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Sereact builds AI-driven robotics systems for industrial automation, combining robot arms, adaptive grippers, AI vision, and vision-language-action models to handle pick-and-place and returns-handling in warehouses and factories. The company is scaling from ~50 units annually to several hundred units, requiring a transition to external contract manufacturing.
You will own the complete supply chain and hardware operations function, reporting directly to the CEO. Working with the Director of Hardware Product Engineering & Industrialization, you will take frozen designs through a Design-Transfer Gate into repeatable volume production and deliver quality-assured units to customers across the EU and US.
Key responsibilities include:
**Contract Manufacturing & Industrialization:** Move gripper, cell, cabinet, and final assembly to external contract manufacturers and EMS partners. Transform frozen designs into repeatable volume production with ramp plans, build instructions, and jigs. Execute a first pilot build of grippers outside the facility within 90 days.
**Supplier Management & Quality:** Select, negotiate, and manage suppliers with commercial terms and capacity planning. Build redundancy for critical single points of failure (e.g., robot arms, long-lead parts). Own incoming inspection, supplier quality, first-article inspection, PPM targets, and the manufacturing side of the RMA process.
**Planning, Inventory & Logistics:** Build S&OP, forecasting, and buffer stock strategies to stage parts weeks ahead of deployment. Reduce supplier lead times and maintain demo and fleet hardware availability. Own shipping and import/export across EU and US.
**Cost & Operating Model:** Own hardware unit cost and drive COGS reduction over time. Implement the split between bespoke builds and standardized product lines operationally. Establish supply chain operating model, KPIs, and review cadence.
**Requirements:**
- 10+ years in supply chain, manufacturing, or hardware operations, including several years in a leadership role
- Proven track record taking complex electromechanical products from prototype to hundreds of units per year with sustained production post-ramp
- Experience standing up outsourced contract manufacturing, supplier quality, logistics, and inventory from scratch in a scaleup or growth-stage company
- Degree in engineering, supply chain, operations, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Hands-on supplier management (selection, negotiation, quality)
- Manufacturing quality, NPI, and industrialization expertise
- Supply and demand planning and inventory management
- Ability to install operating discipline, accountability, and KPIs in fast-moving, resource-constrained environments
- Fluent English and willingness to travel to suppliers and customer sites
**Nice to Have:**
- Robotics, warehouse automation, AMRs, or autonomous vehicle experience
- Experience turning demos and pilots into repeatable production deployments
- Design-to-cost and DfM collaboration with product engineering
- German fluency
