Manufacturing Operations Manager

Operations Manager

Inspired Flight's Purpose Statement says it all - conserving resources, creating jobs, and saving lives by innovating the American drone manufacturing. Founded in San Luis Obispo, California our entirely U.S. based team designs, builds and supports highly capable and flexible drone platforms for both commercial and government customers.

Our purpose driven team exemplifies our Core Values. We are:

• Collaborative: We harness the collective intelligence and energy of our team to surpass individual potentials and achieve shared goals.
• Resilient: We approach obstacles with flexibility and creativity, supporting one another to stay focused, resourceful, and determined.
• Diverse: We place a high value in people of all heritages, genders, sexual orientations, and points of view to spark innovation and solutions, enriching our work environment and outputs.
• Continuously Improving: We are committed to ongoing learning and innovation by always seeking ways to enhance our processes, products, and personal expertise.

Underlying all of this is our deeply rooted belief that the cutting-edge aerial tools we create are advancing an industry that is good for people, good for our planet and good for the United States of America.

This is an in-office position for hire at Inspired Flight's HQ in San Luis Obispo, CA.

The Operations Manager runs Inspired Flight's operations coordination — the transactional backbone that moves every order from queue to fulfillment. Reporting to the Director of Operations, you lead the Operations Coordinators team and own the order queue, order fulfillment, and the full work-order lifecycle: creation, execution, and management. You are the day-to-day liaison between the production floor and the operations team — translating build priorities into coordinated work, keeping orders moving, and making sure the floor always has the released work it needs.

This is a hands-on, Lean-driven role. You will standardize how work orders are created and executed, remove transactional bottlenecks, and keep the floor and the back office in sync. As Inspired Flight scales, you will grow and develop the coordinator team and build the scalable systems and processes a higher build rate demands. It is a prime opportunity for an organized, driven professional who thrives in a high-growth environment and is looking for career development and advancement.

Team You Will Lead:

• Operations Coordinators — the team that manages the order queue, creates and executes work orders, and drives orders through fulfillment in lockstep with the production floor.

Typical Responsibilities:

Order Queue & Fulfillment

• Own the order queue: intake, prioritization, and sequencing of customer and internal orders so the right work happens in the right order.
• Drive orders through fulfillment from release to completion, tracking status and clearing blockers before they stall the floor.
• Maintain backlog and planned-fulfillment visibility, and communicate order status and risks to stakeholders.

Work Order Lifecycle

• Own the integrity of the work-order lifecycle in NetSuite — ensuring the team creates accurate work orders, executes material transactions, and closes them out on time.
• Keep work-order data clean and trustworthy: quantities, components, routing steps, and completion records.
• Ensure required documentation and sign-offs are captured at each step before work advances.

Production Floor Liaison

• Serve as the day-to-day connection between the production floor and the operations team — translating build priorities into coordinated work and surfacing floor needs back to operations.
• Partner with Production and Manufacturing Engineering to keep the floor supplied with released work and to resolve shortages or holds quickly.
• Run daily stand-ups and operational routines to align the team on priorities, status, and open issues.

Team Leadership

• Lead, schedule, train, and develop the Operations Coordinators; manage performance, workload balance, and day-to-day assignments.
• Build staffing and cross-training plans so coordination keeps pace as build rate grows.

Continuous Improvement & Scalable Systems

• Champion Lean principles across the transaction workflow: standard work, waste reduction, and simpler, faster order and work-order flow.
• Design and build scalable order- and work-order processes, templates, and NetSuite workflows that hold up as build rate, headcount, and product mix grow.
• Document standard work and create the playbooks, dashboards, and controls that let the team scale and onboard new coordinators without losing accuracy.
• Maintain simple KPI dashboards (order cycle time, work-order accuracy, schedule adherence, on-time fulfillment).

Success Metrics (KPIs)

• On-time fulfillment / on-time delivery (OTD)
• Order queue cycle time and throughput
• Work-order accuracy and on-time closeout
• Schedule adherence to production priorities
• Backlog visibility and order aging

You'll excel in this role if you have:

• Hands-on NetSuite (or comparable ERP) experience with work orders, material transactions, and order management.
• Experience coordinating order or production flow in a manufacturing or hardware environment, with strong quality and documentation discipline.
• A Lean mindset and strong organization; comfortable being the connective tissue between the floor and the back office.
• A track record of building or improving processes and systems that scale — turning ad hoc steps into repeatable standard work.

Education/Experience Requirements:

• 3–6+ years in operations coordination, order or production management, planning, or supply chain, ideally in manufacturing or hardware.
• Practical knowledge of ERP/MRP work-order and order-management workflows.
• Experience leading or coordinating a small team and managing competing priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Working knowledge of Lean / continuous improvement (standard work, 5S, structured problem solving).
• High school diploma required; Associate's or Bachelor's in operations, supply chain, business, or a related field preferred (or equivalent experience).

Salary & Benefits Offered

• $85-115k DOE
• Unlimited Paid Time Off
• World Class Health, Dental, Vision Insurance Plan
• 401k w/ 6% company match
• Quarterly Team Bonus Plan

Physical Demands : The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee splits time between an office and the production floor, and may need to sit, stand, and walk the floor for periods of time; talk, hear, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer and telephone; and occasionally lift and/or move items up to 25 pounds.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Inspired Flight is deeply committed to building a workplace where inclusion is not only valued, but prioritized. We pride ourselves on being an equal opportunity employer that seeks to create a welcoming and diverse environment. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, or expression, family status, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, neurodiversity, age, or veteran status, or any other non-merit based or legally protected grounds.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor.