Supply Chain Manager, R&D

Fluidstack

$110K — $130K *
Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in sourcing long-lead engineered hardware.
  • Proven track record of qualifying second sources for critical components.
  • Experience collaborating with engineers to influence design for supply chain feasibility.
  • Strong ability to manage supplier relationships during prototype builds.
  • Demonstrated capability to analyze and challenge timelines based on lead times.
  • Bonus: Background in sourcing rotating machinery and precision components from aerospace or defense sectors.

Responsibilities

  • Own long-lead procurement for high-speed motors and other vital parts.
  • Qualify vendors to avoid single-source dependencies.
  • Simultaneously manage prototype and production sourcing.
  • Assess make-versus-buy decisions with engineering teams.
  • Ensure procurement aligns with an aggressive timeline, accelerating concept-to-production.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work on cutting-edge cooling solutions for high-demand applications.
  • Collaborative environment with a focus on innovation and problem-solving.
  • Potential for professional growth in a pioneering R&D team.
  • Engagement in projects that directly impact company scalability and efficiency.
Full Job Description
The Thermofluids R&D Team

Examples of key problems the team is working on
  • Reject more than 10 gigawatts of heat, starting now. Fluidstack is targeting 10 GW of compute in 2027 and 30 GW the year after. Every watt of it becomes heat that has to go somewhere, and no cooling team has ever been asked to open at that number rather than grow into it.
  • Design and build the machines, because nobody can supply them. The merchant compressor market cannot deliver at this rate, and the vendor base behind today's chillers will not scale to gigawatts. We are taking compressor and chiller design in house, working on machine architectures nobody sells today, and going from blank sheet to production faster than this industry thinks is possible.
  • Own every thermofluids problem behind the fleet, not just the chiller. Working fluid and cycle architecture, heat exchangers at a scale that dominates the cost of the plant, two-phase heat transfer at the chip, and thermal energy storage. All of it is open, and whatever this team lands gets built thousands of times.
Role Scope
  • Own long-lead procurement for the compressor program: high-speed motors, magnetic bearings, forgings, castings, pressure vessels and test instrumentation.
  • Qualify and dual-source the vendors sitting on the critical path, where a single motor or bearing lead time can set the prototype date for the whole program.
  • Buy for the prototype and the production ramp at the same time, so the first machine does not quietly lock the fleet into a sole source.
  • Run the make-versus-buy calls with engineering, including which parts come off our own floor and which go outside.
  • Keep procurement off the critical path of a schedule that runs concept to production far faster than this industry does.


What We're Looking For

The below is a starting point. We always make space for exceptional people, so if you don't fit this role exactly, tell us where you would.
  • You've bought long-lead engineered hardware where the lead time, not the unit price, was the thing that decided the program.
  • You've qualified a second source for a part that everyone told you could only come from one place.
  • You've sat with engineers early enough to change a design for supply reasons, rather than being handed a finished BOM and a date.
  • You've carried a supplier through a prototype build while the drawings changed underneath them, and kept the relationship intact.
  • You've told a program its date was wrong and brought the lead-time evidence that settled the argument.
  • Bonus: Rotating machinery and precision-machined component sourcing. Aerospace or defense supply base (precision machine shops, forgings, castings, long-lead alloys). Motors, drives and bearings. Pressure equipment and specialist fabrication. Prototype-to-production transitions in hardware startups.


We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

You will receive a confirmation email once your application has successfully been accepted. If there is an error with your submission and you did not receive a confirmation email, please email [redacted] with your resume/CV, the role you've applied for, and the date you submitted your application-- someone from our recruiting team will be in touch.

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