Senior Staff Global Supply Manager, Battery Cells

About the role

We are Sila, a next-generation battery materials company. Our mission is to power the world's transition to clean energy. We engineer and manufacture ground-breaking battery materials that significantly increase the energy density of batteries, while reducing their size and weight — enabling smaller, more powerful batteries that unlock innovation in consumer devices and accelerate mass adoption of electric cars.

As Senior Staff Global Supply Manager – Battery Cells, you will be the commercial engine executing our global strategy. You won't just manage suppliers; you will pioneer the supply chain for new battery architectures, scaling next-generation chemistries from the lab to mass production and enabling a new business vertical. This role sits at the intersection of advanced battery engineering, global economics, and complex commercial negotiations.

Responsibilities

• Pioneer & Scale Advanced Technologies (NPI Sourcing): Serve as commercial lead for New Product Introduction (NPI), working across Battery Engineering, Product Management, and Supply Chain to bring products from concept to scale.
• Technology Roadmapping: Partner across the organization to align technology roadmap with supplier capabilities.
• Industrialization: Evaluate and qualify supplier factory readiness, driving commercial alignment on line-speed, yield ramp schedules, and manufacturing tooling.
• Clear-to-Build (CTB) Management: Establish and drive CTB management across multi-tier supply chains — lead proactive line-by-line material readiness tracking, risk mitigation, and buffer management to eliminate component shortages, prevent factory downtime, and guarantee 100% material availability for NPI builds and volume mass production.
• Strategic Sourcing & Commercial Execution: Establish a multi-year commodity strategy, securing dedicated capacity and supply continuity for products.
• Complex Negotiations: Lead complex contractual negotiations, executing MSAs, SOWs, and long-term capacity reservation agreements across the supply chain.
• Innovative Commercial Models: Support execution of complex contracting frameworks to build a highly competitive and resilient supply base.
• Bottom-Up Cost Ownership: Build granular, bottom-up cost models factoring in raw material indices, conversion fees, electrode scrap rates, and energy tariffs.
• BOM Optimization: Drive aggressive year-over-year cost reductions in support of cost targets through cost engineering and Design for Cost (DFC) initiatives.
• Market Intelligence: Act as internal subject matter expert on market dynamics, capacity trends, and pricing models.
• Global Duty Minimization & Trade Cost Optimization: Leverage Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), bonded warehousing, inward processing relief, and duty drawback programs to legally minimize tariffs, VAT burdens, and landed cost across international trade routes.
• Risk Mitigation: Execute dual-sourcing and multi-region supply webs to guard critical products against geopolitical friction and logistics bottlenecks.
• Global Compliance: Ensure supplier compliance with global sustainability and regulatory requirements, mapping the tier-N supply chain to ensure adherence to FEOC (Foreign Entity of Concern) regulations, NDAA, Battery Passport standards, etc. as required.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Supply Chain, or a related technical discipline. Master's / MBA highly preferred.
• Experience: Minimum 8–12 years of progressive experience in strategic sourcing, commodity management, or supply chain.
• Domain Expertise: Familiarity with Li-ion manufacturing processes (coating, winding/stacking, formation) and understanding of cell contract manufacturing models and Tier 1 cell vendors.
• Commercial Mastery: Proven track record of independently negotiating complex international supply agreements, index-linked pricing formulas, and managing high-stakes supplier relationships.
• Analytical Acumen: Mastery of advanced cost modeling (Should-Cost/TCO), manufacturing economics, and raw material indexing. Comfort using data to communicate and drive executive decisions.
• Leadership & Drive: Entrepreneurial, scrappy, and highly collaborative. Exceptional ability to translate engineering requirements into commercial realities.

Travel

25–30% global travel required.

Physical Demands and Working Conditions

• Move long distances (such as from building to building) and be stationary for extended periods of time.
• Operate a computer and other office equipment (laptop, copier/printer, etc.) in a fixed location.

Pay

The starting base pay for this role is between $156,000 and $211,000 at the time of posting. Actual base pay depends on factors such as education, experience, and skills. Base pay is only one part of Sila's competitive Total Rewards package that can include benefits, perks, equity, and bonuses. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.