Manufacturing & Commercialization Lead

WattAir | Atlanta, Georgia preferred | Full-time

About WattAir

WattAir is an early-stage climate technology company developing systems that produce water from air while making better use of available energy. We are building for a future where reliable water can be generated closer to where it is needed, particularly across agriculture, industry, and data centers.

Our culture is grounded in hands-on ownership, technical honesty, speed, and resourcefulness. We care deeply about impact, take responsibility for outcomes, and enjoy solving difficult problems together.

Why This Role Matters

WattAir has developed working prototypes and is now moving toward reliable, field-ready products and repeatable manufacturing.

We are hiring a Manufacturing & Commercialization Lead to help us make that transition. You will work closely with the founders and technical team to improve how our systems are designed, built, assembled, tested, installed, and serviced.

This is a highly hands-on position for someone who enjoys building real hardware and solving practical engineering and manufacturing problems. You will spend time in the workshop assembling and improving equipment, working with suppliers and fabrication partners, supporting pilot builds, and helping us introduce the documentation and processes needed to make future systems more repeatable.

Our immediate need is for someone to excel in this hands-on manufacturing and commercialization role. As WattAir’s products, team, and manufacturing operations grow, there may be a natural opportunity for this person to take on broader leadership responsibilities and potentially progress into a Head of Manufacturing, VP of Manufacturing, or similar senior role. Any such progression would develop naturally based on the individual’s impact, interests, and the company’s needs over time.

What You’ll Do

• Help transition WattAir’s custom prototypes into reliable, repeatable, and field-ready products.

• Support design for manufacturing and assembly across mechanical, thermal-fluid, electrical, and packaged system components.

• Build, modify, assemble, test, and troubleshoot prototype and pilot-scale equipment.

• Work with suppliers, contract manufacturers, fabricators, and assembly partners to source and produce components.

• Develop and maintain bills of materials, drawings, assembly procedures, work instructions, and production documentation.

• Identify opportunities to improve system cost, reliability, repeatability, serviceability, and ease of installation.

• Develop practical quality-control procedures and acceptance tests for components and completed systems.

• Support field installation, commissioning, maintenance, and troubleshooting.

• Assist with manufacturing-readiness, product-safety, and certification planning.

• Help evaluate manufacturing equipment, workshop needs, fabrication methods, and future production capabilities.

• Introduce practical processes and structure as the company grows while maintaining the speed of an early-stage team.

What We’re Looking For

We know strong candidates do not always fit a standard blueprint. If you have relevant hardware experience and are excited about what we are building, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every qualification.

Required

• Experience in manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering, hardware productization, or the commercialization of physical products.

• Experience building, modifying, assembling, and troubleshooting mechanical or industrial equipment.

• Familiarity with moving hardware from prototype development toward low-volume or repeatable production.

• Experience with design for manufacturing and assembly.

• Ability to create and work from bills of materials, technical drawings, assembly documentation, and testing procedures.

• Experience working with suppliers, machine shops, fabricators, or manufacturing partners.

• Strong practical judgment and the ability to balance technical performance, cost, schedule, reliability, and manufacturability.

• Willingness to work regularly in workshops, at supplier facilities, and at customer or pilot sites.

Nice to Have

• Experience with HVAC, thermal-fluid systems, industrial equipment, or water-treatment technologies.

• Experience with sheet metal, piping, frames, enclosures, heat exchangers, or packaged mechanical systems.

• Familiarity with pumps, fans, valves, sensors, controls, and other industrial components.

• Experience developing quality-assurance or acceptance-testing procedures.

• Familiarity with product-safety, regulatory, or certification requirements.

• Experience with field installation, commissioning, troubleshooting, or maintenance.

• Experience working in a hardware startup, climate-technology company, or similarly fast-moving environment.

How You Work

• You enjoy making things work in the real world and are comfortable getting your hands dirty.

• You take responsibility for problems and follow them through to a practical resolution.

• You can work independently while knowing when to ask for input or support.

• You communicate clearly with founders, engineers, technicians, suppliers, and customers.

• You are comfortable making progress with incomplete information and limited resources.

• You introduce structure where it is useful without adding unnecessary complexity.

• You care about safety, quality, and building products that customers can depend on.

• You are excited to learn, take on new responsibilities, and grow with an early-stage company.

Why Join WattAir?

You will join WattAir at an important stage and play a direct role in turning our technology into a dependable commercial product. You will work closely with the founders, contribute to important product and manufacturing decisions, and see the immediate impact of your work across our prototypes, pilots, and future commercial systems.

This is an opportunity to help build a company addressing two critical challenges: water scarcity and more efficient energy use.

How to Apply

Please submit your resume and a few sentences explaining why WattAir and this role interest you. We would particularly like to hear about a physical product or system you helped build, improve, manufacture, or deploy.

A formal cover letter is not required. If this sounds like you, or someone in your network who could be a strong fit, we would be glad to hear from you.