Senior Global Supply & Sourcing Lead

Rocket Lab Corporation; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 94,000 - 118,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Competitive medical, dental, vision

401(k) retirement plan with company 60

Paid vacation and sick time

11 paid holidays

Dependent care and flexible spending

Parental leave

Disability and life insurance

Employee stock purchase program with 1

Job summary

Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Global Supply Manager II based onsite at Rocket Lab Robotics in Pasadena, CA. You will lead supplier relationships after RFQ and vendor selection, manage PO schedules, and drive delivery readiness to support reliable build planning.

This role combines strategic sourcing, supplier management, schedule execution, contractual flow‑downs, and hands‑on vendor follow‑up across multiple departments to ensure cost, delivery, and risk targets are met.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in procurement, sourcing, supplier management, supply chain management, or vendor program management.
• Experience managing supplier delivery performance, purchase order schedules, supplier commitments, and schedule recovery actions.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams such as manufacturing engineering, quality, production planning, programs, finance, legal, and contracts.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 10% of the time.
• U.S. citizenship is required, due to program requirements.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute sourcing and supplier management strategies aligned with program goals for cost, quality, delivery, schedule reliability, and technical performance.
• Manage the handoff from manufacturing engineering after RFQ, vendor evaluation, and vendor selection, ensuring POs, supplier expectations, technical data packages, quality requirements, and delivery commitments are clearly established.
• Build and maintain supplier relationships from initial RFIs and RFQs through contract execution, PO management, production support, and delivery closure.
• Maintain purchase order schedules with vendors, actively track delivery commitments, and push vendors for recovery plans when deliveries, documentation, or commitments are late or at risk.
• Manage and update expected delivery dates, supplier commitments, and material readiness status to support accurate build planning, production schedules, and program decision‑making.
• Conduct vendor site visits to assess supplier capability, production readiness, schedule risk, quality performance, capacity, and corrective action progress.
• Develop and maintain vendor scoring, supplier scorecards, and regular performance reviews covering delivery, quality, responsiveness, cost, risk, and overall execution.
• Lead supplier negotiations on a first‑principles basis to secure competitive terms, including cost, quality, schedule, lead time, delivery performance, and contractual commitments.
• Ensure appropriate contractual flow‑downs are communicated, incorporated, and tracked with vendors, including quality, compliance, configuration, documentation, export control, delivery, and customer or program‑specific requirements.
• Collaborate with manufacturing engineering, quality, programs, production planning, and finance to resolve supplier issues, expedite material, disposition non‑conformances, and reduce program risk.
• Identify and mitigate supplier and supply chain risks, including long‑lead material, capacity constraints, single‑source exposure, quality escapes, late deliveries, and incomplete contractual or technical requirements.
• Engage with Legal, Contracts, Quality, and Supply Chain leadership to establish the right contractual and commercial framework to support Rocket Lab Robotics programs and commodity strategies.
• Identify cost savings and cost‑avoidance opportunities, execute cost‑reduction strategies, and maintain supplier cost models and should‑cost analysis where appropriate.
• Act as a go‑to procurement and supplier management expert, solving supplier execution challenges and driving results in a fast‑paced development and production environment.

Skills

Procurement

Supplier management

Cross-functional teamwork

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent (12+ years total)

Job description

Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Global Supply Manager II based onsite at Rocket Lab Robotics in Pasadena, CA. You will lead supplier relationships after RFQ and vendor selection, manage PO schedules, and drive delivery readiness to support reliable build planning.

This role combines strategic sourcing, supplier management, schedule execution, contractual flow‑downs, and hands‑on vendor follow‑up across multiple departments to ensure cost, delivery, and risk targets are met.