Materials Manager, Mechanical (Manufacturing)

Fluidstack; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 239,000 - 278,000; Full time

Job summary

Fluidstack in Austin is seeking a senior supply chain professional to own sourcing for mechanical categories feeding manufacturing. You will lock supply and lead times against the build plan, and qualify suppliers with engineering input to ensure PPAP-style approvals.

You will negotiate multi-year agreements, manage supplier performance data, and drive capacity commitments to support 10x volume growth in a rapidly expanding AI compute infrastructure company.

Qualifications

• Sourcing mechanical categories and managing supplier relationships.
• Reading drawings and specs to challenge quotes.
• Qualifying suppliers under time pressure with essential steps.
• Securing capacity in constrained markets and tracking on-time delivery and lead times.

Responsibilities

• Own sourcing for mechanical manufacturing categories.
• Lock supply and lead times against the build plan.
• Qualify suppliers with engineering: first articles; PPAP-style approvals.
• Negotiate multi-year agreements to protect price and priority as volumes grow.

Skills

Sourcing for mechanical categories

Supplier relationship management

Reading drawings and specs

Negotiation with suppliers

Capacity planning under constraints

Job description

About Fluidstack

We exist to make humanity more free. For most of human history, you farmed or you starved. Technology gave people more time for the things they wanted to do, instead of things they had to do. Powerful AI will be the biggest lever for human choice we've ever built - but only if models are aligned with what humanity actually wants. There are groups building AI who don't share these goals. Whoever deploys frontier compute infrastructure fastest will decide whether AI expands human freedom or shrinks it.

We're singularly focused on delivering 10 to 100s of GWs of compute faster than anyone else, rethinking every layer of the stack. We acquire power, design and build data centers, and operate them - with teams spanning hardware and software. Speed and scale are our key differentiators. Come be a part of building civilization-scale infrastructure for AI.

We hire people who care deeply about this problem space. If that is you, please apply!

How We Operate

• Extreme ownership. Full autonomy. Own things end to end often taking on scope outside your core role without being asked to get things done.
• Velocity. We drive everything forward as fast as possible.
• First principles. Challenge every assumption. Zero analogy thinking, no egos, the best idea wins.
• Love of the game. The frontier of AI is the most interesting problem of our time. We put in long hours at high intensity to push the frontier forward.

The Supply Chain Team

Examples of key problems the team is working on

• Supply tens of gigawatts of compute, the largest build out of compute in history. Qualify and dual‑source across every critical equipment category, with lead‑time and capacity thresholds tied directly to the forward build pipeline.
• Make supply chain the reason we build faster than anyone. Our modular build redefines speed in this industry, and it lives or dies on supply chain. Keep procurement permanently off the critical path so schedule compression stays our advantage, not our constraint.
• Build the most accurate supply chain prediction modelling that exists. Use the frontier of AI to forecast lead times, demand, and disruption with a precision the industry has never had, and turn that foresight into a structural edge.

Role Scope

• Own sourcing for mechanical categories feeding manufacturing: steel, fabrications, cooling components, and mechanical assemblies.
• Lock supply and lead times against the build plan, with capacity commitments that survive demand spikes.
• Qualify suppliers technically with engineering: first articles, PPAP‑style approvals, and audits.
• Negotiate multi‑year agreements that hold price and priority as volumes grow 10x.

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 sourced mechanical or fabricated categories for a manufacturer and owned the supplier relationships.
• You read drawings and specs well enough to challenge a quote line by line.
• You've qualified new suppliers under time pressure without skipping the steps that matter.
• You've secured capacity in constrained markets.
• You manage suppliers on data: on‑time delivery, PPM, and lead‑time performance.
• Bonus: Steel and fabrication markets. Cooling and thermal components. Should‑cost modeling. Supplier development.

We are committed to pay equity and transparency.

Compensation Range: $239K - $278K

Fluidstack is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Fluidstack will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records pursuant to applicable law.