Product & Manufacturing Lead

Location: Sydney, Australia (with periodic travel to suppliers and contract manufacturers in China) Reports To: Chief Technology Officer

$ Strong salary and equity

Direct Reports: Senior Mechanical Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, future engineering and pilot manufacturing team as required

Need to be hands on, Solid Design, Product development and Manufacturing experience

About the Role We are seeking an experienced Product & Manufacturing Lead to lead our mechanical engineering function while driving the transition of our products from prototype to scalable commercial manufacture.

This is a hands on leadership role suited to an engineer who has taken products from concept and prototype through to production with contract manufacturers, ideally in China or Asia. You will provide technical leadership to the design team, establish robust engineering and product release processes, and work closely with suppliers and manufacturing partners to ensure products are reliable, cost effective, and manufacturable at scale.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership

- Lead and develop the mechanical engineering team, mentoring engineers and allocating resources across projects
- Conduct design reviews and maintain engineering standards

Product Development
- Own the mechanical design process from concept through production release
- Apply systems engineering principles throughout development and industrialisation
- Drive DFM, DFA, and Design for Serviceability initiatives
- Establish documentation, drawing control, and engineering change processes

Industrialisation & Manufacturing
- Lead the transition from in house prototypes to contract manufacturing
- Work directly with contract manufacturers and key suppliers on tooling, assembly processes, and quality
- Drive manufacturing cost reduction and yield improvement

Supplier & Contract Manufacturer Management




- Identify, evaluate, and qualify suppliers and manufacturing partners
- Review supplier capability, quality performance, lead times, and cost
- Resolve technical manufacturing issues and support sourcing decisions

Quality & Product Release
- Develop product release criteria and manufacturing readiness reviews
- Implement engineering change control and support corrective action processes

Experience & Qualifications

Essential

- Bachelor degree in Mechanical, Mechatronics, or Manufacturing Engineering, or equivalent
- 10 years engineering experience, including leading engineering teams
- Proven track record taking products from prototype to production, working directly with contract manufacturers
- Strong understanding of DFM, DFA, Design for Serviceability, tolerance analysis, root cause analysis, and product verification & validation
- Experience managing engineering documentation and change control

Highly Desirable
- Experience with Chinese contract manufacturers
- Experience with electromechanical products or industrial, agricultural, energy, or environmental equipment
- Exposure to ISO9001 quality systems
- Startup or scale up experience

Personal Attributes
- A robust engineering leader first and manager second
- Equally comfortable reviewing CAD models and discussing factory processes
- Pragmatic, commercially minded, and collaborative
- Comfortable in a fast moving scale up environment and hands on when required

Success in the First 12 Months

- Build a cohesive, high performing engineering team
- Establish formal engineering review and product release processes
- Prepare products for successful contract manufacturing
- Reduce product cost through design and manufacturing improvements
- Develop strong relationships with manufacturing partners
- Create a clear roadmap from prototype builds to scalable production

Please reach out to [email protected] for more info

📌 Product & Manufacturing Lead (Southern Sydney)
🏢 ProFound People
📍 Southern Sydney