Associate, Founder's Office -Technology & Operations

Company Description:

Role: The Associate, Founder's Office (Technology & Operations) will work directly with the Co-founder and CTO across programme management, supply chain, manufacturing coordination, regulatory tracking and product support. The mandate is deliberately broad and is set by the priorities of the technology organisation. Direct CTO and senior leadership exposure; a clear path to a programme management or manufacturing operations leadership role. Makers Hive is the company that invented KalArm, India's first fully functional bionic hand, designed and manufactured in India under an ISO 13485:2016 quality system. The company runs four hardware programmes in parallel across bionic prosthetics, assistive devices and dexterous robotics, manufactured in-house in Hyderabad.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Programme management

Maintain a single integrated view of all product programmes covering milestones, dependencies and critical path; run the weekly programme review; surface and escalate slippage in the week in which it occurs.

Supply chain coordination

Track long-lead items and bill-of-material changes; follow up with vendors on open commitments; coordinate inward, quality and import escalations. Commercial negotiation remains with the operations function.

Regulatory and certification tracking

Maintain the regulatory and certification calendar as a live document with named owners and dates; coordinate documentation across engineering, quality and external consultants.

Manufacturing and delivery coordination

Maintain the production plan against the order book; coordinate between the commercial and operations functions on delivery commitments, capacity and dispatch.

Product and engineering support

Prepare the analysis behind product, sourcing and make-versus-buy decisions; maintain technical documentation and decision records; support hiring and onboarding across the engineering organisation.

Special projects

Execute cross-functional initiatives sponsored by the CTO, from problem definition through to closure.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

Establish the programme management function:

Stand up the integrated plan, the weekly review cadence and the escalation mechanism; none of these exists in structured form today.

Eliminate late discovery: Ensure that no milestone, approval dependency or long-lead item is identified after the point at which it can still be managed.

Instrument the supply chain:

Build the long-lead watch list and the vendor follow-up cadence to a standard that prevents production stoppages.

Connect commercial commitments to manufacturing capacity:  Establish a monthly interface between what the commercial organisation has sold and what the plant can ship.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Background

Experience in programme management, new product development, supply chain, planning and purchase, or plant operations at a hardware, medical device, automotive or manufacturing company.

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering (mechanical, production, electronics or equivalent). Graduate engineer trainees and management trainees from manufacturing organisations are encouraged to apply.

Cross-functional execution

Demonstrated ability to drive cross-functional execution without formal authority, across teams that do not report into the role.

Ways of working

Structured problem solving; fluency in Excel and programme tracking tools; clear and concise written communication.

On the ground

Willingness to work on the shop floor and at vendor premises, and the capacity to manage four programmes in parallel.

AI fluency

Comfortable using AI tools to track programmes, analyse data and document decisions, with the judgement to check their output before acting on it.

Preferred edge

Medical device or regulated manufacturing exposure; experience with BOM management, ERP or PLM systems; MBA in operations or supply chain management.

HOW TO APPLY

01 · Send

Your CV and a short note (under 300 words) to [email protected]. Tell us one thing you noticed about Makers Hive and what you would do about it.

02 · Assignment

Shortlisted candidates take a short assignment.

03 · Meet the founder

Walk the CTO through your assignment, followed by a round of interviews.

Subject line: "Associate, Founders Office - Technology & Operations". A link to something you have built or written is welcome but optional.