Head of Sensors & Radar Strategic Supply Chain

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Enterprise Supply Chain Vision & Strategy: Define and execute multi-year global sourcing strategies across complex sensor domains, including Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESA), millimeter-wave radar,…
• Team Leadership & Scale: Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of commodity managers, strategic sourcing leads, and technical sourcing engineers across multiple global sites.
• Supplier Relationship Management: Drive deep sub-tier visibility beyond Tier 1. Manage investments in supplier-owned tooling, cleanroom allocations, precision optical fabrication machinery (MRF, diamond turning), and…
• Cross-Functional Engineering Alignment: Partner directly with Optical Engineers, RF/Antenna Designers, and Sensor Architecture teams during early-stage R&D/NPI to qualify state-of-the-art detector technology, influence…
• Commercial & Strategic Negotiations: Lead high-stakes negotiations for master service agreements (MSAs), development agreements, long-term supply agreements (LTSAs), and complex statement of works (SOWs)—optimizing…
• Supply Chain Resilience & Risk Mitigation: Proactively identify single-source dependencies, geopolitical vulnerabilities, and capacity constraints.
• Cost Architecture & TCO Modeling: Champion robust "should-cost" modeling, teardown analyses, and TCO evaluations to optimize value from concept through end-of-life.
• Executive Communication: Conduct regular operational and strategic reviews with C-suite and executive leadership, serving as the primary executive escalation point for all critical supply chain matters.

Job requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Operations, Business, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in optical & radar strategic sourcing, global commodity management, or supply chain leadership within complex hardware manufacturing environments.
• 5+ years of proven experience building, managing, and scaling high-performing procurement or supply chain teams.
• Demonstrated expertise negotiating enterprise-level agreements and managing electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) architectures, radar/RF sub-tier manufacturing (T/R modules, phased arrays), or precision optics fabrication.
• Proven track record of managing supplier lifecycles and negotiating complex multi-million-dollar commercial agreements.
• Deep understanding of New Product Introduction (NPI) workflows and scaling from prototype to high-rate production.
• Ability to travel up to 25%-50% domestically and internationally as needed.
• Ability to relocate, if not already local to be onsite in Costa Mesa.