Manufacturing Engineering Lead

The modern battlefield has changed. Cheap, autonomous suicide drones have turned the tactical advantage upside down, and the world is looking for a solution. At 9 Mothers, we aren’t just "innovating"—we are building the shield.

Backed by top-tier investors, we develop AI powered machines designed to intercept and neutralize Group 1/sUAS threats in real-time. Our flagship product is a low-power, counter-drone system built for the edge—on vehicles, at bases, or in a soldier's pack.

While others build for "awareness" or "long-term research," we build for the immediate survival of those in harm’s way. We are a team of hackers, engineers, and mission-driven builders who value field-ready capability over polished slide decks. If you want to see your code or hardware in the field next month—not next year—this is your playground.

We are hiring a Manufacturing Engineering Lead as our first hire focused on manufacturing rather than R&D. Our robotic turret product is moving from engineering-built units toward repeatable production, and we need someone to plant the seeds of our manufacturing process with a clear eye on how that process will scale.

This is a ground-floor role. Today there is no manufacturing organization; you will define its foundations. That starts with the manufacturing strategy itself: what we build in-house in Austin, what we place with contract manufacturers and suppliers, and how that split evolves as volume grows. The processes, documentation, quality practices, and supplier relationships you establish in year one are what the production org will be built on, and for the right person there is real potential to grow into leading that organization as it takes shape.

This is also a hands-on role in the most literal sense. The first manufacturing instructions will be written by you, from builds you perform yourself, bolt by bolt. We are looking for someone who has done this before: someone who has taken hardware from prototype into production at least once and can describe concretely what that transition looked like, the role they personally played in it, and what they would do differently this time.

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  10+ years of manufacturing engineering / operations experience on hardware products that shipped, ideally robotics or complex electromechanical systems.

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  You have taken a product from prototype to production before and can walk us through it: the state it started in, the process you built, the make/buy calls you made, what broke, and what you personally owned. This conversation is the core of our interview.

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  Fluency in the tools and methods of hardware production: DFM/DFA, PFMEA, process capability, tolerance analysis, fixture and tooling design, work instructions, line layout and flow.

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  Practical quality-system experience. You know how to build inspection, test, and corrective-action processes that fit a small company today and mature into a real QMS later.

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  Supplier and contract-manufacturer management experience: sourcing, qualification, FAI, and holding partners to spec without burning the relationship.

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  Comfortable being the entire manufacturing function on day one, wrench in hand at the bench and on the floor, while designing processes that will outlast the days when you are the only one running them.

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  Efficient, low-ego, and easy to work with. You build rapport quickly and move work forward without drama.

• Experience standing up manufacturing in a venture-backed hardware startup.

• Familiarity with firearms manufacturing, or other regulated production environments (defense, aerospace, medical).

• Working knowledge of ISO 9001 / AS9100 and what it takes to get there incrementally.

• Experience implementing or administering an MRP/ERP system at a small company.

• Experience in ITAR-regulated manufacturing and export-controlled data handling.

1. Initial screen with recruiter (30 min phone call)

2. Virtual interview with Director of HW Ops (45 min via MS Teams)

3. In-person interview (1 hour in Austin, TX) *9 Mothers will fly out candidates that are not local to the Austin area

4. Reference checks & offer