About the Role Gravitics is looking for a Buyer/Material Specialist to support the procurement and material planning needs of our mechanical and structural hardware supply chain. You will be responsible for sourcing components, managing supplier relationships, and maintaining the Bills of Material (BOM) and aligning with production scheduling to keep our build programs on track. This is a hands-on, cross-functional role that works closely with Engineering, Production, and Finance to ensure the right parts arrive on time, at the right cost, and at the right quality to support our aggressive hardware development timelines.
About You As the Buyer/Material Specialist, you'll be the bridge between Engineering, Production, and our supplier base - translating technical designs and requirements into sourced, scheduled, and delivered hardware. You will own the procurement lifecycle from issuing the purchase order through material receipt, proactively mitigating supply chain risks to maintain uninterrupted production schedules.
Responsibilities Technical Procurement
- Source mechanical, structural, and related hardware across Gravitics' space structure and habitat programs, often on expedited or compressed lead times
- Issue and manage purchase orders, RFQs/RFPs, and supplier quotes, ensuring alignment with technical specifications and drawings
- Negotiate pricing, terms, and contracts with suppliers to drive year-over-year cost reductions and favorable payment/delivery terms
- Own supplier onboarding, qualification, and performance management, with Quality department support, including on-site visits to monitor supplier health, capacity, and quality
- Serve as the primary point of contact between suppliers and internal stakeholders, resolving delivery, quality, and invoicing issues quickly
Material Planning
- Own and maintain Bills of Material (BOM) for mechanical and structural assemblies within your commodity area
- Partner with Engineering and Production to lead clear-to-build reviews and ensure long-lead items are flagged and managed proactively
- Track inventory levels and flow of materials to prevent shortages or excess while supporting high-mix, growing production volume
- Build and maintain internal reporting/analytics (spend, on-time delivery, lead times) to track supply chain performance and surface risks early
Required Qualifications - 5+ years in supply chain, procurement, or materials planning (aerospace/defense/hardware manufacturing preferred)
- Experience with technical procurement of mechanical/structural commodities
- Ability to read engineering drawings and manage BOMs
- Strong negotiation and cross-functional communication skills
- Comfortable in a fast-paced, ambiguous startup environment
- Able to travel to suppliers (~25%)
Bonus Points for - Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
- ERP/MRP or SQL experience
- AS9100 or NPI environment experience
Compensation and Benefits Your level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the considerations of job-related knowledge and skills, education, and direct experience. Salary is just one component of the total employee package, which also includes company equity at an exciting time of company growth, as well as comprehensive medical, 401(k) retirement plan, a generous PTO policy, employee discounts, and more.
Salary Range
$70,000-$95,000 USD
