Head of Production – UAV Systems

About the Role

You'll design and scale SUIND's UAV production to 100+ systems a month, starting with Bumblebee and expanding to future platforms like WASP. This means building the production system, not running one someone else built.

This role owns building and running a structured production process for UAV systems: assembly planning, technician management, production documentation, process control, and coordination across procurement and engineering. You'll be onboarded by a mechatronics engineer currently leading assembly, and take ownership of a small, technically strong team that's ready to grow.

The ideal person is comfortable with low-volume, high-complexity hardware manufacturing where designs may evolve, quality matters, and field reliability is critical.

Key Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day production planning and execution for SUIND's UAV systems.
• Convert engineering-led assembly into a repeatable manufacturing process.
• Set up production workflows, assembly stations, work instructions and process checklists.
• Manage production technicians, integration teams and assembly schedules.
• Coordinate with engineering for design updates, manufacturability improvements and issue resolution.
• Coordinate with procurement and stores to ensure material availability.
• Maintain BOM discipline, version control and production documentation.
• Implement serial number tracking, batch records and production traceability.
• Work with QA/QC to define and enforce quality gates.
• Track production output, rework, failures, delays and bottlenecks.
• Support creation of jigs, fixtures, calibration processes and testing workflows.
• Ensure safety, cleanliness and discipline on the production floor.
• Plan production capacity based on sales forecasts and business requirements.
• Support service, repair and field issue feedback loops.

Requirements

• Experience setting up assembly lines or production cells from scratch.
• 5+ years of experience in manufacturing, production, operations or hardware assembly. What matters more than years is whether you've actually set up and scaled a production system.
• Experience with robotics, drones/UAVs, aerospace, defence hardware, EVs, or similar high-complexity hardware.
• Solid grasp of production planning and shop-floor execution.
• Experience managing technicians and cross-functional production teams.
• Ability to create and enforce work instructions, checklists and process discipline.
• Comfort with evolving products and low-volume/high-complexity manufacturing.
• A problem-solving, execution-first mindset.

Good to Have

• Experience in drone/UAV manufacturing.
• Experience with ISO-style quality systems, production traceability or aerospace/defence manufacturing practices.
• Experience with inventory systems, ERP/MRP tools or BOM management.
• Comfortable coordinating across engineering, procurement, QA and management.
• Knowledge of wiring harnesses, electronics integration, composite structures, propulsion systems or flight controllers.

Who Will Succeed in This Role

You will succeed if you are hands-on, process-driven and comfortable building systems from the ground up: someone who wants to design a production system, not inherit one. SUIND doesn't need someone who only maintains an existing factory line. We need someone who can create the production engine for a new category of autonomous aerial systems.

This is also a different problem from high-volume mass production. If your background is exclusively large-scale automotive (10,000+ units/day), the skills this role needs (working with evolving designs, low-volume discipline, hands-on troubleshooting) are a different set. Worth weighing before you apply.

Why Join SUIND?

At SUIND, you will work on technology that leaves the lab and operates in the real world.

Our drones fly in environments that are complex, messy and high-value: farms, plantations, infrastructure sites, industrial assets, remote areas, security-sensitive zones, and other places where reliable autonomous aerial systems matter.

You will be part of a team building core autonomy, aerial robotics, embedded systems, field operations, manufacturing capability and commercial platforms from India for markets around the world. The work is hard, interdisciplinary and hands-on.