Head, Manufacturing

The role

You will lead the strategy and execution for scaling production of autonomous freight vehicles into high-volume manufacturing. This role owns end-to-end vehicle manufacturing operations including production ramp, quality systems, supply chain execution, and field retrofit programs.

What you will do

• Lead vehicle manufacturing operations across production ramp and high-volume execution.
• Own relationships with external contract manufacturing partners.
• Own factory floor planning, line layout, and production process optimization.
• Develop and execute long-term manufacturing and quality strategies.
• Lead field retrofit and upgrade programs for vehicles in operation.
• Support critical service and maintenance escalations.
• Define and enforce build documentation, manufacturing procedures, and quality processes.
• Establish standards for installation, integration, and verification of automotive electronics and subsystems.
• Partner cross-functionally with engineering, operations, supply chain, and safety teams.
• Drive continuous improvement across cost, yield, cycle time, reliability, and field performance.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Mechanical, Electrical, Robotics, or a closely related discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing experience.
• Demonstrated leadership in scaling vehicle or complex hardware production environments.
• Proven leadership experience building and running manufacturing organizations within automotive, EV, AV, robotics, or complex hardware platforms.
• Demonstrated success developing and executing manufacturing and quality strategies.
• Deep experience managing contract manufacturing partners and multi-vendor production networks.
• Hands-on background with vehicle electronics integration, harnessing, sensor mounting, and subsystem verification.
• Strong track record leading Quality teams and establishing robust quality management systems.
• Ability to drive cost improvement, efficiency gains, and production scalability.
• Solid project leadership experience managing builds, retrofits, NPI efforts, and manufacturing ramp programs.
• Experience operating at a senior strategic level while remaining hands-on in execution.
• Strong technical understanding of automotive manufacturing processes, electrical/compute hardware integration, vehicle assembly, and safety-critical production environments.

About the company

Gatik is the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, focusing on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers. The company uses proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology to transport freight between pick-up and drop-off locations.