Head of Manufacturing Operations

Our Client, a growing Electric Vehicle brand, is seeking to strengthen its Manufacturing Operations function. This role is a full-time, hybrid role based in Fatmawati, Jakarta Selatan.

The Role

The Head of Manufacturing Operations will be responsible for ensuring that the company can reliably build, launch, and scale a production-ready motorcycle. This is not a traditional corporate operations role. You will lead the operational system connecting engineering, suppliers, tooling, validation, quality, production, logistics, and after-sales readiness. You will work closely with Company's engineering and product teams while directly managing execution across external manufacturing partners. The immediate priority is to take the current vehicle program through validation, production readiness, pilot builds, SOP, and the first phase of customer production. You should be equally comfortable reviewing a production-readiness tracker with the CEO, challenging a supplier on a process failure, and spending several days on a factory floor resolving a launch issue.

Key Responsibilities

Industrialization & Production Readiness

• Own the master production-readiness plan from design freeze through SOP.
• Coordinate vehicle validation, tooling, supplier readiness, homologation, pilot builds, and production ramp.
• Establish clear build-readiness gates and release criteria.
• Identify critical-path risks and drive recovery plans across internal and external teams.
• Ensure production vehicles reflect validated, production-intent specifications.

Manufacturing & Supplier Operations

• Lead operational execution across Company's engineering, component, battery, electronics, assembly, and logistics partners.
• Ensure suppliers meet timing, quality, cost, and capacity requirements.
• Establish appropriate supplier APQP / PPAP processes for the company's stage and production volumes.
• Drive tooling readiness, process validation, capacity planning, and production launch activities.
• Lead supplier escalation and corrective-action processes when performance falls below requirement.

Quality

• Build a practical quality-management system appropriate for an early-stage motorcycle OEM.
• Define critical-to-quality characteristics and production inspection requirements.
• Establish incoming inspection, in-process quality control, end-of-line testing, and final vehicle release processes.
• Implement production traceability across vehicles, batteries, controllers, and other critical components.
• Lead containment, root-cause analysis, 8D / corrective action, and supplier-quality improvement.
• Ensure engineering changes are properly controlled and validated before production implementation.

Program Management

• Maintain a source of truth for production readiness, dependencies, risks, owners, and deadlines.
• Drive cross-functional decision-making when engineering, supplier, commercial, and timing requirements conflict.
• Escalate risks early and present clear options, trade-offs, and recommendations.
• Build a disciplined operating cadence across Company, suppliers, and manufacturing partners.

Cost, Supply Chain & Working Capital

• Own operational cost visibility from supplier pricing through landed vehicle cost.
• Manage component lead times, MOQs, inventory requirements, logistics, and production planning.
• Improve supplier commercial terms, payment terms, and working-capital efficiency.
• Track scrap, rework, logistics, tooling amortization, warranty, and other manufacturing-related costs.
• Support achievement of vehicle gross-margin targets without compromising product quality.

Service & Launch Readiness

• Ensure spare parts, service tooling, diagnostic processes, service documentation, and warranty procedures are ready before customer deliveries.
• Establish an effective feedback loop between field failures, engineering, production, and suppliers.
• Build the operational foundations required to scale from initial production into higher volumes.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 12 months, you will have:

• Taken the vehicle program through a controlled production launch.
• Established a clear production-readiness and risk-management system.
• Created effective supplier-quality and manufacturing-quality processes.
• Implemented traceability and change-control processes for critical components.
• Improved supplier accountability on timing, quality, and cost.
• Established stable pilot and early production processes.
• Built visibility over BOM cost, inventory, lead times, and working-capital requirements.
• Ensured service, spare-parts, warranty, and diagnostic readiness before customer deliveries.
• Built an operations organization capable of supporting increasing production volumes.

Experience We Are Looking For

Required

• 10+ years of experience in automotive, motorcycle, EV, battery, Tier-1 manufacturing, or another complex electromechanical industry.
• Bachelorʼs degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, or other related engineering subjects.
• Fluent professional English.
• Significant direct experience in new product introduction and industrialization.
• Personally participated in multiple product launches from development into production.
• Strong experience working with external suppliers and contract manufacturers.
• Working knowledge of APQP, PPAP, PFMEA, control plans, process capability, supplier-quality management, and root-cause analysis.
• Experience managing tooling, pilot builds, production ramp-up, and manufacturing readiness.
• Strong understanding of BOMs, engineering change control, revision management, and production traceability.
• Ability to understand technical engineering issues sufficiently to challenge both internal engineers and suppliers.
• Strong program-management and critical-path management skills.
• Willingness to travel frequently and work directly from supplier and manufacturing sites when required.

Strong Advantages

• Mandarin Chinese - Business Fluent.
• Current daily motorcycle rider.
• Motorcycle or two-wheeler manufacturing experience.
• Electric vehicle or battery-system experience.
• Previous experience launching products in a startup, new business unit, or other resource-constrained environment.
• Experience working with suppliers in China.
• Experience with CKD / local assembly operations.