Procurement Specialist

Kelly Science, Engineering, Technology & Telecom; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 95,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Equity package

Job summary

Kelly Engineering in South San Francisco, CA, is seeking a Procurement Specialist to support robotics hardware development. You will source, purchase, track, and manage parts—from machined components to sensors and compute modules—collaborating with engineering and operations to keep builds on schedule.

The role emphasizes supplier management, price and lead-time negotiations, BOM maintenance, and risk mitigation.

Qualifications

• 1–5 years of experience in procurement, purchasing, supply chain, materials, or operations.
• Experience in hardware, manufacturing, robotics, mechanical, automotive, aerospace, or similar environment is strongly preferred.
• Strong organizational and follow-through skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment where priorities can change quickly.

Responsibilities

• Source and purchase mechanical, electrical, and off-the-shelf hardware.
• Procure items such as brackets, mounts, fasteners, structural components, machined parts, sensors, cameras, compute modules, cables, and connectors.
• Identify potential supply-chain risks and proactively address long-lead components.
• Research alternate suppliers and components when availability or lead times become an issue.
• Ensure engineers and assembly teams have the parts they need to keep projects moving.
• Develop and maintain relationships with suppliers, distributors, machine shops, and fabrication partners.
• Negotiate pricing, lead times, and quality issues.
• Review quotes and identify opportunities to reduce purchasing costs.
• Maintain visibility into material spending for individual systems.
• Manage purchase orders from creation through delivery.
• Monitor shipments and follow up with suppliers as needed.
• Maintain accurate inventory information and provide visibility into what's available, on order, and outstanding.
• Keep BOMs accurate for different system configurations.
• Use mechanical drawings and CAD information to identify and source required components.
• Assemble or coordinate parts kits for system builds.
• Work closely with mechanical, electrical, and other engineering teams to understand upcoming material needs.
• Communicate with suppliers and internal stakeholders to resolve purchasing or quality issues.
• Track problems identified during assembly, testing, or field deployment and use that information to improve future sourcing decisions.
• Help identify opportunities to improve procurement, inventory, and BOM processes as the company scales.

Skills

Procurement

Vendor management

BOM management

Reading drawings

Communication

Job description

Targeted salary range: $95,000–$115,000 depending on qualifications

Kelly Engineering seeks a Procurement Specialist to join our clients growing robotics company developing systems designed to operate in real-world construction job-site environments. As the Procurement Specialist, you'll work closely with engineering and operations to make sure the parts needed to build and test these systems are sourced, purchased, tracked, and available when needed.

This is a hands-on procurement role with exposure to both custom mechanical components and advanced robotics hardware, including sensors, cameras, computing hardware, cabling, and connectors.

Responsibilities

Procurement & Sourcing

• Source and purchase mechanical, electrical, and off-the-shelf hardware.
• Procure items such as brackets, mounts, fasteners, structural components, machined parts, sensors, cameras, compute modules, cables, and connectors.
• Identify potential supply-chain risks and proactively address long-lead components.
• Research alternate suppliers and components when availability or lead times become an issue.
• Ensure engineers and assembly teams have the parts they need to keep projects moving.
• Develop and maintain relationships with suppliers, distributors, machine shops, and fabrication partners.
• Negotiate pricing, lead times, and quality issues.
• Review quotes and identify opportunities to reduce purchasing costs.
• Maintain visibility into material spending for individual systems.
• Manage purchase orders from creation through delivery.
• Monitor shipments and follow up with suppliers as needed.
• Maintain accurate inventory information and provide visibility into what's available, on order, and outstanding.
• Keep BOMs accurate for different system configurations.
• Use mechanical drawings and CAD information to identify and source required components.
• Assemble or coordinate parts kits for system builds.

Cross-Functional Support

• Work closely with mechanical, electrical, and other engineering teams to understand upcoming material needs.
• Communicate with suppliers and internal stakeholders to resolve purchasing or quality issues.
• Track problems identified during assembly, testing, or field deployment and use that information to improve future sourcing decisions.
• Help identify opportunities to improve procurement, inventory, and BOM processes as the company scales.

What You’ll Need:

• 1–5 years of experience in procurement, purchasing, supply chain, materials, or operations.
• Experience in a hardware, manufacturing, robotics, mechanical, automotive, aerospace, or similar environment is strongly preferred.
• Strong organizational and follow-through skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment where priorities can change quickly.
• Able to communicate effectively with engineers, suppliers, machine shops, and company leadership.
• Comfortable working with purchase orders, vendor information, inventory, and BOMs.
• Ability to understand mechanical drawings and BOMs
• Strong attention to detail and a proactive approach to resolving supply issues.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience sourcing custom CNC-machined parts, sheet metal, weldments, or other fabricated components.
• Experience working with mechanical, electrical, and firmware engineering teams.
• Experience with construction equipment, heavy machinery, off-highway vehicles, or field-service environments.
• Client offers fully comprehensive benefits and equity package.

All applicants applying for this job opening must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship and are required to have US residency at the time of application.