Production Supervisor
About this role
About Vital Lyfe
Vital Lyfe is a tech company redefining water autonomy through innovation, creating a new category of personal water-making technology built to scale where infrastructure can’t.
What You’ll Do
Coordinate and lead the daily activities of production technicians and assemblers responsible for the manufacturing, testing, and packaging of Vital Lyfe systems.
Establish, maintain, and enforce production standards, work instructions, safety protocols, and quality requirements.
Conduct employee performance evaluations, provide coaching and development, and administer corrective actions when necessary.
Interface with Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Leadership teams to prioritize work based on production schedules, company objectives, and customer demand.
Identify production risks and develop mitigation plans to ensure schedule adherence and operational continuity.
Manage non-conforming hardware through inspection, troubleshooting, disposition, and corrective action processes to return products to a conforming state as efficiently as possible.
Support continuous improvement initiatives focused on safety, quality, cost, delivery, and productivity.
Identify and eliminate sources of waste, defects, rework, and inefficiencies within the manufacturing value stream.
Reduce equipment, material, and personnel downtime through proactive planning, process improvements, and resource management.
Support the transition of products from engineering development, prototyping, and pilot builds into repeatable, scalable production processes.
Provide constructive feedback to engineering and product development teams regarding design improvements, assembly challenges, process optimization, and cost reduction opportunities.
Support and report key manufacturing metrics including throughput, yield, first-pass quality, labor efficiency, on-time delivery, and production capacity utilization.
Foster a culture of accountability, urgency, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across the production team.
Build and maintain a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
Support hiring, training, performance management, and workforce development initiatives.
What We Are Looking For
Basic Qualifications
High school diploma or equivalency certificate
Bachelor’s degree; or 3+ years of professional experience in a manufacturing/production environment
1+ years of experience leading a team or project
Preferred SKills and Experience
Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Supply Chain, or a related technical field.
5+ years of experience in a manufacturing environment, including leadership responsibilities.
Experience scaling production and supporting New Product Introduction (NPI).
Working knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, 5S, Kaizen, or Six Sigma principles.
Experience with ERP/MRP systems and production planning.
Ability to read engineering drawings, BOMs, and technical documentation.
Experience with root cause analysis, corrective actions, and continuous improvement.
Strong understanding of quality systems, standard work, and manufacturing process control.
Excellent leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
Experience in electromechanical, consumer hardware, aerospace, automotive, or other complex manufacturing environments is preferred.
Physical Job Requirements - Essential Functions
Hands on work on development hardware.
Long periods of standing, crouching, walking.
Lifting up to 50 lbs
Why Join Vital Lyfe?
Work on high impact problems with global relevance
Help scale breakthrough technology in water security and climate resilience
Early ownership in a high growth, engineering led startup
Join a tight knit, mission driven team in a fast paced environment
Build long term career equity as we grow
Location Requirement: Ability to work 100% onsite in Torrance, CA (remote or hybrid work will not be considered)
Vital Lyfe is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vital Lyfe is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.