Global Supply Manager, Mechanicals
About the role
The Global Supply Manager will oversee sourcing and supplier strategy for mechanical components and assemblies, including enclosures, thermal hardware, structural components, racks, and custom fabrication. The role involves building and managing Etched’s global supply base for critical mechanical systems, ensuring high-performance hardware delivery with tight tolerances, aggressive thermal requirements, and rapid production ramps.
Key Responsibilities
Develop and execute sourcing strategies for mechanical components and assemblies, including sheet metal, CNC machined parts, castings, extrusions, and rack-level enclosures.
Build and manage relationships with fabrication partners, contract manufacturers, and integrators across regions.
Negotiate pricing, tooling, NREs, and long-term supply agreements for complex mechanical systems.
Partner closely with Mechanical and Thermal Engineering teams on design decisions, DFM, material selection, and supplier qualification.
Drive cost modeling, should-cost analysis, and benchmarking for fabricated and assembled mechanical components.
Ensure suppliers can meet tight tolerances, flatness requirements, cosmetic standards, and thermal/mechanical performance specifications.
Identify and mitigate supply risks related to capacity, tooling lead times, yield, and regional concentration.
Align sourcing strategies with NPI schedules, product ramps, and datacenter deployment timelines.
Support build readiness, pilot builds, and ramp by coordinating closely with manufacturing and program management.
Present sourcing strategies, cost tradeoffs, and supply risks to executive leadership.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Supply Chain, or related field.
7+ years of experience in sourcing or commodity management for mechanical components in hardware systems.
Strong understanding of fabrication processes including sheet metal, CNC machining, die casting, extrusion, and finishing processes.
Experience working with mechanical engineering teams on DFM, tolerancing, and material selection.
Proven track record managing complex supplier relationships and negotiating high-value contracts.
Strong analytical skills in cost modeling, should-cost analysis, and BOM evaluation.
Ability to operate in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and make critical decisions with limited data.
Experience managing global suppliers, particularly across Asia.
How We’re Different
Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system, betting early on transformer and transformer-like architectures and on increasing model sizes. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors. We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.