Senior Manager, Composite Production
REGENT · North Kingstown
At REGENT, we’re on a mission to revolutionize regional transportation between coastal cities. We're not just building vehicles, we're creating a new category of transportation: the Seaglider. These groundbreaking wing-in-ground-effect craft travel just above the water’s surface, combining the speed of an airplane with the low operating costs of a boat. Capable of 180 miles at 180 mph on today's battery tech (and up to 400 miles with next-gen batteries), Seagliders will unlock fast, affordable, and sustainable coastal transit for passengers and cargo - connecting cities, islands, and communities like never before.
Backed by leading investors and powered by a team of passionate, forward-thinking engineers, builders, and operators, we’re now scaling from a breakthrough prototype to full production - and building the team to make it happen.
Role Overview
We're looking for a Senior Manager, Composite Production to own the full composite production organization: the engineering, maintenance, and production teams that together turn composite process into finished parts at rate. You'll lead through a management layer of shift leads and supervisors - standing up standard work and quality control that survive shift-to-shift, building a maintenance program that keeps cure and layup equipment running, and growing and training the workforce as we scale - and help take composite production from prototype builds to predictable, production-ready output, in tight partnership with Advanced Engineering.
If you're energized by building a production organization from the ground up, developing people at scale, and hands-on manufacturing leadership, you'll be in the right place - and we'd be thrilled to have you on the team!
What You'll Do
Own Composite Production Performance End to End: Hold single-point accountability across engineering, maintenance, and production for quality, yield, equipment uptime, and throughput — so the three functions operate as one, unified system.
Lead Through a Management Layer: Build and develop the shift leads and supervisors who run the floor day-to-day, and grow that leadership structure so the organization scales without diluting quality.
Systematize Engineered Fixes into Standard Work: Turn one-off process solutions into trained, auditable standards that every technician on every shift can run — and close the loop back to engineering when a standard isn't holding.
Own Equipment Reliability: Run a preventive maintenance program and uptime tracking for cure, layup, and trim equipment (autoclaves, ovens, presses, trim and cure systems), and prioritize maintenance and engineering resources against production schedule risk.
Build the Workforce and Its Training Pipeline: Stand up structured training paths and certification levels - for example a station-based dojo model and skills matrices - that take a hire from no experience to certified, independent operator.
Run Quality Control at Scale: Put control plans, SPC checks, and non-conformance and corrective-action processes into daily practice across shifts, so quality and process control scale with production rate.
Partner with Advanced Engineering: Work continuously with the Advanced Engineering team to validate process robustness before it reaches the floor, treating each build as a shared outcome rather than a handoff at the end of engineering's work.
What You'll Bring
Composite Manufacturing & Organizational Leadership: Extensive experience in composite manufacturing, including leading a multi-disciplinary organization spanning manufacturing engineering, maintenance, and/or production at meaningful scale.
Leadership Through Leads and Supervisors: You've run production through a layer of leadership rather than by directly managing every individual, and you know how to build that layer.
Equipment Uptime & Maintenance Strategy: Demonstrated experience running maintenance and reliability for composite process equipment — autoclaves, ovens, presses, trim and cure systems.
Scaling a Workforce Through a Ramp: You've stood up or grown a production workforce — hiring, org design, and skills development — as volume increased.
Turning Fixes into Sustained Standard Work: You can point to an engineered process fix you converted into standardized, trained, sustained production work across a large team.
Hands-On Composite Production Depth: Enough working knowledge of prepreg and wet layup, vacuum bagging, cure, trim, and bonding to direct engineers and audit floor execution — paired with process discipline and variability reduction across a multi-shift workforce.
Quality & Production Systems Fluency: Comfort running control plans, SPC, and corrective-action processes at scale, and familiarity with MES / MBOM / routing structures and how floor, maintenance, and engineering data roll up into production metrics.
Bonus: Having led a composite production organization through a prototype-to-rate ramp in aerospace, marine, or automotive; built or scaled a maintenance program for composite process equipment; worked with automation (ATL / AFP / FPL, robotic trim, CNC) and how it changes staffing and training at rate; or built a dojo-style training curriculum that took entry-level hires to certified operators.
Who We're Looking For
Collaborative Team Player: You treat process robustness as a shared outcome with Advanced Engineering and the integration team — something built together, not inherited once engineering is done. You're credible with engineers and floor leadership alike, and you hold a technical conversation and a shift-performance conversation with equal weight.
Creative Problem Solver: Your default reaction to a good fix isn't "problem solved" — it's "how do we make sure every shift and every technician can run this." You build durable systems where craft knowledge used to live.
Adaptable & Agile: You're comfortable operating in ambiguity while still building auditable systems, and you can prioritize and sequence finite resources — headcount, equipment, training — across competing needs.
Innovative Mindset: You're genuinely motivated by developing people at scale — building leads and supervisors who can each run a piece of a large production organization — and by designing the structure that lets quality scale with rate.
What We Offer
Competitive compensation including a robust equity incentive plan.
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance - we cover 100% of your premiums.
401(k) with company matching, so you can plan for the future.
Generous flexible time off, paid parental leave, and company-wide holiday breaks.
Relocation packages available for those moving to join our team.
Daily, free catered lunches
Learning & professional development opportunities
If you’re ready to take on an exciting challenge, grow with us, and make a lasting impact, we want to hear from you. Even if you don’t meet every requirement, but you see yourself contributing to our mission, we encourage you to apply! We value diverse skillsets and experiences and believe in the potential of passionate individuals to make a big impact.
Equal Opportunity Employer
REGENT is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.
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