Overview
Head of Manufacturing & Product Jobs in Greater Dresden Area at TRION Battery Germany
Title: Head of Manufacturing & Product
Company: TRION Battery Germany
Location: Greater Dresden Area
This is the English version of the job post "Leiter Produktion & Produkt (m/w/d) // Head of Manufacturing & Product". Please only submit your application to either the German or the English job post. All applicants will be reviewed.
Role Overview
The Head of Manufacturing & Product is accountable for TRION’s cell-to-pack manufacturing operation in Dresden and for the engineering of TRION’s product portfolio. The role has full responsibility for manufacturing operations and product engineering. Product strategy priorities are agreed in collaboration with the General Manager and Lead Sales Manager. All engineering, manufacturing, and product quality outcomes are owned by this role.
This is a hands-on senior technical and operational leadership position at a German LFP cell and battery manufacturer with a certified product undergoing scale-up to commercial production volumes. The role demands deep battery-industry expertise, demonstrated leadership at the cell-manufacturing level, and the judgement to navigate the scale-up challenges inherent to Li-ion cell production.
Reporting & Structure
- Reports to: General Manager & COO
- Direct reports: German engineering team (production engineering and product engineering); contract technical consultants; Manufacturing Manager, Project Manager, Product Manager and additional operational leads as the organisation is built out.
- Geographic scope: Dresden manufacturing operation.
Key Responsibilities
Manufacturing Operations
- Own end-to-end performance of the Dresden cell-to-pack manufacturing operation across yield, throughput, quality, cost-per-unit, safety and on-time delivery.
- Lead the manufacturing scale-up programme: yield improvement, process consistency, equipment reliability, and the technical work required to take the plant to commercial-scale production volumes.
- Manage the production team and oversee day-to-day operations through the Production Manager.
- Own supplier qualification and supply-chain technical decisions, working with the GM Germany on commercial supplier strategy.
- Hold final authority on shipping and quality release decisions, ensuring that every unit released to market meets the standards on which the TRION brand is positioned.
Product Engineering
- Lead the product engineering function: cell-to-pack integration, BMS, mechanical, electrical, software and certification engineering.
- Deliver the product engineering required to execute the product roadmap (form factor, voltage and capacity variants).
- Own the certification path for new product variants, including CE, UN 38.3, IP67, E-Mark / ECE R100, UL 1973, RINA, Mercury Marine, ISO 9001 and 14001 and others as commercial requirements develop.
Product Strategy
- Provide the engineering and manufacturing input that informs TRION’s product strategy and portfolio direction, working closely with commercial leadership to define product requirements.
- Translate roadmap priorities into engineering execution: align engineering capacity to portfolio priorities, define technical feasibility and surface trade-offs between commercial ambition and manufacturing reality.
Qualifications & Experience
Essential
- 10+ years of senior engineering or manufacturing leadership in battery manufacturing — battery industry experience is essential given the technical nature of cell-to-pack production and product engineering in this space.
- Proven leadership of cell or pack manufacturing scale-up, including yield-improvement programmes, process engineering, and resolution of scale-up technical challenges.
- Strong product engineering judgement and experience leading certification programmes (preferably including marine, commercial vehicle or RV-channel certifications).
- Hands-on technical depth — this is not a remote oversight role.
- Based on-site in Dresden.
Preferred
- Specific experience with LFP chemistry and cell and pack manufacturing.
- Experience contributing to product strategy or portfolio decisions in a battery or comparable technical-products context.
- Fluent in German and English (business level).
- Experience with high-precision continuous-process manufacturing equipment (the Dresden plant is built on automation lines originally specified for German tier-1 automotive cell production).
Key Performance Indicators
- Manufacturing Yield: First-pass yield (FPY) at cell and pack level vs. monthly target; quarterly trend.
- Throughput vs. Plan: Weekly and monthly output (units / GWh-equivalent) vs. production plan.
- Cost per Unit (CPU): Manufactured CPU trajectory vs. scale-up plan; reduction milestones achieved on schedule.
- On-Time Delivery: % of customer orders shipped complete by promised date (target ≥ 95%).
- Quality & Field Performance: Field defect / warranty return rate (PPM); customer-reported quality incidents.
- Safety: Lost-time incident rate (LTIR); recordable incidents; near-miss closure rate.
- Certification & Roadmap Delivery: Product variants certified and released on schedule (CE, UN 38.3, E-Mark / ECE R100, UL 1973, marine certifications).
- Scale-up Program Milestones: high-volume production line commissioning and ramp milestones achieved on time and on budget.
Compensation
€150k–€200k base, plus an appropriate performance incentive structure.
About TRION
TRION is a German manufacturer of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, designed and built in Dresden for lead-acid replacement applications that demand high-power performance — marine, RV, commercial vehicles, ambulances, and charter fleets. We are the only European manufacturer producing LFP cells specifically for this market: our cells are made on automation lines originally specified for German tier-1 automotive production, integrated end-to-end from cell through to finished pack. Independent testing by VDE Renewables has confirmed performance well above competing products in sustained-load, cold-temperature conditions and operational reliability. Our product is certified, in market with field deployments across Europe, and distribution channels are being established. TRION batteries are positioned as the premium “Made in Germany” alternative in a category dominated by Chinese-sourced cells and modules.
TRION is privately owned by a consortium of institutional and private investors and is well capitalised to execute on the next phase: scaling the Dresden manufacturing operation to commercial volumes, expanding the European commercial footprint, and establishing global distribution. The company is at the stage where a strong leadership team can have outsized impact — the product is real, the market opportunity is validated, and the work ahead is building the operational and commercial discipline to capture it.
