This role equips the Supply Chain team with qualified suppliers, negotiated pricing, and established commercial terms.
The role works directly with hardware engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, quality, and program management, engaging during new product introduction to influence component selection, design-to-cost, manufacturability, testability, lifecycle risk, and sourceability ahead of release.
The Global Supply Manager represents Supply Chain throughout the NPI lifecycle and is accountable for ensuring sourcing, capacity, cost, supplier qualification, and material readiness support program phase gates and build schedules.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Own commodity strategy for PCB fabrication, PCBA/EMS, wire harness and cable assembly, compute modules, sensors and perception hardware, and board-level components.
Define the supply-base architecture for each commodity, including prototype partner, volume partner, regional alternate, and the triggers that move work between them.
Create and run RFQs and RFPs, and lead supplier selection and contract award.
Develop should-cost models addressing real cost drivers, including layer count, panel utilization, placement count, test strategy, connector and terminal selection, and labor content.
Negotiate pricing, NRE, tooling, minimum order quantities, NCNR commitments, capacity reservations, and commercial terms, and own MSAs, LTAs, and tooling ownership agreements.
Own commodity cost targets and multi-year cost-reduction roadmaps, including design-to-cost, supplier negotiations, VA/VE, alternate components, manufacturing-process improvements, and volume-based pricing.
Maintain costed-BOM visibility for assigned commodities and identify gaps and opportunities against program-level BOM cost targets.
Drive dual and multi-source coverage on critical content and own the roadmap that builds redundancy into single-sourced supply.
Build and maintain AVL/AML strategy including qualification criteria and geographic footprint requirements.
Own component-level supply-risk strategy, including allocation management, lead-time volatility, NCNR exposure, EOL and last-time-buy events, lifecycle status, sole-source dependencies, and alternate-part qualification.
Assess and mitigate country-of-origin, tariff, export-control, geopolitical, and regional-concentration risk across the electronics supply base.
Develop sourcing strategies that support Apptronik country-of-origin, FCC, tariff, localization, and domestic-content requirements, including BOM-level COO visibility and the development of compliant alternate sources where required.
Ensure suppliers are prepared to support prototype builds, pilot builds, and production ramp on schedule.
Engage with engineering during new product introduction to influence component selection, DFM/DFT, and sourceability ahead of release.
Own supplier performance for assigned commodities, including scorecards, business reviews, and supplier development plans.
Present award recommendations, cost reviews, cost-reduction strategies, and critical supply risks to engineering and executive leadership.
Transition awarded suppliers to buyer/planners with documented pricing, lead times, terms, and escalation paths.
SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS
Required
Direct ownership of electronics commodities in a strategic sourcing, commodity management, or global supply management capacity.
Deep hands-on experience in at least two of: PCB fabrication, PCBA/EMS, wire harness and cable assembly, compute hardware, sensors.
Proven should-cost modeling capability and a negotiation track record with quantified results on electronics categories.
Demonstrated experience developing commodity cost roadmaps and driving design-to-cost, VA/VE, and cost-reduction initiatives jointly with engineering.
Experience developing and qualifying suppliers internationally, including managing regional footprint and concentration risk.
Ability to read schematics, BOMs, fabrication and harness drawings, and test specifications, and to engage electrical engineering on technical detail.
Experience managing semiconductor and electronic-component allocation, long-lead materials, NCNR commitments, lifecycle risk, EOL events, and last-time buys.
Experience owning commercial agreements end to end.
Strong spreadsheet and modeling skills.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including presenting to executive leadership.
Preferred
Strong record of applying first-principles thinking to supplier negotiations.
Track record of managing successful escalations to the executive level within a supplier.
Experience qualifying and scaling a prototype supplier into a production supplier.
Experience managing large suppliers through new product development in a high-change environment.
Robotics, automotive, aerospace, medical device, or high-mix electromechanical background.
Familiarity with PLM and ERP/MRP data flows for electronic components and with AVL/AML management.
Experience with Teamcenter or equivalent PLM environment, including BOM revision, AVL/AML, and engineering-change workflows.
Experience managing country-of-origin, localization, tariff, domestic-content, and supply-chain compliance requirements.
Experience with APQP, PPAP, or equivalent supplier production-readiness methodologies.
Working knowledge of IPC standards (IPC-A-610, IPC/WHMA-A-620, IPC-6012) and electronics test strategies including flying probe and in-circuit test.
Component obsolescence and lifecycle management experience.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Business, or related field
At least 7 years of experience in strategic sourcing, commodity management, or global supply management with direct ownership of electronics commodities
Experience supporting hardware products through NPI and transition to volume production strongly preferred.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
Prolonged periods of standing and walking
Periods of sitting at a workstation and working on a computer
Ability to safely lift and/or move approximately 15 pounds at times.
Ability to move throughout operational areas and maintain awareness of surrounding people, equipment, and robotic systems.
Visual ability necessary to operate equipment, monitor robotic systems, and read printed and digital material including engineering drawings
Ability to communicate effectively with team members during normal operations and when responding to safety or operational concern
Ability to walk manufacturing floors and use required personal protective equipment during supplier audits and site visits
Ability to travel domestically and internationally, averaging 25% per year including supplier manufacturing sites
This is a direct hire. Please, no outside Agency solicitations.
Apptronik provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
