Back to jobs

Manufacturing Engineer - Effectors

Hawthorne, California, United States

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. 

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com.

Role Summary:

We are seeking a Manufacturing Engineer focused on Design for Manufacturing & Assembly (DFMA), producibility engineering, and transition-to-production execution for low-cost interceptor systems.

This role will partner directly with Product Engineering from early concept development through full-rate production, ensuring interceptor designs are:

  • Producible at scale
  • Cost-optimized for high-rate builds
  • Robust to supply chain variability
  • Architected for automated and semi-automated assembly

You will serve as the manufacturing authority embedded within the development lifecycle — driving design trades, quantifying cost impacts, maturing production processes, and enabling rapid ramp to rate production.

Responsibilities: 

  • Design for Manufacturing & Assembly (DFMA)
    • Lead structured DFMA reviews during concept, PDR, CDR, and pre-production phases.
    • Quantify cost, cycle time, yield, and tooling impacts of design decisions.
    • Drive simplification of part counts, fastener strategy, interfaces, tolerances, and assembly flow.
    • Evaluate tolerance stack-ups and GD&T schemes for manufacturability and yield.
    • Develop assembly sequencing strategies optimized for rate and takt time.
    • Influence material selection, joining methods, and fabrication methods for cost and scalability.
  • Producibility & Cost Engineering
    • Perform detailed producibility assessments including:
    • Manufacturing readiness level (MRL) evaluations
    • Process capability analysis
    • Yield modeling and defect risk identification
    • Develop bottoms-up cost models for hardware builds.
    • Conduct make vs. buy analyses in collaboration with supply chain.
    • Identify capital equipment and tooling requirements for rate production.
    • Quantify production rate sensitivities and bottlenecks.
  • Transition to Production (TTP)
    • Own manufacturing planning from prototype through LRIP and FRP.
    • Develop:
      • MBOM structures
      • Work instructions
      • Factory routing sequences
      • Tooling concepts
      • Test process definitions
    • Support pilot builds and process validation activities.
    • Lead root cause analysis of build escapes and yield losses.
    • Drive closure of production readiness action items prior to rate ramp.
    • Support First Article Inspection (FAI) and production qualification.
  • Factory & Supplier Integration
    • Interface with:
      • Design engineering
      • Quality
      • Supply chain
      • Test engineering
      • Operations leadership
    • Provide hands-on floor support during initial builds and ramp events.
    • Travel to suppliers to resolve producibility issues and validate readiness.
    • Develop scalable supplier engagement models for high-volume components.
  • Continuous Improvement & Rate Scaling
    • Develop production rate models and capacity plans.
    • Implement automation, poka-yoke, and error-proofing strategies.
    • Analyze metrics (yield, cycle time, cost, rework, escapes).
    • Drive corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
    • Support digital manufacturing tools (MES, PLM, ERP).

Minimum Requirements:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or related STEM field.
  • 5+ years experience in aerospace, defense, automotive, or high-rate electromechanical production.
  • Demonstrated experience in DFMA implementation.
  • Experience transitioning hardware from development into production.
  • Working knowledge of:
    • GD&T (ASME Y14.5)
    • Tolerance stack-up analysis
    • Root cause methodologies (8D, RCCA, Fishbone, etc.)
    • Manufacturing process capability concepts (Cp, Cpk)
  • Experience developing manufacturing documentation (MBOM, work instructions, process flows).
  • U.S. Citizenship required; ability to obtain and maintain DoD clearance.

Preferred Requirements:

  • Experience with missile, interceptor, UAV, or guided munition systems.
  • Experience scaling hardware to high-rate production.
  • Experience in low-cost/high-volume defense production environments.
  • Familiarity with:
    • Automated assembly systems
    • Robotic integration
    • Composites fabrication
    • Harness/PCBA integration
  • Experience with:
    • SOLIDWORKS or similar CAD tools
    • PLM systems (SOLIDWORKS PDM, Windchill, or equivalent)
    • MES / ERP systems
  • Experience conducting MRL assessments.

Why CHAOS?

  • Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
  • Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
  • Our Perks: Free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
  • Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
  • Team Growth: 200 employees and counting across 5 global offices
Salary Range: $110,000 - $160,000

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. 

 

Recruiting Agencies: CHAOS Industries does not accept unsolicited resumes or outreach. Unsolicited submissions will not be reviewed or compensated.

 

#LI-onsite

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at CHAOS Industries? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Please note this position does not necessarily require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. 

Select...

EXPORT CONTROLS - This position may require access to information and technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Your responses to the questions below will be used solely to determine your eligibility under U.S. law to receive information and materials subject to U.S. export controls.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in CHAOS Industries’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.