Director, Machine Shop Operations

Atomic Machines is ushering in a new era of micromanufacturing with its Matter Compiler™ technology platform. This platform enables new classes of micromachines to be designed and built by providing manufacturing processes and a materials library that are inaccessible to semiconductor manufacturing methods. It unlocks MEMS manufacturing not only for device classes that could never be produced by semiconductor methods, but also for entirely new categories. Furthermore, this digital platform is fully programmable in the way 3D printing is digital—but whereas 3D printing produces parts of a single material using a single process, the Matter Compiler™ technology platform is a multi-process, multi-material system: bits and raw materials go in, and complete, functional micromachines come out. The Atomic Machines team has also created an exciting first device—made possible only through the Matter Compiler™ technology platform—that we will be unveiling to the world soon. Our offices are in Emeryville and Santa Clara, California. About the Role The Director, Machine Shop is accountable for operating and scaling Atomic Machines’ prototype machine shop as a high-performing internal manufacturing business and strategic engineering capability. This role owns customer delivery, demand intake, capacity planning, scheduling, staffing, safety, quality, equipment reliability, operating cost, and continuous improvement. The Senior Manager establishes the systems and operating cadence required to convert changing engineering demand into realistic commitments and predictable execution. The role is the primary operating interface between the shop and Engineering, Program Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Facilities, Safety, and Finance. The successful candidate must resolve competing priorities, communicate tradeoffs clearly, and maintain trust in a high-mix prototype environment. Strong technical credibility across machining, CAM, DFM, GD&T, metrology, tooling, workholding, and fabrication is required. The primary expectation, however, is to lead the business and organization—not to be the default machinist or programmer. What You’ll Do Run the Machine Shop as an Internal Business Own shop performance across delivery, schedule attainment, safety, quality, staffing, cost, and equipment availability. Establish clear intake requirements, prioritization rules, service expectations, commitment standards, and escalation paths. Maintain a visible backlog and executable schedule with clear priorities, dates, constraints, owners, and recovery plans. Serve as the primary operating interface with internal customers and communicate feasibility, lead time, risks, and tradeoffs early. Resolve priority conflicts based on company and program objectives. Own Capacity Planning and Scheduling Translate prototype, NPI, repeat, and production-support demand into realistic machine, labor, programming, setup, inspection, and outside-processing plans. Maintain rolling capacity plans that account for machine capability, personnel skills, job readiness, maintenance, training, material, and technical risk. Identify bottlenecks and improve estimates using planned-versus-actual performance. Protect capacity for maintenance, training, process development, and urgent prototype demand. Establish disciplined expedite rules that make displaced work and business impact visible. Build the Operating System Create clear processes for intake, readiness review, estimating, prioritization, scheduling, execution, inspection, and customer communication. Standardize workflows across CAM, machining, tooling, inspection, inventory, maintenance, documentation, and vendor work. Establish daily execution, customer priority, capacity, and performance reviews. Track schedule attainment, on-time delivery, backlog, lead time, utilization, yield, rework, scrap, overtime, and equipment reliability. Lead corrective actions for recurring delivery, quality, equipment, and workflow failur…