Composite Manufacturing Technician, Fiberglass and Carbon Fiber
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About WingXpand
WingXpand is Expanding What's Possible™ with Autonomous Systems, building long-endurance, backpackable smart plane drones and robotics systems that support defense, public safety, disaster response, and commercial missions. Our platforms operate across air, ground, and maritime domains, integrating autonomy, AI-powered sensing, edge computing, and networked systems to deliver real-world intelligence and threat detection. We design, build, and deploy complete systems — hardware, software, and data — and we move fast. As WingXpand scales, we are seeking high performers to grow with our team.
Job Description
We're looking for a hands-on Composite Manufacturing Technician to build the fiberglass and carbon-fiber structures that go on WingXpand's aircraft and ground and maritime robots. Composites are your focus — prepping and releasing tooling, laying up and bagging parts, and finishing them to a Class A, production-ready state.
The parts you pull have to repeat, so we care as much about consistency and root-cause thinking as we do about craftsmanship.
We're also looking for someone who wants to be useful across the whole shop. At our size, the best technicians don't stay in one lane. You'll receive training to support robotic assembly tasks — building up airframes, integrating subassemblies, and helping get finished systems out the door — and you'll pick up whatever else manufacturing needs as we scale.
If you'd rather do one job forever, this isn't the right fit. If you want to keep adding skills, it's a good one. That breadth is also the growth path.
We're building out our manufacturing operation now, and there's real room here to move up — into owning the composites process, setting the finish standard, writing the work instructions the next techs follow, or leading a production area. We'd rather promote someone who already knows how we build than hire over them.
If you take pride in a surface that's actually right and want to see your work fly, this role is for you.
Key Responsibilities
- Prepare, clean, seal, wax, and release molds before layup.
- Fabricate fiberglass and carbon-fiber parts using wet layup and vacuum bagging.
- Cut and kit plies and lay them to the specified material, orientation, and sequence.
- Manage debulking, core installation, and cure cycles.
- Demold, trim, drill, and bond parts to drawing.
- Sand, fill, prime, and polish parts to a Class A, production-ready finish.
- Identify and correct surface defects, voids, print-through, and dimensional issues, and determine root cause.
- Maintain molds between pulls and flag wear, damage, or release problems early.
- Read drawings and work instructions to produce accurate, repeatable parts.
- Track material lots, shelf life, and cure records.
- Collaborate with engineers to improve tooling, quality, and production speed.
- Complete training to support robotic assembly tasks, including airframe buildup, subassembly integration, and final assembly.
- Pitch in across other manufacturing areas as production demands shift.
Qualifications
- 2+ years of experience in composite fabrication, fiberglass layup, marine repair, boatbuilding, motorsports, or high-end automotive bodywork.
- Hands-on experience with wet layup and vacuum bagging, including bag construction and leak checking.
- Demonstrated Class A finish work — fairing, block sanding, filling, and polishing. Photos or sample parts welcome.
- Experience preparing and releasing molds, and the judgment to know when a tool isn't ready to run.
- Experience reading engineering drawings and using precision measuring tools.
- Comfortable performing demanding shop work with power tools, resins, dust, and required PPE.
- Willing to cross-train and work outside composites when production needs it. No formal robotics or assembly experience required — we'll teach you.
- Reliable, self-motivated, and proud of building work that must perform in the real world.
Additional Qualifications
- Marine fiberglass, gelcoat, boat restoration, or yacht-repair experience.
- Experience with carbon fiber, vacuum infusion, prepreg, or oven curing.
- Background in automotive bodywork, motorsports fabrication, or aerospace composite manufacturing.
- Experience with core materials, honeycomb, foam, and bonded assemblies.
- Production experience where scrap rate and cycle time were tracked.
- Mechanical or electromechanical assembly experience, hand tools, torque specs, fasteners, and adhesives.
- Experience in a shop that ran a documented quality system or work-instruction process.
- Passion for drones, robotics, autonomous systems, and building advanced hardware.
Benefits
Every full-time employee at WingXpand receives stock options. Equity is a core part of how we pay, not an afterthought, and early team members share directly in the company's growth as we scale. Additionally, we offer medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) retirement savings plan, and unlimited paid time off for vacation, illness, and personal needs, plus paid company holidays.
What Else You Need to Know
WingXpand is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
Qualified individuals with disabilities and protected veterans are encouraged to apply. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application or interview process, contact team@wingxpand.com and we'll arrange it.
