Senior Technical Supply Chain Manager, Satellite Hardware

About the role

Reflect Orbital is hiring a Senior Technical Supply Chain Manager, Satellite Hardware to own sourcing, planning, purchasing, and fulfillment for the hardware that goes into our satellites. This is a hands-on senior IC role embedded with engineering and manufacturing. You’ll source suppliers, run RFQs, manage long-lead parts, place and track POs, resolve shortages, and build material-readiness visibility for spacecraft builds.

Responsibilities

• Own the direct supply chain for satellite flight hardware from prototype/NPI through production: sourcing, planning, purchasing, and fulfillment.
• Build and maintain the material plan for each spacecraft build, including long-lead items, critical-path parts, BOM readiness, inventory status, shortages, and supplier delivery dates.
• Source and qualify suppliers for custom and COTS satellite hardware across structures, composites, avionics, mechanisms, harnessing, PCBAs, machined parts, coatings, treatments, and other flight-critical components.
• Translate engineering drawings, BOMs, specs, and build schedules into clear RFQ packages; compare suppliers on cost, lead time, quality, capacity, responsiveness, and technical fit.
• Negotiate pricing, lead times, payment terms, expedite options, and production capacity while balancing speed, cost, reliability, and program risk.
• Place and manage purchase orders, track open orders, resolve supplier blockers, and ensure parts arrive when needed for engineering, test, and flight builds.
• Partner tightly with engineering, manufacturing, test, and quality to manage design changes, supplier questions, first-article readiness, inspection requirements, and build-critical shortages.
• Build the operating system for Reflect’s satellite hardware supply chain: approved supplier lists, lead-time tracking, material-readiness dashboards, PO discipline, shortage reviews, and supplier scorecards.
• Identify and reduce single-source, long-lead, and capacity risks through dual sourcing, supplier development, strategic buys, and better build planning.
• Visit suppliers when needed to assess capability, recover schedule, resolve technical/commercial issues, and build strong long-term supplier relationships.
• Be the person engineers trust to take supply chain work off their plate without losing technical context or slowing the build.

Requirements

• You have 5+ years of experience in technical sourcing, hardware supply chain, procurement, material planning, supplier industrialization, manufacturing operations, or NPI for complex hardware.
• You have owned direct supply chain for flight hardware or similarly high-reliability hardware: spacecraft, aerospace, robotics, automotive, defense, medical, energy, or complex electromechanical systems.
• You can read drawings, BOMs, specs, material callouts, tolerances, finishes, and supplier quotes well enough to identify manufacturability, cost, lead-time, and supply risk.
• You have personally run RFQs, found and qualified suppliers, negotiated quotes, placed POs, tracked delivery, and recovered late or high-risk parts.
• You understand material planning: long-lead tracking, BOM readiness, inventory, shortage management, MRP/ERP systems, purchase orders, work orders, and build schedules.
• You are comfortable operating both strategically and tactically: building supplier strategy in the morning and calling shops, chasing parts, or cleaning up PO issues in the afternoon.
• You communicate crisply with engineers, suppliers, technicians, leadership, and finance; you can push for better decisions without owning design authority.
• You move fast in ambiguous environments and can build lightweight systems before a perfect ERP/process exists.
• You have strong spreadsheet/data skills and ideally experience with ERP/MRP tools, Airtable/Notion-style systems, SQL, PowerBI, or AI tools for supplier research, quote analysis, and material tracking.

Qualifications

• Bonus: experience with satellite hardware, ITAR/EAR environments, first articles, supplier quality, aerospace manufacturing, composites, precision machining, PCBAs, harnesses, mechanisms, coatings, or thermal/structural hardware.

Skills

• Strong sourcing and negotiation skills.
• Experience with RFQs and supplier qualification.
• Ability to manage long-lead items and critical-path parts.
• Knowledge of MRP/ERP systems and purchase orders.
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work in ambiguous environments and build lightweight systems.
• Strong data and spreadsheet skills.

Benefits

Broad choice of medical/dental/vision coverage, Reflect covers 100% of each base-policy
Access to HSA, FSA, and 401K
Unlimited paid time off, two-weeks per year encouraged
Healthy lunches provided daily

Pay

TBD

Schedule

TBD