Engineering Manager, Tooling and MGSE

YOUR MISSION

We are seeking a Manager of Tooling & mechanical ground support equipment (MGSE) Engineering to build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of tooling and MGSE engineers across our Space Systems and Missile Defense programs. This is a people leadership role that also maintains your connection to the work through executing scope. You will own the organizational health, develop department best practices, standard process, requirements, technical direction, hiring, and career development of a team spanning entry-level through staff-level engineers working on spacecraft AI&T tooling, mechanical GSE, special test equipment, and missile defense integration tooling. You will partner closely with program management, flight engineering, as well as manufacturing and test to ensure the tooling function delivers with speed, precision, and quality across all active programs and balance stakeholder needs. If you are a seasoned tooling engineer who is ready to lead a team doing some of the most consequential manufacturing engineering work in the defense space industry, this is your mission.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Team Leadership & People Management

• Build, lead, and develop a team of Tooling & MGSE Design Engineers across Spacecraft and Missile Defense programs at GravityWorks Denver and Long Beach facilities.
• Own all people management responsibilities: hiring, onboarding, performance management, compensation reviews, career development, and succession planning.
• Partner with recruiting to define roles, calibrate levels, and close top talent; actively contribute to technical screens and hiring decisions.
• Set clear performance expectations and individual development plans; identify and grow future technical leads and staff engineers.
• Foster an inclusive, high-trust team culture grounded in True Anomaly's values of relentless ownership, intellectual curiosity, and first-principles thinking.

Technical Authority & Engineering Standards

• Serve as the engineering authority and escalation point for tooling and MGSE design decisions across all active programs.
• Develop and maintain tooling engineering standards, design practices, and configuration control disciplines; own the process from requirements definition through fabrication, acceptance, and production use.
• Establish design review cadence, perform technical checker duties on high-criticality deliverables, and ensure quality and completeness of all tooling data packages.
• Ensure the MGSE function is effectively represented at program-level design reviews (PDR/CDR); interface with program managers, chief engineers, and government customers on tooling status, risk, and schedule.

Program Execution & Vendor Management

• Lead resource planning and capacity management; balance engineer assignments across concurrent Spacecraft and Missile Defense programs and flag resourcing gaps to leadership.
• Own the vendor management framework: guide SOW/RFQ development, support source selection, and provide executive oversight of supplier performance across the fabrication portfolio.
• Drive DFM/DFMA culture across the team and into upstream hardware design organizations; establish formal touchpoin