Contract Manufacturing Manager Jobs in California

Mainspring is rapidly scaling manufacturing to meet growing customer demand and accelerate deployment of the world's most flexible and adaptable onsite power generation platform. As we expand production capacity and strengthen our supply chain, our contract manufacturing partners play a critical role in Mainspring's ability to deliver on its commitments to customers, investors, and stakeholders.

The leader of Contract Manufacturing & Strategic Partnerships will set the strategy and operating model for Mainspring's contract manufacturing network and serve as the executive owner of its most critical manufacturing partnerships. This leader will translate Mainspring's product, demand, and growth roadmaps into multi-year partner strategies that secure capacity, improve cost, quality, delivery, and inventory performance, and protect business continuity.

This role is accountable for the overall health and performance of the contract manufacturing portfolio. The leader will establish governance and executive business-review mechanisms, lead complex commercial negotiations, guide manufacturing readiness and production ramps, and drive rapid resolution of significant operational, quality, delivery, and relationship issues. The role will work closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, Finance, Legal, Product Development, and Executive Leadership and will influence decisions across organizational boundaries.

Consistent with Mainspring's, this leader will build scalable processes and organizational capability, develop team members and future leaders, and operate with a high degree of autonomy. Success will be measured by partner performance, supply continuity, financial results, launch and ramp execution, risk reduction, and the strength of strategic relationships that enable Mainspring's long-term manufacturing strategy.

• Strategic Leadership: Execute the multi-year contract manufacturing strategy, ensuring full alignment with product roadmaps, capacity requirements, and company growth objectives.

• Portfolio Management: Oversee the partner network, including strategic selection, allocation, and exit strategies based on capability, risk, and long-term fit.

• Governance & MOS: Establish the organizational structure, decision rights, and Management Operating System (MOS) required to manage the contract manufacturing and related portfolio at scale.

• Complex Negotiations: Lead executive-level commercial negotiations (MSAs, SOWs, pricing, tooling) to protect business interests and risks while fostering sustainable, long-term partnerships

• Financial & Cost Strategy: Partner with executive leadership, Finance and Supply Chain to own cost performance, value engineering, and total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) initiatives as it relates to contract manufacturing. Clear ownership of contract manufacturers’ costs and pricing, driving transparency and accountability where necessary

• Operational Readiness: Coordinate/support cross-functional readiness for), pilot builds, production ramps, and sustained volume manufacturing at our contract manufacturers

• Performance Excellence: Establish rigorous KPIs (safety, quality, yield, delivery) and drive structured root-cause analysis and continuous improvement when performance falls below expectations

• Risk Mitigation: Proactively identify and mitigate supply chain and contract manufacturing operational, and geopolitical risks, ensuring robust business-continuity and contingency planning

• Executive Reporting & Stakeholder Management: Provide concise, decision-oriented updates to leadership regarding performance, tradeoffs, and required investments, while driving cross-functional alignment

• Team Leadership: Build, coach, and develop a high-performing team, fostering clear accountability and strengthening organizational capability

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Operations, or related field

• 10+ years in complex contract manufacturing, global supply chain, and/or operations, with at least 10 years specifically managing high-impact strategic supplier or CM portfolios

• 5+ years of people leadership experience, with a proven track record of building high-performing teams and developing future leaders

• Demonstrated success in defining and executing multi-year contract manufacturing strategies that align with product roadmaps and company growth objectives

• Deep understanding of the full manufacturing lifecycle, including production ramps, manufacturing transfers, and continuous improvement (safety, quality, yield, delivery)

• Expertise leading complex, high business impact, executive-level negotiations (MSAs, SOWs, pricing, tooling) and managing financial performance, including TCO modeling, budgeting, and investment analysis

• Proven ability to lead through influence across organizational boundaries (Finance, Engineering, Quality) and drive alignment with internal and external stakeholders

• Experience within high-growth industrial technology, energy, automotive, or similar complex hardware environments is highly preferred

Success in this role requires:

• Enterprise-level ownership and accountability for measurable improvements in cost, quality, delivery, capacity, risk, and partnership performance

• Ability to set strategy and translate it into an executable operating model, roadmap, and performance cadence

• Executive presence and credibility with internal leaders and external manufacturing partners

• Balanced strategic thinking and hands-on operational leadership

• Strong judgment in complex commercial, operational, and relationship decisions

• Proactive communication, disciplined escalation, and clear decision recommendations

• Ability to build/influence organizational capability, develop leaders, and create durable processes that scale

• Confidence leading difficult conversations, negotiations, performance recovery, and change

This position is onsite at our Menlo Park HQ. The salary will be adjusted to reflect local market conditions based on employee location as well as the experience of the employee. Along with the base salary, Mainspring offers pre-IPO stock options + benefits.