Chief Textile Engineer

Who We Are We are a venture-backed manufacturing startup building the most advanced automated production facilities in the United States. We are on a mission to make American manufacturing economically viable — through intelligent machinery, automation, and a relentless focus on execution. We are early, we are moving fast, and we are looking for exceptional people who want to build something that matters. Role Title: Chief Textile Engineer Location: Austin, TX; Leander, TX, On-site Shift: 1st shift, Full-time Role Summary We are hiring a Chief Textile Engineer to assume full end-to-end technical and operational ownership of the Textile Division—scaling textile production from initial development lines to millions of square feet of automated output. You will be accountable for driving performance, reliability, and continuous improvement at industrial scale. You will lead a complete fiber-to-finished-apparel organization spanning spinning and yarn, knitting and greige fabric, dyeing and finishing, and cut-and-sew operations, while advancing next-generation technologies that replace traditional processes. Your team will include production leaders, product engineers, quality engineers, textile and process engineers, laboratory teams, and technical services. Core Responsibilities - Define end-to-end textile product architecture (fiber → yarn → fabric → color/finish → garment) and the optimal make-vs-buy strategy. - Own top-line production performance across current and future sites (Texas today; expansions planned in North Carolina, Mississippi, California, and Arizona), driving rate, yield, quality, and cost targets. - Partner with the COO and Production Leadership on factory layout, staffing, logistics, and plant sequencing; partner with the CTO on controls, sensing, and automation architecture. - Hire, structure, and lead a multi-site organization of production leaders, product engineers, quality engineers, textile/process engineers, colorists, lab technicians, and technical services. - Serve as the technical face of the Textile Division to customers, DoD program offices, university partners, and investors. - Maintain a technology map that shifts cost, quality, and capability curves across fiber systems, spinning, knitting, dyeing, finishing, inspection, recycling, and smart/e-textiles. - Own the multi-year R&D and CapEx roadmap that the CEO, CTO, COO, and Board can underwrite. Required Skills & Qualifications - Bachelor’s degree in Textile Engineering, Textile Chemistry, Materials Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering. - 15+ years in textiles spanning at least two of: yarn/spinning, knit or woven fabric formation, dye/finish, apparel/cut-and-sew. Depth in knits is strongly preferred. - Proven ownership of a volume-production plant, multi-plant complex, or a full product-engineering organization at scale — not a staff role adjacent to production. - First-principles aptitude across fiber properties, yarn mechanics, fabric structure, coloration chemistry, finishing, garment construction, and the process-control logic that holds it together. - Track record of specifying and commissioning major textile assets and developing producible requirements for equipment builders (internal or OEM). - Proficient with DoD/Berry Amendment/mil-spec or equivalent high-spec technical textiles (FR, NIR, camouflage, durability, lot traceability), as well as ASTM and AATCC testing specifications. - Demonstrated ability to recruit, hire, and lead engineers and production leaders. Preferred Skills & Experience - Vertically integrated mill background: yarn + knit + dye + garment under one production system. - Experience standing up a greenfield mill or a major modernization — including but not limited to equipment selection, layout, start-up curve, and workforce capacity building. - Working knowledge of automation, sensing, and digital process controls in textiles; fluency in communicating with controls and software engineers. - Established university and industry network in the U.S. textile sector, with the ability to recruit from relevant channels. - Cost-modeling instinct: ability to build a garment should-cost model and identify which levers are real. Additional Considerations - Willingness to travel as needed for vendor visits, factory acceptance testing, and on-site equipment commissioning. - Comfortable with a startup pace — this role demands flexibility, self-direction, and a bias toward execution over perfection. - The ideal person for this role is a builder-operator with depth, not a coordinator with a textile vocabulary. You have run real textile operations and can speak knowledgeably about loop length, twist multiplier, liquor ratio, and burst strength without notes.