Head of Supply Chain

• Reports to: Co-founder & CTO
• Peers: Head of Manufacturing, Head of Quality
• Location: Watertown, MA, on-site
• Travel: ~25%, including regular trips to suppliers in China and Asia
• Compensation: $220,000–$280,000 base + equity

What you’ll own

Strategic sourcing and the Asia supply base
• Set commodity strategy across mechanical, electrical and electronic components
• Kill single sources on every critical component. Qualify second sources in China and lower-cost regions, and onshore where it makes sense
• Develop suppliers, not just buy from them: help them add capacity, fix yield and grow with us. Be on their floor
• Select and run contract manufacturers for subassemblies and future outsourced builds
• Negotiate contracts, pricing, index agreements and capacity reservations. Drive BOM cost down every quarter
Procurement and planning
• Own purchasing end to end
• Turn the deployment schedule and build plan into a supply plan: MRP, long-lead buys, safety stock and clear-to-build
• Own the systems that run it. Today that is our MES and a PLM we built in-house. You decide what we build, buy or automate next
Logistics and trade
• Inbound freight from Asia and outbound robot shipping to customer sites across the US and Canada
• Import, customs, tariffs and landed cost, plus regulated and hazmat shipping compliance
• 3PL partners
How you’ll work
• Inside NPI. Supply chain is at the table from first CAD, not handed a frozen BOM
• No silos. You’ll push back on designs that can’t be sourced at scale, and engineers will push back on you
• Build your own tools. Use AI and data to watch supplier risk, lead times and cost in real time, not in a monthly spreadsheet

The two systems you’ll build

You’ll design and build these with your team and AI, then run the company’s supply chain on them. Not bought off the shelf. Not run in spreadsheets.
1. Line-down prevention: the line never stops for a part
• Demand-to-dock visibility: one live view linking deployment schedule, build plan, BOM, inventory, open POs and supplier capacity
• Shortage early warning: flags any part that will stop the line well before it does, with an owner and recovery plan attached
• Supplier health scoring: delivery, quality, capacity headroom, single-source exposure, and financial and geopolitical risk for every critical supplier
• Automatic triggers: expedites, buffer stock and second-source activation kick in before a shortage, not after
• Clear-to-build: tells Manufacturing exactly what can be built and when, with no surprises at the line
2. Cost-down engine: cost goes down every quarter by design
• Should-cost models for every major component and assembly, so we negotiate from facts
• Savings pipeline tracking every idea (renegotiation, second source, design change, consolidation, localization) from proposal to realized savings
• True landed cost, including freight, duties and tariffs, so every sourcing decision runs on real numbers
• Design-for-supply loop that feeds cost and sourcing risk back into NPI so cost gets designed out early
• Quarterly cost roadmap reviewed with Engineering and Finance

What success looks like in year one

• 90 days: Supply base mapped by commodity, with risk, lead time and capacity for every critical part. Team hired or in flight
• 6 months: Second sources qualified and shipping for our highest-risk components. Supply base ready for our second product line’s in-house launch
• 12 months: No supplier limits a build at our target rate, with dual sources in place across critical components
• 12 months: BOM cost on a committed downward path, with a plan for the next year
• 12 months: Supply plan, supplier scorecards and cost tracked live, not rebuilt by hand

Your team

You’ll inherit a small, hands-on group and build the rest. Expect to own:
• Asia supply base and contract manufacturing: supplier development lead, supplier engineers in the US and China, a contract manufacturing program manager, and electronics sourcing
• Purchasing, planning and logistics roles as volume demands
We run a lean permanent core and scale with contractors. You decide the shape.

Who you are

• You’ve taken a hardware supply chain from startup to volume production, ideally in robotics, warehouse automation or other complex electromechanical systems
• You know electromechanical commodities, from fabricated and cast parts to electronics, motion and power
• You’ve developed suppliers in China and other low-cost regions, in person, and can tell a supplier that can scale from one that can’t
• You’ve selected and managed contract manufacturers, and taken real cost out through negotiation, value engineering and design changes
• You’ve led NPI sourcing from early design through production ramp
• You’ve built and led teams, and you still get your hands dirty
• You negotiate hard and keep the relationship
• You’re technical enough to challenge engineers on design-for-supply and earn their respect doing it

Strong signals

• You’ve stood up an ERP/MRP or supply chain tooling from nothing, and know when not to
• You use AI and automation in your own daily work, not just in slide decks
• You’ve moved work to integration partners or contract manufacturers and made it stick
• You’ve built reverse logistics, refurbishment or spares programs
• You’ve worked across US, Canada and Asia operations

This role is not for you if

• You need established processes, systems and a large team to be effective
• You want to manage suppliers from a dashboard and never visit their floor
• You think supply chain starts when Engineering releases the BOM

Benefits

• Fully employer-covered health insurance, so you’re protected without the premium.
• A managed 401(k) to help you plan for the future.
• Generous time off: unlimited PTO and all federal holidays off for full-time salaried employees, and 16+ days of accrued paid time off plus 1.5x pay on federal holidays for hourly employees.
• Regular in-office meals and team social events throughout the year.