About DEXA
Dexa is transforming last-mile logistics through safe, scalable autonomous commercial aviation. The company enables restaurants, retailers, and enterprise partners to deliver products faster, fresher, and more efficiently through fully automated airborne delivery solutions. By combining advanced aircraft design, FAA-certified operations, and deep operational expertise, Dexa improves delivery speed, product quality, and customer experience - making autonomous drone delivery a practical, everyday reality.
Position Summary
The Director of Production & Manufacturing Operations will lead production operations for DEXA's small UAS platforms, supporting aircraft assemblies, fabricated components, tooling, fixtures, ground-support items, retrofits, repairs, upgrades, and related manufactured products.
This is a builder role responsible for creating, managing, and scaling a disciplined production system that supports repeatable manufacturing, ERP/MRP execution, inventory accuracy, production planning, configuration control, ISO 9001 / AS9100-aligned practices, and future low-rate to mid-rate production scale.
This person will help DEXA stand up and scale production and fabrication capabilities potentially at a new facility, including production layout, workflow design, tooling and fixture planning, staffing, material flow, ERP/MRP discipline, inventory controls, supplier and fabrication coordination, and continuous improvement of throughput, quality, cost, and schedule performance.
The Director will serve as a primary link between Engineering, Supply Chain, Flight Operations, Quality, Manufacturing, Maintenance, and leadership to ensure aircraft and supporting systems are delivered on time, built to approved configuration, and executed in compliance with FAA and company requirements.
Key Responsibilities
- Production Leadership: Lead day-to-day production of small UAS, assemblies, fabricated parts, tooling, fixtures, ground-support equipment, aircraft retrofits, repairs, upgrades, and related hardware.
- Production Planning & Execution: Own master production schedules, work orders, labor planning, material readiness, kitting, bottleneck resolution, schedule risk identification, and on-time completion of deliverables.
- Facility & Production System Buildout: Help define production and fabrication requirements for a new facility, including layout planning for assembly, fabrication, inventory, receiving, inspection, staging, equipment, storage, safety, and staffing needs.
- Manufacturing Operations & Workflows: Establish scalable assembly, fabrication, and production workflows; create work instructions; improve labor utilization; and drive throughput, efficiency, and repeatability.
- Production Readiness: Verify drawings, BOMs, routings, work instructions, tooling, inspection points, and materials are complete before production release; conduct production readiness reviews for new builds, changes, and scale-up activities.
- ERP, Inventory & Materials Control: Drive disciplined use of ERP/MRP systems for BOMs, routings, work orders, inventory transactions, purchasing signals, cycle counts, staging, kitting, material shortages, and part traceability.
- Configuration Management & Change Control: Ensure only approved revisions are released to production; coordinate ECO/ECR implementation; maintain build traceability; and ensure manufacturing feedback is incorporated into future designs.
- Quality & Production Standards: Implement ISO 9001 / AS9100-aligned practices for controlled documentation, build records, inspection points, nonconformance handling, corrective actions, first-pass yield, and repeatable execution.
- Manufacturing Documentation: Create and maintain workflows, work instructions, travelers, inspection checklists, tooling requirements, SOPs, build documentation, and production records.
- Team & Cross-Functional Management: Hire, train, and manage production staff while coordinating with engineering, quality, procurement, supply chain, flight operations, maintenance, and leadership.
- Continuous Improvement & Safety: Establish production KPIs and improve schedule adherence, inventory accuracy, build time, rework, first-pass yield, throughput, and workplace organization while maintaining a safe production environment.
- Supplier, Fabrication & Incoming Quality Coordination: Support supplier quality, incoming inspection, vendor performance, outsourced fabrication, and material readiness for internal and external production work.
Ideal Skills and Experience
- Education: Bachelor's degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Operations Management, Supply Chain, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered.
- Experience: 8+ years in production management, manufacturing operations, aerospace manufacturing, UAS production, defense manufacturing, fabrication, or advanced hardware production environments.
- Production Scale-Up: Experience scaling production from prototype builds to repeatable low-rate or mid-rate production, especially in an early-stage or low-maturity manufacturing environment.
- Facility / Shop-Floor Buildout: Experience helping design or improve production areas, fabrication cells, assembly flow, inventory staging, receiving, inspection, tooling, fixtures, and material movement.
- ERP/MRP: Strong working knowledge of BOMs, routings, work orders, inventory transactions, material planning, production reporting, purchasing triggers, kitting, cycle counting, and inventory accuracy.
- Production Scheduling: Demonstrated ability to create, maintain, and communicate production schedules while balancing engineering priorities, material constraints, labor capacity, and operational needs.
- Quality Systems: Practical experience working within or implementing ISO 9001, AS9100, FAA-regulated, aviation, defense, or similar safety-critical quality and compliance environments.
- Hardware Production: Experience with aircraft, drones, robotics, electromechanical systems, avionics, harnessing, payloads, composites, fabricated components, tooling, fixtures, or similar hardware.
- Configuration & Change Control: Experience managing BOMs, revisions, build records, ECO/ECR implementation, production release discipline, and traceability.
- Leadership & Ownership: Proven ability to lead hands-on teams, solve production issues, document clearly, make tradeoffs, and operate with urgency, autonomy, and accountability.
Work Style Expectations
- Must be located within driving distance of Dayton, OH, or be willing to relocate.
- Primarily on-site with regular hands-on involvement in production, inventory, fabrication, facility setup, and build activities.
- Travel may be required to suppliers, operational sites, test locations, or customer-facing demonstrations.
- Fast-paced, highly collaborative, and execution-focused.
- Comfortable working where engineering development, production execution, fabrication, and real-world aviation operations intersect.
*Additional compensation in the form of equity may be available for qualified associates.
Pay: $135,000.00 - $140,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
