Vice President of Engineering and Operations

Who We Are

Swift Coat is a growth-stage advanced-materials company commercializing a new way to manufacture high-performance thin-films. Using our proprietary vacuum deposition technology, we, provide our customers with unique coatings inaccessible with other deposition techniques for applications in the space, solar energy, semiconductor, and building materials markets. 

Position Summary

Location: Phoenix, Arizona (fully on-site)

Salary: $150,000–$180,000, depending on experience

Travel: Approximately 5–10%

We are hiring a senior technical and operational leader to help scale our technology, team, and manufacturing capabilities. The Vice President of Engineering and Operations will report directly to the CEO and play a major role in company-level technical, operational, and organizational decisions. The successful candidate must be willing to work hands-on with equipment, processes, and data while building the team and systems needed to support Swift Coat's growth.

Responsibilities

· Lead funded projects, including a major government-funded space-technology program, through project milestone tracking, reporting, and customer communication.

· Organize workflow of multiple projects to ensure that milestones are met on time and all team members are contributing effectively towards the project goals.

· Direct engineering, technical-program, and production-readiness activities.

· Manage and develop engineers, technicians, and production personnel.

· Perform hands-on design (e.g., optical coating simulation), laboratory work (e.g., coating deposition, thin-film characterization), and data analysis as needed to support and guide the team.

· Utilize data and statistics to make informed engineering decisions about where and how to focus effort.

· Establish systems for quality, statistical process control, documentation, and project execution.

· Develop and implement a strategy for building Swift Coat's engineering and manufacturing operations.

· Contribute to technical reports, customer presentations, and funding proposals.

· Work directly with customers, government agencies, suppliers, strategic partners, and investors.

Qualifications

Required

· Degree (BS/BEng/BA or higher) in engineering, materials science, physics, chemistry, data science, or a related technical discipline.

· Deep technical competence with a demonstrated ability to identify and isolate complex problems and engineer creative solutions.

· Engineering expertise related to vacuum deposition, thin-films, plasmas, materials characterization, machine automation, or similar topics.

· Five or more years of experience in engineering, manufacturing, technical operations, or program leadership.

· Experience guiding multidisciplinary technical teams to successful outcomes.

· Experience transitioning a product or process from research and development into production.

· Experience using data and statistical methods to improve process performance.

· A demonstrated willingness and ability to perform laboratory work in addition to guiding direct reports in such work.

· Strong technical writing, slide-making, and communication skills.

Preferred

· MS or PhD in engineering, materials science, physics, chemistry, data science, or a related technical discipline.

· Ten or more years of experience in engineering, manufacturing, technical operations, or program leadership.

· Engineering expertise related to vacuum equipment design and manufacturing, inline or other large-area coaters, coating optimization through statistical process control, design of experiments, optical design of multi-layer thin films, thin-film characterization, plasma deposition processes such as PECVD or sputtering, or similar topics. 

· Product and market expertise in the aerospace, semiconductors, photovoltaics, or optics industries.

· Experience performing the functions of a project manager—including proposal preparation, performance tracking, and reporting—in customer- or government-funded programs, grants, or contracts.

· Experience with quality systems such as ISO 9001 or AS9100.

Why Join Swift Coat?

· The opportunity to build an organization with company leadership

· Exciting technology and high-performing colleagues make work enjoyable 

· Direct exposure to customers, government agencies, partners, and investors

· Meaningful equity participation

· Discretionary company-performance bonus

· Health insurance and 401(k)

· 20 vacation days, 10 company holidays, and 5 sick days