Senior Manager, Test Operations

About the role

Muon Space is seeking a Senior Manager of Test Operations to lead and scale our Test Operations organization supporting growing spacecraft and subsystem production.

This role oversees Spacecraft Test Technicians and Subsystems Test Technicians, with responsibility for staffing, shift coverage, operational execution, technician development, test capacity, and production throughput. The Senior Manager will establish the processes, infrastructure, and organizational capabilities needed to support increasing production volume and evolving spacecraft architectures. You will work closely with Test Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Program Management to ensure test operations are safe, repeatable, efficient, and aligned with production priorities.

This role will also play a key role in industrializing test operations, including standardizing processes, developing scalable capacity models, improving cycle time and utilization, and transitioning new test capabilities from development into repeatable production operations.

This position is fully onsite and requires working in our San Jose, CA office five days a week.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop Spacecraft and Subsystems Test Technicians and technical leads.
• Establish staffing plans, shift coverage, skill matrices, and technician development paths.
• Set daily operational priorities and drive consistent execution across teams and shifts.
• Build a culture of safety, accountability, quality, and ownership of flight hardware.
• Own day-to-day execution of spacecraft and subsystem test operations.
• Ensure tests are performed using approved procedures, configurations, tooling, and acceptance criteria.
• Partner with Test Engineering to transition new or immature tests into stable production operations.
• Identify and resolve operational constraints, bottlenecks, and resource conflicts.
• Develop and implement the operating model required to scale test operations with production volume.
• Establish repeatable processes, standard work, training, and qualification requirements.
• Develop capacity and labor models for stations, equipment, shifts, and future production demand.
• Partner with Engineering and Manufacturing to design test infrastructure, stations, EGSE, tooling, and facilities for scalable production.
• Identify opportunities to reduce test cycle time, improve utilization, and increase throughput.
• Support the transition of new spacecraft platforms, subsystems, and test capabilities into production.
• Build organizational capability through cross-training, workforce planning, and scalable team structures.
• Establish and manage metrics for throughput, cycle time, utilization, schedule adherence, rework, and test capacity.
• Drive daily management and continuous improvement across Test Operations.
• Use operational data to identify constraints and prioritize investments in people, equipment, and infrastructure.
• Support MRR, TRR, and production readiness activities.
• Ensure operational readiness for new programs, facilities, test stations, and production lines.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in aerospace, spacecraft, defense, advanced manufacturing, or complex hardware production and test.
• 5+ years leading technical, production, integration, or test organizations.
• Experience directly leading technicians and hands-on technical teams.
• Experience with spacecraft, subsystem, avionics, electrical, functional, or environmental test operations.
• Demonstrated experience scaling teams, processes, and infrastructure in a growing production environment.
• Experience with workforce planning, staffing models, shift operations, and technician development.
• Strong understanding of flight hardware handling, configuration control, quality, safety, and hardware protection.
• Demonstrated ability to improve throughput, cycle time, utilization, and schedule performance.
• Strong cross-functional communication and leadership skills.

Nice-to-have Skills

• Spacecraft or launch vehicle I&T operations.
• High-rate spacecraft or satellite production.
• Experience supporting multiple spacecraft platforms or subsystem families.
• Multi-shift production operations.
• Technician qualification programs, skills matrices, and career ladders.
• Experience scaling contractor and/or contingent workforces.
• Test stations, EGSE, tooling, fixtures, and instrumentation.
• Environmental test operations including vibration and TVAC.
• Digital work instructions, MES, production dashboards, or electronic travelers.
• Capacity modeling and infrastructure planning.
• Lean/Six Sigma or other continuous improvement methodologies.
• MRR, TRR, PRR, and production readiness processes.
• Experience industrializing development test processes into repeatable production operations.

Salary

The salary range for this role is $207,000 - $230,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.