Director of Industrialization

About the Company We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore. The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis. Our staff have worked at organizations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, Tesla, Apple, Virgin Orbit, Astra, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, New Relic, Bridgewater, Raytheon, Disney Imagineering, and the US Army and Air Force, as well as research universities, startups, and small companies across a range of industries. About the Job Our core technology is the node, a device that produces energy in the ocean’s harshest conditions for years at a time without human maintenance or intervention. Panthalassa is moving from pilot production into volume manufacturing, and we are hiring a Director of Industrialization to stand up the production lines that get us there. You will own the manufacturing strategy, equipment definition, commissioning schedule, and production ramp for our new factories — the work that turns a proven pilot process and a rate target into a qualified, running line. This is the person who decides what we build with, how the line is configured, how long installation and commissioning will take, and how quickly the factory can climb to rate. Working with Pilot Manufacturing, you will translate product designs and proven pilot processes into a build strategy, then select and procure major capital equipment, sequence installation and qualification against a hard schedule, and define the ramp curve the rest of the business plans against. This role starts as an individual contributor and grows into a leadership role. For the first phase you will be doing the work yourself: building the models, writing the equipment specs, running the vendor evaluations, and standing in the building during commissioning. As the factories come online you will define, hire, and lead the industrialization and manufacturing engineering team that supports them. We are looking for someone who is genuinely happy in both modes and who wants to build the organization they will eventually run. You will report to the Vice President of Manufacturing and work most closely with the Director of Pilot Manufacturing, who owns the processes and product maturity you will be industrializing, and with the Plant Manager of each new facility, who owns the site once it is operating. You will also partner continuously with Pilot Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Technical Program Management, Digital Thread, Facilities, Finance, EHS, and Marine Operations. Candidates should have strong interpersonal skills and be able to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment in which the best ideas change the company’s direction on a regular basis. Responsibilities Manufacturing Strategy and Industrialization Planning • Own the industrialization roadmap that takes each product and process from pilot production to qualified rate production. • Build and maintain the manufacturing capacity and cost models that drive line decisions, including takt time, station balance, throughput, yield assumptions, unit cost, and capital intensity per unit of annual capacity. • Partner with the Director of Pilot Manufacturing to define the build strategy for major structures and subsystems, including work breakdown, station sequencing, subassembly strategy, and heavy lift and transport requirements, bringing the rate-production perspective to processes proven in pilot. • Partner with Supply Chain on make-versus-buy and internal-versus-contract-manufacturing decisions for major process steps, contributing the capacity, capital, process capability, and cycle-time analysis that informs them. • Contribute manufacturing requirements to site selection and facility planning, including footprint, bay dimensions and door clearances, floor loading, crane and heavy lift capacity, laydown area, load-out access, and utility loads. Site selection is led by company leadership; you provide the manufacturing analysis and requirements that inform it. • Develop facility layouts and material flow plans that support the target rate and future expansion. • Provide manufacturability feedback to engineering, and drive design changes that reduce cost, cycle time, and process risk before they are locked in. Process, Tooling, and Equipment • Own the production equipment strategy and the major equipment list for each line, including welding and joining systems, automation and material handling, machining, coating, NDT and inspection, electronic rack assembly, panel wiring, hardware integration, and test infrastructure. • Lead equipment specification, vendor evaluation, technical bid comparison, and selection in partnership with Pilot Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality. • Define and manage the manufacturing capital plan, including budgets, phasing, long-lead-item strategy, and contingency, and present capital requests for approval. • Transfer proven processes, work instructions, tooling, and training material out of pilot manufacturing and into the new lines, working with the Director of Pilot Manufacturing rather than reinventing what already works. • Define tooling, fixture, and station design requirements and sequence their development against the installation schedule. • Manage equipment vendors through design review, factory acceptance testing, delivery, installation, and site acceptance testing. Installation, Commissioning, and Qualification • Own the integrated installation and commissioning schedule for each line, from facility handover through equipment installation, utility tie-in, commissioning, process qualification, and first article. • Define