Head of Facilities in Villeneuve

PAVE Space is building LYOBA, a heavy kick stage moving over 4-tonne payloads from LEO to high-energy orbits in under 24 hours. Real hardware, real funding, real milestones, and a building programme that has to keep pace with the engineering. That's the seat.The Chavalon test site is under construction, the cleanroom is starting now, the Villeneuve workshop is coming online, and the next propulsion test site needs to be found and built within a year. The Villeneuve footprint will keep expanding as headcount grows. The CTO is doing this job today, and it's the single biggest thing keeping him off engineering. You'll take it over, on a timeline measured in weeks, not quarters.You will ownVilleneuve (hall and admin), Chavalon, and future sites, from lease to lightbulbsConstruction project management for cleanroom, workshop, test stands, propellant storage, and future production facilitiesExpansion of the Villeneuve footprint as headcount growsElectrical infrastructure: distribution, capacity planning, high-current circuits for CNC and test equipmentHVAC and ventilation for workshop, chemical lab, cleanroom, passivation roomLease negotiation, permitting, and coordination with cantonal authorities (ECA Vaud, OFEV, cantonal construction offices)Test site search and buildout for the next propulsion facilityContractor management end to end: mechanical, electrical, HVAC, civil, cleanroom specialistsCapex programmes on facilities; the business case, the procurement, the delivery, the acceptanceFacilities safety infrastructure in coordination with HSE: spill containment, fire suppression, blast walls, alarms, maintenance programmeWhat we are looking for8+ years leading industrial facilities construction and buildout projectsDirect experience delivering test facilities, cleanrooms, or high-hazard industrial installations from concept to commissioningTrack record managing multi-million capex programmes across mechanical, electrical, HVAC, and civil disciplinesComfortable owning contractor relationships end to end: selection, negotiation, execution, disputesSwiss regulatory and permitting experience, cantonal construction offices, ECA, OFEV, or equivalent for other cantonsReads engineering drawings across disciplines, and can push back on a contractor's proposal when the numbers don't holdComfortable on-site in workwear, not just at the deskFrench and English, both fluentlyNice to have: propellant storage or hazardous-materials facility construction; test stand or launch site buildout experience; familiarity with cantonal Vaud construction and permitting landscape; experience running multiple concurrent construction programmes across sites.You will fit ifYou take pride in a building that works the day it opens.You'd rather walk the site with the contractor than review the drawings alone at your desk.You know when a contractor's estimate is right, when it's high, and when it's wrong, and you don't back down from any of the three.You see the buildings as part of the vehicle; a bad workshop makes a bad engine.You'd rather run four construction programmes in parallel than be bored on one.Fully on-site in Villeneuve (VD), with our test site in Chavalon twenty minutes away and more sites coming. There's no facilities team to inherit, no established construction pipeline, no framework contracts with the trades. You'd be the one setting all of that up, while the CTO hands you back the hours he's been spending on it. #J-18808-Ljbffr