Associate Production Manager, Solar Manufacturing

What to Expect

Tesla is seeking an Associate Production Manager to help lead solar manufacturing operations at a massive 100 GW scale. This role will be a key people leader in our new Solar Manufacturing organization, reporting to the Production Manager, and will help build and run a high-volume process area within a new greenfield facility. Depending on experience, this role may support Ingot, Wafer, or Cell manufacturing. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives on developing Supervisors, Leads, Technicians, and Associates, running disciplined floor operations, and delivering world-class safety, quality, delivery, and cost. This role is core to Tesla's mission of accelerating the world's transition to amazing abundance. You will be a critical driver of day-to-day manufacturing performance on the shop floor.

What You’ll Do

• Lead, inspire, and develop a production team of Supervisors, Leads, Technicians, and Associates; build team structures, hiring plans, and training programs that enable the ramp schedule
• During launch of this greenfield facility, drive production readiness including commissioning support, staffing, training rollout, and standardized work instruction development and maintenance
• Monitor production KPIs for your area, identify losses, and close performance gaps in safety, quality, yield, throughput, labor efficiency, and cost with engineering, maintenance, quality, and other partners
• Maintain floor discipline through standardized work, 5S, documentation control, and consistent operating practices across shifts and teams
• Lead and support issue resolution including containment, root cause investigation, corrective action tracking, and ensuring no defects leave a station or team area
• Support new product, material, and process introductions through shop-floor readiness, training, pilot runs, and ramp execution
• Partner with Manufacturing Process Engineering on PFMEA and control plans so critical process risks and features are identified and controlled in production

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of production and operations leadership in high-volume manufacturing, with LEAN manufacturing and continuous improvement experience; solar or semiconductor preferred
• Experience managing teams in a production environment, including hiring, coaching, and developing Supervisors, Leads, and production team members
• Experience supporting factory launch, equipment start-up, or production ramp
• Working knowledge of standardized work, production systems and processes, 5S, and structured problem-solving frameworks
• Ability to develop and use production performance metrics (safety, quality, delivery, and cost) and root cause methods to improve yield, uptime, and throughput
• Clear written and verbal communication skills with operators, engineers, and leadership; ability to stay engaged and accountable under pressure with competing demands and tight deadlines