Director of Manufacturing (Design-to-Manufacturing)

Loft Orbital is hiring a Director of Manufacturing (Design-to-Manufacturing) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Level rates it ; you can apply on Loft Orbital.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this role: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions manufacturing, test engineering and satellite production among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as an executive role.
Loft Orbital has 77 other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Director of Design-to-Manufacturing leading satellite production, verification, and manufacturing systems.

manufacturingtest-engineeringsatellite-productiondesign-for-manufacturabilityoperations-management

Role Overview

The Director of Design-to-Manufacturing (D2M) leads the organization responsible for transforming product and program requirements into controlled, validated, scalable manufacturing and test systems capable of supporting satellite production, integration, verification, and launch readiness. This person ensures engineering intent is developed for production while developing the team through technical guidance, operational excellence, and design-for-excellence feedback to engineering.

The Director provides organizational and technical leadership across three D2M sub-domains :

Manufacturing Systems & MGSE Verification & Validation Test Engineering Test Platform & EGSE

The Director establishes the D2M technical operating model connecting Product Engineering to D2M to AIT Operations, ensuring engineering intent can be repeatedly built, integrated, tested, supported, and improved throughout the product lifecycle. Own the industrialization of Orbitworks' products from engineering definition through manufacturing and test readiness, ensuring satellite designs can be repeatedly manufactured, integrated, verified, and sustained at the required quality, schedule, cost, and production rate.

Day-to-day responsibilities

Lead manufacturing and test teams: Manage Manufacturing Systems & Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE), Verification & Validation Test Engineering, and Test Platforms & Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE).
Turn engineering requirements into production-ready processes: Oversee work instructions, bills of materials, routings, assembly workflows, tooling, fixtures, and process validation.
Ensure test readiness: Oversee test methods, procedures, scripts, limits, configurations, coverage, and verification evidence.
Own test infrastructure readiness: Guide the development, validation, deployment, and maintenance of test benches, instrumentation, automation, networking, and spacecraft interfaces.
Review designs for manufacturability and testability: Work with mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineering to identify constraints early and reduce rework.
Resolve manufacturing and test issues: Coordinate root-cause investigations, troubleshoot bottlenecks, and drive corrective actions.
Manage priorities and performance: Track readiness, quality, schedule, cost, throughput, risks, and resource needs.
Standardize and scale operations: Establish reusable tooling, test platforms, common standards, and predictable handoffs to Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT).
Coach and develop the team: Clarify ownership, strengthen technical leadership, and improve cross-functional collaboration.

Must-haves

Strong manufacturing engineering and test engineering experience, translating complex designs into practical manufacturing and verification systems.
MGSE and EGSE expertise, including development, implementation, validation, and ongoing support.
Experience with hardware-in-the-loop/software-in-the-loop (HIL/SIL) or similarly complex integration and test environments.
Practical Design for Manufacturing, Assembly and Test (DFM/DFA/DFT) knowledge, with examples of influencing design decisions.
Proven technical team leadership and coaching, ideally across multiple engineering disciplines.
Strong collaboration across engineering, production, quality, supply chain, and programs.
Hands-on problem-solving and delivery under pressure, supported by examples of shipping complex hardware and resolving real production issues.

Good-to-haves

Direct satellite or aerospace manufacturing experience.
Electronics or defence/DoD manufacturing experience involving complex, high-reliability systems.
Familiarity with ERP/MES systems for production workflows, reporting, and traceability.
Experience with agile or concurrent engineering, rapid prototyping, and iterative engineering-to-manufacturing handoffs.
Knowledge of AS9100 and ISO 9001 quality standards.

Orbitworks' mission is to make space simple for organizations that want to deploy physical and virtual missions to space. Building on Loft Orbital's heritage, Orbitworks will be the first commercial firm in the United Arab Emirates to mass-manufacture satellites. Orbitworks aims to manufacture tens of satellites annually and operates out of a 50,000-square-foot facility in Abu Dhabi.

How we rate this

Director of Manufacturing (Design-to-Manufacturing) at Loft Orbital rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Director of Manufacturing (Design-to-Manufacturing) is an open job at Loft Orbital.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The role is based in Abu Dhabi.
The job was posted on October 15, 2026.
Seniority: executive.
Applications are handled by Loft Orbital. Apply on Loft Orbital

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

ManufacturingTest EngineeringSatellite ProductionDesign For ManufacturabilityOperations Management

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where manufacturing was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where test engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where satellite production was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where design for manufacturability was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where operations management was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Manufacturing, Test Engineering, Satellite Production, Design For Manufacturability, and Operations Management. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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