Director, Core Manufacturing Technology

Oura Oura · Consumer · San Francisco, CA +1 · Supply Chain

Director of Core Manufacturing Technology at Oura, responsible for architecting and leading the global team that develops and deploys proprietary manufacturing processes for Oura's hardware products. The role focuses on standardizing core process modules (SMT, molding, coatings, optics) to ensure high yield, reliability, and scale across all product lines, while also building and protecting intellectual property.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own the Core Technology roadmap: Define and maintain the 3-year roadmap for Oura’s foundational manufacturing processes, with focus on miniaturization, water-tightness (molding), and high-density electronics (SMT).
  2. Standardize “Golden Processes”: Together with our other technical leaders, establish core process modules that become the technical skeleton for all NPIs, ensuring improvements from one program are quickly propagated to the global standard.
  3. Build and protect IP: Identify, develop, and protect proprietary manufacturing methods that give Oura a durable competitive advantage in form factor, robustness, and reliability.
  4. Lead molding, encapsulation & optics excellence: Drive advanced epoxy molding, water-tightness and enable best-in-class optical solutions for biosignal sensing.
  5. Drive next-generation SMT: Own the strategy for ultra-miniaturized SMT, including component size roadmap, flexible PCB handling, and robust underfill/overcoating solutions.

Skills

Required

  • 12+ years in high-volume Consumer Electronics, Wearables, Medical Devices or Semiconductors
  • boots on the ground experience solving molding or SMT yield/fallout on the factory floor
  • Track record leading multi-disciplinary teams of senior and staff-level engineers
  • Master’s or PhD in Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field (or equivalent deep practical expertise)
  • Ability to balance urgent build demands with long-term process “skeleton” growth, standardization, and reuse across products and sites
  • Experience owning strategic relationships with key equipment and process vendors and guiding CMs to adopt and scale proprietary recipes
  • Comfortable working across at least three timezones in a global organization
  • Passion for moving an organization from project-specific solutions towards core technology platforms, with a bias for standardization and learning reuse
  • Ability to explain complex process topics clearly to technical experts, leaders, and cross-functional partners, and to drive alignment on technical direction

Nice to have

  • AI-assisted coding tools

What the JD emphasized

  • proprietary processes
  • Core Technology
  • standardization
  • proprietary manufacturing methods
  • proprietary recipes