Supply Chain Manager Jobs in Rutherford, NJ (NOW HIRING)

As Senior Supply Chain Manager, Robotics Hardware for Fauna, you will build and lead the supply chain capability required to move complex robotic systems from development into scalable production. This is a hands-on leadership role spanning strategic sourcing, supplier development, materials planning, inventory control, contract manufacturer coordination, and logistics. You will personally drive execution in an early-stage hardware environment while building the function, supplier relationships, processes, and team for scale.

In the near term, you will own critical category sourcing, negotiate directly with prototype and production suppliers, and drive day-to-day material shortage resolution. In parallel, you will design the long-term supply chain architecture, operating model, and team structure. Success requires earning trust across engineering, manufacturing, finance, and operations by delivering results, communicating transparently, and building mechanisms teams can depend on.

Key job responsibilities
Supply Chain Function Building
- Build the supply chain operating model for robotics hardware development, pilot builds, and production ramp
- Define ownership boundaries across sourcing, procurement, planning, inventory, logistics, supplier quality, and contract manufacturing
- Establish scalable processes for supplier onboarding, AVL management, BOM readiness, PO execution, shortage management, and inventory governance
- Create the metrics, dashboards, and operating processes needed to manage supplier performance, material availability, cost, and supply risk
- Define the future supply chain organization, including role scope, hiring needs, and handoff points as Fauna scales
- Hire, mentor, and manage supply chain contributors and contractors as the team grows
Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Development
- Develop and execute sourcing strategies across mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical categories
- Own supplier selection, qualification, onboarding, and long-term development for critical components
- Negotiate pricing, lead times, MOQs, payment terms, NRE, tooling, and capacity commitments with domestic and international suppliers
- Develop and maintain AVL strategies, including alternate sources for critical or sole-sourced components
- Partner with engineering during NPI to influence component selection toward manufacturability, availability, cost, and supply resilience
- Build supplier scorecards, manage performance, and drive corrective actions for chronic delivery, quality, or responsiveness issues
- Materials Planning & Inventory Management
- Establish planning processes that translate build plans, forecasts, and BOM requirements into material plans, procurement actions, and supplier commitments
- Manage inventory strategy to balance build readiness, working capital, and obsolescence risk
- Track material availability, shortage risk, and delivery commitments against engineering and production schedules; drive resolution through supplier escalation, alternate sourcing, expedites, and engineering substitutions
- Improve BOM, MRP, and inventory data integrity in partnership with engineering, manufacturing, and finance
Contract Manufacturer & Production Materials Execution
- Lead supply chain coordination with contract manufacturing partners, including material readiness, kitting, consigned versus turnkey decisions, and production support
- Monitor supplier OTD, component yield, and incoming quality; drive corrective actions for production-impacting constraints
- Own the end-to-end PO lifecycle from requisition through receipt, reconciliation, and closure
- Directly manage critical transactions where needed during early-stage execution, while building processes and team capacity to scale
Cost, Risk & Operational Readiness
- Lead cost reduction efforts through negotiation, re-sourcing, supplier consolidation, should-cost analysis, and design-to-cost partnership with engineering
- Identify and manage supply chain risks including sole-source exposure, supplier capacity, geopolitical risk, logistics constraints, and obsolescence
- Build and improve supply chain tools and systems from development through production, including ERP/MRP setup or optimization
- Manage inbound logistics, freight strategy, and customs coordination as needed
About the team
Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, is building capable, safe, and intuitive robots for everyday life. Our goal is simple: make robots people actually want to live and interact with in everyday human spaces.
We believe the future of robotics won't arrive until building for it becomes far more accessible.

Today, too much effort is spent reinventing the fundamentals. We're changing that by developing tightly integrated hardware and software systems that make it faster, safer, and more intuitive to create real-world robotic products.
Our work spans the full stack: mechanical design, control systems, dynamic modeling, and intelligent software.

The focus is not just functionality, but experience. We're building robots that feel responsive, expressive, and genuinely useful.
At Fauna, you'll work at the frontier of this space, helping define how robots move, manipulate, and interact with people in natural environments.

It's an opportunity to solve hard problems across hardware and software with a team focused on making robotics accessible and rewarding to build.