Director of Industrialisation in München

We’re partnering with a fast-growing European defence and advanced engineering company to appoint a Head of Industrialisation as they build and scale a new generation of complex hardware manufacturing capability in Munich.

Our client is developing highly advanced, mission-critical systems at the intersection of aerospace, defence, space and advanced manufacturing, and is now moving into a phase where industrialisation becomes central to the company’s next stage of growth.

This is not a role focused on inheriting and optimising a mature production environment.

You will be responsible for building the industrialisation function from the ground up.

That means defining how products transition from engineering into repeatable production, establishing the processes, standards and systems required to scale, and building the team and supplier ecosystem needed to support future manufacturing growth.

This is a senior role with significant influence over how the company designs for production, ramps manufacturing capability and creates a scalable industrial system.

The Role

You will take ownership of industrialisation across the organisation and establish the function required to move highly complex hardware from development into robust, repeatable production.

Responsibilities will include:

• Building the industrialisation function from scratch, including structure, processes, standards and future team design
• Owning the transition of complex hardware from engineering and prototype phases into repeatable production
• Defining industrialisation strategy across new products, assemblies and manufacturing programmes
• Establishing production readiness criteria and ensuring products are designed with manufacturability, assembly, quality and scalability in mind
• Working closely with Design Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering and Operations to drive DFM/DFA principles into product development
• Developing manufacturing concepts, process flows, work instructions and production architecture
• Defining make-versus-buy strategies and supporting supplier selection for critical manufacturing processes
• Establishing production tooling, fixtures, equipment and manufacturing technology requirements
• Leading production ramp-up and ensuring manufacturing processes can achieve required levels of quality, repeatability and throughput
• Driving PFMEA, process capability, validation and manufacturing risk-reduction activities
• Supporting NPI programmes and creating clear industrialisation gates between engineering development and production
• Working closely with Quality to establish robust control plans, inspection processes and manufacturing traceability
• Partnering with Supply Chain and Procurement to ensure suppliers are capable of supporting production requirements
• Identifying manufacturing bottlenecks and implementing pragmatic solutions that enable programmes to move quickly
• Building and developing an industrialisation team as production requirements grow
• Acting as a senior technical and operational decision-maker across complex manufacturing programmes

What We’re Looking For

We’re interested in speaking with experienced Heads of Industrialisation, Industrialisation Leads, Manufacturing Leaders or Senior Manufacturing Engineers who have taken complex hardware products from development into production.

You will ideally bring:

• Significant experience industrialising complex physical products
• Strong experience taking products from prototype, development or low-rate production into scalable manufacturing
• A deep understanding of NPI and production ramp-up
• Experience establishing manufacturing processes in greenfield or rapidly scaling environments
• Strong knowledge of DFM, DFA, PFMEA, process validation and manufacturing readiness
• Experience working across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and quality
• The ability to translate product requirements into practical, scalable manufacturing solutions
• Experience defining production equipment, tooling, fixtures and process requirements
• Strong supplier and contract manufacturing experience
• Experience building manufacturing teams, functions or capability from an early stage
• A hands-on approach and willingness to work directly with engineering and production teams when required
• Strong judgement in environments where information is incomplete and decisions need to be made quickly

Experience within aerospace, defence, space, automotive, robotics, high-performance engineering or other complex regulated manufacturing environments would be highly relevant.

The Opportunity

This is an opportunity to join a highly ambitious engineering organisation at a point where the industrialisation function is still being defined.

Rather than stepping into an established structure, you will have the opportunity to shape how the company moves from advanced engineering development into scalable production.

You will have significant ownership over manufacturing strategy, process development, production readiness and team growth, while working alongside experienced engineers across design, manufacturing, quality, operations and supply chain.

The company is well-funded, growing quickly and developing technically demanding hardware programmes with significant future production requirements.

The environment is fast-moving, highly technical and delivery-focused, with a strong emphasis on engineering judgement, ownership and speed of execution.

The package includes competitive compensation and meaningful equity participation, reflecting the seniority and impact of the position.

Working model: On-site

Employment: Full-time

If you’ve previously built industrialisation capability, taken complex hardware into production and want the opportunity to create the function rather than inherit it, we’d be interested in speaking with you.

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