About the RoleReflect 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.
This is direct satellite hardware supply chain - not office, facilities, or generic corporate procurement. Your job is to take supply chain work off engineers' plates without losing technical context or speed.
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.
Ideal Qualifications- You have 5+ years of experience in technical sourcing, hardware supply chain, procurement, material planning, supplier industrialization, manufacturing operations, or NPI for complex hardware. We care more about demonstrated ownership than years.
- 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.
- 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.
Even if you don't meet 100% of the above qualifications, we are likely still interested in hearing from you. Hiring exceptional individuals is our #1 priority, and we believe that exceptional people often have highly unusual backgrounds.
We are also interested in carving out unique roles for unconventional people that we are excited about working with.
BenefitsReflect Orbital's success will hinge on our team, which is why our compensation and benefits plan is designed to reward our employees and support their families as generously as we're able.
- 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
