Case Study: Hadrian

Hadrian was founded in 2021 to provide vertically integrated, highly automated manufacturing for defense and aerospace parts, components, and full systems. Hadrian designs, builds, and runs semi-autonomous, AI-driven production cells using advanced machinery and relying on a frontline workforce of more than 100 technicians, many of whom are hired with little or no prior experience. The company invests intensively in a comprehensive and ongoing training program to equip entry-level workers with the necessary skills to succeed and progress in their careers.

How Hadrian Hires

As Hadrian describes the factory technician role in its job postings, “The ideal candidate will be someone who is passionate about aerospace or defense manufacturing with a curiosity for how things are made. In this role you receive thorough on the job training for various stations throughout the factory therefore willingness to learn and follow training procedure is more important than industry experience.”

In 2025, Hadrian hired 45 technicians from 893 applicants. New employees find the company through traditional job postings as well as its strong presence at local community colleges and high schools. In Los Angeles, the location of its first factory, Hadrian’s most successful partnerships have been with high schools, but building those relationships has required a major investment in showing seriousness and establishing credibility with school leaders, who are rightly protective of their students. Hadrian offers students paid summer internships.

As of today, all factory technician positions start between $18 and $20 per hour plus comprehensive benefits, regardless of prior experience.

How Hadrian Trains

Hadrian regards its Workforce Development Program (WDP) as a core investment and a competitive advantage. The program’s backbone is its full-time staff of 11, of which half have teaching backgrounds and half come from other sectors where training and development are a primary focus—the military, in many cases, and also fast food, an industry known for instilling an emphasis on consistency and quality in large numbers of entry-level workers. Mike Stopper, who leads training at Hadrian’s Los Angeles factory, joined the company after serving as a marksmanship instructor in the U.S. Marine Corps. “I loved working with new recruits in boot camp, and I was looking for that same kind of role post-military,” he says. “My specialty was teaching, not manufacturing.”

New technician hires initially report to a member of the workforce development team, all of whom are present on the shop floor and work alongside the production supervisors. As Hadrian scales rapidly, the volume of new hires–each requiring cultural adjustment to a manufacturing environment–places significant demand on operational leaders already balancing intense technical workloads and troubleshooting. Technicians and engineers are highly skilled in manufacturing, but not necessarily in coaching or in dealing with the kinds of personal issues that often prevent new hires from succeeding. “Workforce development acts as a true partner to both people ops and operational leadership,” explains Armand Latreille, a senior director with Hadrian. “We’ve hired them for their emotional intelligence and their backgrounds in education and that pedagogical experience lets them apply real structure to the onboarding process and tackle cultural challenges head-on, like helping someone understand why showing up on time matters.”

For Hadrian, the “skills gap” that it encounters with new employees is not the ability to program machines—that can be taught—but a more fundamentally flawed understanding of the workplace itself, which is often intensified by social media. “The skills gap comes down to seeing the workplace as a learning environment,” says Latreille. “You have to be willing to engage with the society that your workers live in, and build trust.” Stopper agrees. “I care more about your soft skills post-training than your ability to work some machine,” he says. “That takes care of itself. I know we can teach you to be an effective operator.”

Technicians spend their first 30 days in on-the-job learning, rotating through major stations of the factory and attending mandatory classroom sessions that cover skills like reading blueprints and measuring. Frequent rotation helps to set the expectation that all workers will be pushed hard and out of their comfort zone, ensuring that all come to see the workplace as a place for continual collaboration and growth. The team leverages a formal process to help identify potential top performers, but they are not the program’s primary concern, notes Latreille. “They’ll figure it out. What I care about is the middle 60%; that’s where investing resources makes the difference between success and failure.” After the initial instruction period of 30 days, the typical technician moves into a role reporting directly to a production supervisor. 

Hadrian recently opened its second factory, a 290,000-square-foot facility in Mesa, Arizona that will employ 350 full-time workers once fully operational. It is currently hiring between 10 and 20 new technicians each month and expects to double the size of the WDP team this year. Brian Rocco, a technician hired in December, describes the dramatic difference between his prior experience in the construction industry and the environment at Hadrian. “I’m always looking for opportunities to advance and they’ve opened so many doors,” he says. “I’ve always considered situations like this an investment on both sides. It gets me fired up every day.” 

Key Lessons

• Innovative manufacturers treat workforce development as a competitive advantage and invest in training processes in the same way as cutting-edge production processes.
• Recruiting begins with high-quality engagement in the public education system and creation of challenging environments for upper-secondary and community-college students; workforce development boards can be most helpful in facilitating direct engagement between employers and schools.
• An effective training and development program puts experienced teachers and trainers in charge of hiring and then supervising new hires.
• Public incentives should always be tied to job quality, not just number of jobs, and implementation by participating employers of comprehensive talent plans.