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Salary: USD 0 - 138,000 / annual
LeoLabs is building a global radar network and AI-enabled analytics platform for space domain awareness, tracking over 25,000 objects in low Earth orbit. The company provides radar-powered intelligence to protect assets, monitor adversarial behavior, and ensure safe operations for commercial and government space missions.
You will join the Radar Supply Chain Management team as a Buyer, owning day-to-day purchasing execution for recurring production demand, released BOM requirements, and program-critical materials supporting advanced radar and sensing systems. This role translates MRP requirements, production schedules, approved requisitions, and program priorities into timely purchasing actions that ensure material availability for manufacturing, integration, test, and deployment.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own production purchasing execution for assigned suppliers, commodities, and BOM requirements from approved demand through receipt and PO closeout, with accountability for material availability, supplier commitments, cost, and delivery performance.
- Review MRP action messages, released BOM requirements, approved requisitions, shortage reports, and production priorities; execute required purchase, release, expedite, de-expedite, reschedule, cancellation, and quantity-change actions.
- Execute RFQs, quote evaluations, cost and price analysis, and commercial negotiations for pricing, lead times, MOQs, payment terms, NCNR exposure, and delivery requirements within established sourcing strategies.
- Manage the full purchase order lifecycle, including order placement, supplier acknowledgements, commit-date validation, change orders, partial shipments, delivery tracking, expedites, de-expedites, recovery actions, receipt, and closeout.
- Partner with Supply Planning, Inventory, Manufacturing, and Engineering to resolve shortages, engineering changes, part revisions, obsolescence, quality holds, substitutions, and other production constraints.
- Monitor supplier delivery, purchase price variance, open commitments, lead-time risk, capacity constraints, allocations, and sole-source exposure; establish recovery plans and escalate risks before they impact production.
- Maintain accurate supplier commitments and purchasing data in the ERP system, including pricing, quantities, promise dates, lead times, revisions, and order status.
- Own supplier recovery for past-due and production-short material, including escalation, alternate delivery plans, partial shipments, and corrective actions.
- Represent Procurement in production-readiness, shortage, MRP, and material-review meetings and communicate supplier constraints, recovery dates, and purchasing risks to cross-functional stakeholders.
- Coordinate purchasing actions associated with engineering changes, substitutions, and part obsolescence to prevent invalid demand from converting into purchase commitments.
You will work closely with Strategic Sourcing, Supply Planning, Inventory, Manufacturing, and Engineering to execute production purchases within established sourcing strategies and the approved supply base.
Within the first month, you will review the assigned portfolio, baseline supplier commitments and purchasing data gaps, and confirm ownership and escalation paths. Within three months, you will independently manage assigned production and program purchases and drive recovery plans for priority items. Within six months, you will lead complex, high-value, long-lead, and production-critical purchases and implement purchasing improvements. Within twelve months, you will maintain reliable procurement execution across the assigned portfolio and scale purchasing practices to support increased production volume and hardware complexity.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in supply chain management, Business, Operations, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- 5+ years of progressive purchasing, procurement, or buying experience supporting production or manufacturing operations, including responsibility for material availability, supplier commitments, and production schedules.
- Demonstrated experience managing direct-material procurement in a production environment, including materials, components, assemblies, equipment, or manufacturing services.
- Strong experience managing the full purchase order lifecycle, including RFQs, quote evaluation, negotiations, order placement, supplier acknowledgements, delivery follow-up, change management, and closeout.
- Working knowledge of BOMs, MRP, production schedules, lead-time management, inventory considerations, and engineering change processes.
- Ability to perform cost and price analysis and negotiate pricing, lead times, MOQs, payment terms, and delivery commitments.
- Proficiency with ERP/MRP systems and Excel, with the ability to maintain accurate purchasing, pricing, supplier, and delivery data.
- Strong analytical, organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage multiple production-critical priorities and supplier escalations.
- Ability to work effectively across Planning, Inventory, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Accounting in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
- Eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. Personnel Security Clearance.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Background in purchasing electronic components, mechanical parts, assemblies, fabricated components, or other technical direct materials.
- Familiarity with aerospace, defense, electronics, RF, radar, satellite, space, or other high-reliability hardware production environments.
- Demonstrated success purchasing for low-volume, high-complexity production environments with long-lead, constrained, allocated, or obsolete materials.
- Experience leading supplier recovery, shortage mitigation, allocation management, or delivery improvement efforts for production-critical material.
- Hands-on experience with NetSuite and procurement reporting or purchasing-performance tools.
- CPSM, CPIM, CSCP, or equivalent supply chain/procurement certification.
- Experience supporting classified programs or working with suppliers in secure environments.
