Associate Director, Product Operations & Production

We are seeking a hands-on Associate Director of Product Operations & Production to own how Two Six Products get built, certified, and delivered. Our portfolio includes secure hardware and software products. The role will be responsible for taking our hardware from engineering builds to repeatable, on-time production and managing certifications and delivery for our software products.

At its core, this is a project management and execution role. When an order comes in, you figure out everything that has to happen to deliver on time (materials, builds, testing, certifications, and shipping) and you drive it to completion. You'll lead a small, growing team that covers supply chain, certification management, production coordination, and assembly.

This is a hybrid position working from our Arlington, VA office.

What You Will Do:

• Own order-to-delivery execution. Build the end-to-end plan for every customer order, manage schedules across concurrent orders and products, surface risks early, and create repeatable fulfillment playbooks. Manage supply chain forecasting, pre-buys, and component obsolescence.
• Lead manufacturing transfer. Move products from prototype to production at our Dayton, OH site and/or contract manufacturers. You'll own build plans, work instructions, test procedures, first-article inspection, and yield ramp, and you'll get hands-on with build and test issues when needed.
• Enable engineering teams. Coach engineers on the documentation that makes a clean handoff possible (BOMs, drawings, test procedures, configuration records).
• Run supply chain and forecasting. Forecast demand, manage long-lead electronic components and inventory, and qualify and manage contract manufacturers, PCB, and component vendors.
• Implement and manage PLM. Make the PLM system the single source of truth for BOMs, revisions, and change control, and set up serialization and delivery tracking for full unit traceability.
• Build product operations across the portfolio. Oversee certification and compliance activities for hardware and software products. Over time, extend release, delivery, and operational processes to the full Two Six Products team.
• Lead the team and budget. Manage and grow the team. Own the operating budget and production cost plans, and report on-time delivery, cost, and quality metrics to leadership.

What you will need:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field
• 9+ years in hardware manufacturing, new product introduction (NPI), or production and product operations for electronics or complex software systems
• 3+ years leading people or cross-functional programs
• A strong record in project or program management, including owning complex product deliveries end to end against committed dates
• Hands-on experience leading at least one manufacturing transfer from prototype through production ramp
• Experience with supply chain management and forecasting for electronic components
• Experience implementing or managing a PLM system
• Experience with budget planning and management

What we would like:

• Familiarity with ATOs, FIPS 140-3, CSfC, or similar certification and authorization processes
• Experience with product operations for software products (release management, delivery, compliance)
• Experience building operations from scratch in a startup or scale-up environment

Security Clearance:

• Willing and eligible to receive a government security clearance