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Chief of Staff, Manufacturing

El Segundo, 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 Overview:

As CHAOS Industries scales production of advanced defense systems, manufacturing execution becomes a critical competitive advantage. We are seeking a Chief of Staff, Manufacturing to serve as a force multiplier for our manufacturing organization—driving strategic initiatives, solving complex operational challenges, and ensuring critical priorities translate into measurable outcomes.

Working closely with Manufacturing Leadership, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, Finance, and Program Management, you will lead high-impact projects that improve throughput, enable scale, and strengthen operational performance across the business. This is a builder’s role: you will identify bottlenecks, develop solutions, and drive execution in areas that do not neatly fit within existing organizational boundaries.

The ideal candidate combines the structured thinking and analytical rigor of a top-tier consulting background with the ownership mindset and bias for action required to build in a fast-paced manufacturing environment. This is a 0-to-1 role: you will be standing up structure, owning cross-functional work that has no home yet, and acting as connective tissue across a leadership team that is still being built—not optimizing a machine that already runs.

High performers in this role are positioned to move into manufacturing leadership seats as the organization scales.

Responsibilities:

  • Establish and run the manufacturing operating rhythm—performance reviews, operating mechanisms, and decision forums that create accountability across functions.
  • Own cross-functional work that does not yet have a clear home: identify bottlenecks, run root-cause analyses, drive issues to closure, and stand up the structure to keep them closed.
  • Build executive-level analyses, business cases, and decision-support materials that inform strategic and operational decisions.
  • Develop the metrics backbone—throughput, quality, labor, capacity, and on-time delivery reporting—into a single operating picture leadership can run on.
  • Support capacity planning, facility expansion, and production ramp efforts as a hands-on project owner.
  • Lead special, high-priority initiatives on behalf of manufacturing leadership.

Minimum Requirements:

  • Bachelor’s degree and 7+ years of experience spanning both a strategy/consulting environment and an operating role where you owned execution and results (manufacturing, industrial, or operations).
  • Experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives from problem definition through implementation.
  • Strong analytical and structured problem-solving capabilities.
  • Experience developing executive-level presentations, analyses, and recommendations.
  • Demonstrated ability to operate independently in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
  • Proven ability to drive outcomes through influence rather than positional authority; this role leads cross-functional work without direct reports.
  • Strong communication, stakeholder management, and project leadership skills.
  • U.S. citizenship is required: this role accesses export-controlled information and requires a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Secret security clearance—current, or the ability to obtain and maintain one.

Preferred Requirements:

  • Experience at a top-tier consulting firm such as McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, LEK, or Accenture Strategy.
  • Experience supporting manufacturing, industrial, supply chain, aerospace, defense, or other operationally intensive organizations.
  • Experience leading operational excellence, business transformation, production scaling, or organizational effectiveness initiatives.
  • Familiarity with manufacturing operations, production systems, supply chain management, or industrial engineering principles.
  • Experience working directly with senior executives and leadership teams.
  • Active U.S. Department of Defense Secret or Top Secret security clearance.

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: 350 employees and counting across 5 global offices
Salary Range: $150,000 - $220,000

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.

 

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