and drive the manufacturing critical path, including long-lead equipment, contractor sequencing, and dependencies on product and process readiness. • Establish operational readiness criteria and lead readiness reviews with Quality, EHS, Supply Chain, and the incoming Plant Manager. • Define the production system requirements the line needs at startup, including ERP, MES, and quality system needs, and partner with Digital Thread and enterprise systems teams on their delivery. • Identify, track, and retire manufacturing schedule and technical risk with clear owners, mitigations, and escalation paths. Production Ramp • Define the manufacturing ramp curve for each line, including rate milestones, yield and learning-curve assumptions, labor ramp and training requirements, and staffing plan by station, in partnership with Technical Program Management and Production Planning. • Set the readiness criteria that gate each step of the ramp and hold the line on them when schedule pressure builds. • Establish the baseline process metrics, reporting cadence, and problem-solving mechanisms the Plant Manager will operate with. • Lead a clean, documented handoff to the Plant Manager, and stay engaged as a partner through the ramp to rate. • Capture lessons learned from each startup and apply them to the next line. Team Building and Organizational Development • Define the industrialization and manufacturing engineering org needed to support production at scale, including roles, sequencing of hires, and the split between central and site-based engineering. • Recruit, hire, and develop that team, and set its technical standards, operating cadence, and priorities. • Build the review mechanisms that keep industrialization work rigorous and visible, including design reviews, readiness reviews, and capital approval processes. • Mentor engineers across manufacturing and grow bench strength for future factory startups. Required Qualifications • 10+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, industrialization, or manufacturing operations, including time in a technical leadership role. • Direct experience taking a product or process from prototype or pilot production through installation, qualification, and rate production. • Demonstrated ownership of a manufacturing capital plan, including equipment specification, vendor selection, budgeting, and installation and commissioning schedules. • Strong quantitative skills and fluency building capacity, cost, and ramp models that leadership can make decisions on. • Experience defining and executing a production ramp, including realistic yield and learning-curve assumptions and the discipline to gate progress on readiness. • Experience translating product designs into executable build strategies, process documentation, and station-level work content. • Willingness to operate as a hands-on individual contributor now and build a team later, with genuine interest in both. • Experience leading through influence across engineering, supply chain, quality, and site operations without direct authority over most of it. • Clear written and verbal communication, and the judgment to know which decisions need a model, which need a conversation, and which need to be escalated. • Comfort operating with incomplete information in a fast-moving environment where the product is still maturing. Desired Qualifications • Experience industrializing large welded steel structures, pressure-retaining assemblies, marine vessels, or comparable large-format fabricated hardware. • Experience with waterfront manufacturing, shipyard or fabrication yard operations, or load-out and launch of large assemblies. • Experience scaling from prototype or pilot production into volume manufacturing at a hardware startup. • Experience hiring and building a manufacturing engineering or industrialization team from a small base. • Experience selecting and deploying automation, robotic welding, or large-envelope machining and inspection systems. • Familiarity with enterprise systems that support production, including PLM, ERP, MRP, MES, and QMS, and what they need to do at line startup. • Experience with contract manufacturers, including qualification, technology transfer, and rate readiness. • Experience in high-consequence or capital-intensive industries such as aerospace, defense, energy, shipbuilding, automotive, or advanced manufacturing. • Working knowledge of facility and industrial infrastructure requirements for heavy manufacturing, including utilities, material handling, and layout and flow design. The above qualifications are desired, not required. We encourage you to apply if you are a strong candidate with only some of the desired skills and experience listed. Skills and Competencies • High ownership and a bias toward delivery over analysis for its own sake. • Ability to move between a spreadsheet model, a shop floor, and a leadership discussion in the same day. • Rigor about assumptions, and willingness to state them plainly and revise them publicly. • Ability to build trust quickly with plant leadership, trades, vendors, and contractors. • Sound judgment about where to spend capital and where to spend ingenuity instead. • Commitment to safety and quality as prerequisites for rate, not tradeoffs against it. Additional Requirements • This role requires regular on-site presence in Portland, Oregon, and at our pilot and contract manufacturing facility in Vancouver, Washington. • Significant travel is expected, including to equipment vendors, contract manufacturers, candidate sites, and new facilities under construction. Travel will be heaviest during equipment procurement and startup phases and may include international trave…