---
title: 'Operations Trainer at NOX METALS'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/operations-trainer-nox-metals-detroit-wpaekh9e021f'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-17'
---

# Operations Trainer at NOX METALS

- **Company:** NOX METALS
- **Location:** Detroit, MI
- **Compensation:** $69k–$77k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-11
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-17
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/nox-metals/b8cdaba9-9554-456a-8c08-74711ca382d6

## Job description

Operations Trainer | Nox Metals | Detroit, MI

About Nox Metals. American factories deserve a supply chain that moves as fast as they do. Nox Metals is building it, along with the tools that run it. We’re a technology company supplying aluminum plate, bar, and rounds to aerospace and defense manufacturers. We use software and automation to supply metal to American factories faster than the industry thought possible.

The role. We’re hiring an Operations Trainer to help every new floor employee become safe, confident, and effective. You will lead hands-on onboarding, maintain training standards, and work with operations leaders to close skill gaps across material handling, saws, shipping, and our software systems. This is a floor-based role. The best training at Nox Metals happens beside the work, with clear demonstrations, supervised practice, and documented qualification.

You will:

- Deliver new-hire orientation and floor onboarding
- Teach safety procedures, standard work, material traceability, and software workflows
- Coordinate equipment training and qualification with authorized leaders
- Build and maintain practical training guides, checklists, and skills matrices
- Observe employees performing work and provide clear coaching
- Identify recurring errors and partner with leaders to improve the process
- Track required training and follow up before qualifications expire
- Support retraining after incidents, process changes, or quality issues
- Help Production Supervisors become stronger on-the-job coaches
- Complete other tasks as assigned

You are:

- A patient, credible teacher who enjoys helping people improve
- Comfortable demonstrating work on a manufacturing floor
- Clear in both written and spoken communication
- Serious about safety and unwilling to sign off incomplete training
- Organized with records, schedules, and follow-up
- Able to adapt your teaching to different experience levels and learning styles
- Comfortable with software, documentation, and operating data

Nice to have:

- Experience training employees in manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, or another industrial setting
- Hands-on experience with forklifts, cranes, saws, shipping, or material handling
- Experience building standard work or qualification programs
- Familiarity with adult learning or train-the-trainer methods
- Comfortable using AI tools to work faster and smarter

Benefits:

- Equity in Nox Metals
- Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance

This role is full time and in person in Detroit.

Nox Metals is an equal opportunity employer. We hire based on skill, attitude, and fit for the work, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, height, weight, marital status, or any other protected status under federal, state, or local law.

## About NOX METALS

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: NOX METALS is an AI-powered metals supplier that provides instant quotes and rapid delivery of cut-to-size aluminum plate to American manufacturers through vertically integrated, software-driven factories.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage; raised $11.5M seed round per company website, plus $4.6M pre-seed from Y Combinator per LinkedIn – conflicting reports)
- **Headquarters**: Detroit, Michigan, United States (2703 23rd Street, Detroit, MI 48216)
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Zane Hengsperger (Founder & CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Manufacturing, metals processing, industrial supply chain
- **Target customers**: Job shops, OEMs, Tier 1/2/3 suppliers, aerospace, defense, and industrial manufacturers (B2B)
- **Mission**: To reindustrialize America by supplying manufacturers at warp speeds and lower prices, with the goal of enabling 100x more parts made in the USA.

## Products & Services
- **Gondor (Ordering Platform)**: An AI-powered system where customers upload material lists or paste part specs, and the AI parses, prices, and returns a quote in under 60 seconds. Offers real-time order tracking, mill certs, and one-click reordering.
- **Nox Nest (AI Nesting Engine)**: An ML-trained bin-packing solver that evaluates hundreds of thousands of cut combinations to find the optimal path, reducing scrap and creating predictive inventory based on likely future orders.
- **Predictive Inventory**: AI that anticipates what American manufacturers need and stocks material before customers even place an order.
- **AI Schedule**: Machine-learning trained scheduling and job timing to lower lead times.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metrics**:
  - Total funding: $11.5M seed round (per company website) plus a $4.6M pre-seed round led by Y Combinator (per LinkedIn/Tracxn)
  - Team size: ~22 (per Y Combinator profile; LinkedIn shows 8 employees but 24 active job postings, suggesting rapid growth)
  - Headcount growth: +27.3% monthly (LinkedIn)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator (led pre-seed; Summer 2025 batch), Jared Friedman (Primary Partner at YC)
- **Growth Signals**: Raised $11.5M seed round in 2026; 24 open positions; expanding from aluminum plate/block into steel, tube, and sheet; LinkedIn followers 4,148 with +8.3% monthly growth.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Vertically integrated factories**: NOX builds and operates its own automated cutting facilities, removing middlemen, brokers, and manual scheduling layers.
- **AI-first operations**: ML-driven nesting, scheduling, and inventory prediction deliver quotes in seconds and lead times in days rather than weeks.
- **Lower overhead**: Automation (robots pick, cut, package, label) reduces human bottlenecks, enabling better pricing and faster throughput.
- **Real-time visibility**: Every order tracked from quote to delivery, with mill certifications attached.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scale the Detroit factory, expand product offerings into steel, tube, and sheet, and continue building out the software platform (Gondor, Nest, AI Schedule).
- **Direction**: Become the fastest and lowest-cost supplier to America’s industrial base by treating the factory as a software product.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Early-stage startup backed by Y Combinator; mission-driven to reindustrialize America; fast-paced environment where software and hardware meet.
- **Work environment**: On-site in Detroit, MI (2703 23rd Street). Roles span software engineering (perception, full-stack), factory operations, shift leads, sales, and IT/SecOps.
- **Perks & highlights**: Opportunity to work with advanced manufacturing technology (AI, robotics, automated cutting lines); competitive salaries ($80K–$150K for engineering roles); direct impact on the supply chain of American manufacturing.
- **Engineering culture**: Emphasis on building automated factories that are “the product” – software engineers work alongside factory operators to optimize real-time production.

## Sources
1. [NOX METALS Website](https://noxmetals.co/)
2. [Y Combinator Company Profile](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/nox-metals)
3. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/noxmetals)
4. [Careers Page (Ashby)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/nox-metals)

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- [Production Supervisor (Weekday 2nd Shift - DET)](https://feeny.ai/job/production-supervisor-weekday-2nd-shift-det-nox-metals-ferndale-j384akngkkkg) — Ferndale
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