Hardware Procurement & Supply Chain Strategist

Alpaca Research; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Alpaca Research is building a bold, end-to-end supply chain from day zero. As the Procurement and Supply Chain Associate, you’ll work with our Engineering team to decide which technical components to buy, negotiate with IP vendors and suppliers, and model price, lead time, and volume breaks to scale production.

Within the first month, you’ll learn the hardware architecture, develop a BOM cost model with lead times and risks, identify 2–3 suppliers per critical component, and present a sourcing

Qualifications

• Strong sourcing and procurement ability, ideally for electronics or hardware: RFQs, MOQs, price breaks, and supplier negotiation.
• Good technical judgment. You can read a BOM and discuss memory, FPGA/ASIC, boards, power, and enclosures.

Responsibilities

• Figure out what technical components are required from team leads.
• Acquire and negotiate with IP vendors.
• Acquire and negotiate with suppliers (RFQs, MOQ, price, etc).
• Propose our BOM and model price, lead time, volume breaks per unit.
• Outline a robust procurement process, PO, inventory, and delivery tracking.

Skills

Sourcing

Procurement

Negotiation

Supply chain

Cost modeling

Tools

ERP systems

Spreadsheet modeling

Job description

Alpaca Research is building a bold, end-to-end supply chain from day zero. As the Procurement and Supply Chain Associate, you’ll work with our Engineering team to decide which technical components to buy, negotiate with IP vendors and suppliers, and model price, lead time, and volume breaks to scale production.

Within the first month, you’ll learn the hardware architecture, develop a BOM cost model with lead times and risks, identify 2–3 suppliers per critical component, and present a sourcing