, robots small enough to work inside the body, cooling built directly into the chips that run AI, and the many devices like them that have been waiting on a way to build them. Its first product is PrimeSwitch™, an electromechanical power relay the size of a button battery that carries 150 amps continuous current and opens in 50 microseconds, about a thousand times faster than a conventional contactor. Founded by Jeff Holden — serial entrepreneur, ex-Amazon SVP and Uber’s first Chief Product Officer — the company has raised $250 million to date.

Atomic Machines is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Emeryville and Santa Clara.

About The Role:

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Platform Manufacturing Engineering to lead Production Manufacturing Engineering as we scale the Matter Compiler from pilot production into high-volume manufacturing. You will own the equipment that builds our devices — its build, integration, bring-up, qualification and reliability — and the team of engineers who deliver it.

You are an engineer first. This is a player-coach role and the player half is not decorative: you will spearhead the hardest projects on the critical path personally, in CAD and on the floor, and use that work as the vehicle for coaching everyone around you. The fastest way to set a standard here is to define it while you produce work that meets it, then mentor your team to achieve the same bar.

Mentoring here happens inside the work, not alongside it. You will pull engineers onto the projects you lead, hand off scope as they are ready for it, review their designs with real technical depth, and grow the next set of project leads out of people who learned by building with you.

The management half is real. You will hire against a plan rather than a wish list, develop engineers toward the next level, run performance honestly, and install the operating standards this function works to — documentation, change control, qualification and release discipline, and what "done" means before work leaves the group. You will plan the organization ahead of where the business is today, own headcount and capital budget, and get manufacturability and equipment requirements into specifications set by other teams rather than reviewing them at the end.

What You’ll Do:

Spearhead the hardest equipment projects on the critical path yourself — architecture, CAD, build, bring-up and qualification — and bring engineers along on them as the primary way they develop.

Lead a team of 5–10 engineers spanning equipment design, automation and controls, integration, and sustaining, through a mix of direct reports and technical leads.

Set the engineering standard by producing work to it: reference designs, qualification plans, RCCAs and documentation your team can pattern from, with the reasoning made explicit so it transfers.

Coach through the work — pair on designs, run technical reviews with real depth, hand off scope as engineers are ready for it, and grow the next set of project leads out of people who built alongside you.

Own the delivery record for the function — the equipment, qualifications and production readiness your team commits to, against committed dates.

Lead equipment deployment end to end: installation, validation, commissioning, acceptance testing, SOP/WI release and operator qualification.

Run root cause and corrective action personally on the failures that matter, teach the method by doing it in front of the team, and drive the corrective actions across teams that do not report to you.

Install and uphold the operating standards: documentation, change control, qualification and release discipline, RCCA method and closure, and how work is reviewed before it leaves the group.

Plan organizational growth — forecast hiring needs ahead of demand, define roles and levels, build and defend the hiring plan, and manage headcount and capital budget with Supply Chain and Finance.

Own and resolve escalated personnel situations arising from business and priority changes, rather than routing them away.

Get manufacturability and equipment requirements into specification setting and design milestones with Design Engineering and Product, rather than reviewing at the end.

Balance competing priorities with peer leaders so committed deliverables are still met, and own communication of impact and resolution path where they cannot be.

Own contract manufacturer and automation supplier execution through final integration and test to conformant hardware on schedule.

Drive throughput, yield, cost and uptime improvement — held with control limits, not delivered as one-time gains — and establish the operating metrics and reporting cadence leadership can rely on without chasing.

Travel between Emeryville and Santa Clara sites as needed.

What You’ll Need:

7+ years of manufacturing or equipment engineering experience, including 3+ years managing engineers with 5 or more direct reports.

Current hands-on capability. You still design in CAD, still debug hardware on the floor, and could take the hardest open task on your team's board tomorrow. We will test this directly in the loop.

Proven ownership of automated production equipment end to end — architecture through mechanical, controls and software integration, into a qualified, released system running in production.

Proficiency in CAD for equipment design (SolidWorks, Onshape, AutoCAD or similar), with recent personal use.

A track record of developing engineers through the work — specific people who grew because you put them on projects you were leading, reviewed their designs, and handed off scope as they were ready for it.

A track record of building out a functional group: defining roles, hiring against a plan, and installing the operating standards — not only inheriting an existing team.

Experience leading a team spanning more than one discipline (e.g., equipment, controls/automation, integration, sustaining), including people whose work sits outside your own background.

Ownership of headcount and capital budget, with resourcing tradeoff decisions made under real constraint.

Depth across DFx, RCCA, eBOM→mBOM conversion, qualification and acceptance testing, and PLM/document control and release (Arena a plus).

Experience in semiconductor, solar, hardware-based biotech, EV, or similar high-tech industries.

Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functionally without authority — specifically, getting manufacturing and equipment requirements into specifications owned by other teams.

A first-principles mindset — you question assumptions, reframe problems from the ground up, and approach challenges with a foundational understanding rather than relying solely on precedent.

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related field; advanced degree preferred.

Bonus Points For:

Experience standing up or rebuilding a manufacturing or equipment engineering function at a company moving from pilot to production scale.

Experience staying technically current while managing — a design, patent, or build you personally del