The Operations Program Manager is the Single Threaded Leader (STL) for their core technology modules and is the primary Operations interface to the product development teams and other functional organizations within Reality Labs. It is the responsibility of the STL to keep the Core Team integrated with the Operations workstreams. STLs have a demonstrated technical understanding of their modules and have the ability to influence key design and architecture decisions in order to meet Operations KPIs. The STL owns their program from early architecture through launch. This role requires close collaboration with R&D, Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing & Test, Business Development, Sourcing, and external supplier teams.
Responsibilities
- Accountable for end to end manufacturing operations at suppliers to execute development builds per schedule, leading up to ramp and into mass production
- Establish the appropriate engagement model and define roles and responsibilities between supplier and internal cross functional teams
- Drive supplier readiness activities to execute development builds leading up to ramp, including design & layout of manufacturing lines, development of process qualifications plans, and defining capacity & capex requirements, while clearly identifying deliverables and dependencies
- Drive Operations teams to ensure materials, equipment, fixtures, systems, staffing, security, training and documentation plans are in place at our manufacturing partners
- Establish and lead on-site bring-up and integration activities, coordinating with both internal and external resources
- Lead ramp availability with GSM, Manufacturing & Test, Quality, and other internal and external teams
- Ensure the successful launch of products towards meeting its stated cost, quality, schedule, and availability goals
- Assess, analyze, consolidate, and communicate risk and status clearly and succinctly to management, calling out key issues and presenting options for resolution to the cross-functional executive team through the new product reviews and other executive forums
- Actively participate in Engineering design and technology development discussions, providing focus and direction to deliver scalable manufacturing solutions. Be the Operations owner for the partner’s decisions around equipment, tooling and fixture sub suppliers
- Provide links from the US based Operations & Engineering teams to the manufacturing partners from various development builds through new product introduction
- Liaison across multiple cross-functional teams to ensure product cost, manufacturability, reliability, product quality, safety and compliance, and delivery commitments are met
- Lead program readiness reviews representing supplier technical operations and overall readiness, and drive closure on design/technical & operations issues
Minimum Qualifications
- 7+ years experience managing supplier technical operations
- Broad understanding of optical & mechanical technologies, and demonstrated experience with deployment of manufacturing processes to support complex technologies
- Experience working on New Technology Introduction (NTI)
- Data-driven problem solving skills to address multi-dimensional problems with high levels of uncertainty across multiple functional teams
- Demonstrated technical, strategic and commercial skills required to deliver new technologies
- Experience in communicating effectively with a broad range of stakeholders, collaborators and clients, at different levels
- Experience with defining and implementing systems/tools and mechanisms to bridge integration mechanics between internal and external partners
- Ability to travel at least 25% on-site to suppliers during critical bring-up and build activities 10+ years experience managing supplier technical operations in consumer electronics industry
- Experience working on New Technology Introduction (NTI) with successful transition into New Product Introduction (NPI) phase and scaling at production
- Semiconductor Processing and Clean room experience
- Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
- Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
- Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies