Sr. Sourcing Manager, Contract Manufacturing

Lever, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 163,000 - 181,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental & Vision

Commuter Benefits

Life & STD Insurance

401(k) match

Flexible Time Off

Equity

Job summary

Pendulum is hiring a Senior Sourcing Manager, Contract Manufacturing, to own the commercial and operational performance of its contract manufacturing network. You will manage partners that produce, fill, label, and package finished goods, ensuring cost efficiency and supply continuity.

The role demands 8+ years in strategic sourcing or contract manufacturing, strong should-cost skills, and the ability to operate on the production floor. Hybrid role in San Francisco with 20-30% travel.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, Operations, or related field.
• 8+ years in strategic sourcing, contract manufacturing, supplier management, or related roles.
• Experience negotiating with senior supplier executives and managing complex relationships.
• Strong should-cost capability and cost-structure understanding.

Responsibilities

• Own category strategy and supplier relationships for contract manufacturers (blending, encapsulation, bottling, labeling).
• Develop supplier network strategy balancing capability, cost, quality, and capacity.
• Lead RFPs, diligence, contracting, onboarding, transfers, and ongoing management.
• Create should-cost models and negotiation strategies to secure savings.
• Collaborate with Finance, Supply Planning to translate forecasts into cost scenarios.
• Validate on-site operations and drive continuous improvement with suppliers.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Contract negotiations

Supplier management

Data analysis

Industrial engineering basics

Cross-functional collaboration

Ownership & initiative

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Tools

Google Sheets

Microsoft Excel

NetSuite

Job description

About Pendulum

Pendulum® is leading a revolution that is occurring around the world to improve physical and mental health by first understanding, then restoring and enhancing the human microbiome.

Studies have shown that our microbiome (the bacterial communities in and on our bodies) is linked to everything from metabolism and diabetes, to longevity, weight loss, healthy immune systems, cancer prevention, feelings of well-being, inflammatory bowel disease, and even healthy skin. We have just scratched the surface on understanding the impact that our microbiome has on our lives. During early life we develop a diverse and balanced microbiome that plays a critical role in shaping our long-term health. Over our lives, a combination of diet, lifestyle, antibiotics, and aging can decrease the effectiveness of our microbiome.

Pendulum recognized the enormous impact they could have on people’s lives if they were able to address the imbalances in the microbiome. To accomplish this, Pendulum created proprietary probiotic pipelines and a unique discovery platform to identify key, novel bacterial strains and the prebiotics that feed them. The company has also built and developed the world’s first manufacturing technology to produce bacteria in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment at scale.

The medical probiotics that Pendulum has formulated have transformed the consumer probiotics market into a new category of therapeutic offerings that deliver the power and efficacy of a pharmaceutical with the safety and accessibility of a natural probiotic. Due to Pendulum’s explosive revenue and customer growth over the last two years, the company earned a spot on Forbes Magazine’s exclusive “The Next Billion Dollar Startups” list.

If you’re interested in improving the lives of people globally and you love working in a cross-functional, collaborative, inspiring environment, please continue reading.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Sr. Sourcing Manager, Contract Manufacturing to own the commercial and operational performance of Pendulum's contract manufacturing network. This role manages the partners that purchase and control raw materials and packaging inventory, blend powders, encapsulate products, fill bottles, load cartons, and prepare finished goods for distribution.

This person will combine strategic sourcing discipline with a practical understanding of how manufacturing facilities operate. The right candidate can engage credibly with supplier executives, build fact-based should-cost models, map processes on the production floor, and turn operational gaps into executable improvement plans. We need a self-directed operator who moves quickly, gets close to the work, and takes ownership through resolution.

What You'll Do

Contract Manufacturing Strategy and Commercial Ownership

• Own category strategy and commercial relationships for Pendulum's contract manufacturers across blending, encapsulation, bottling, labeling, cartoning, and related finished-goods operations.
• Develop a clear supplier network strategy that balances capability, quality, capacity, service, cost, speed, and business continuity.
• Lead supplier identification, diligence, selection, qualification, contracting, onboarding, transfers, and ongoing commercial management, including in connection with our active fill-and-finish CMO RFP.
• Negotiate pricing, payment terms, capacity commitments, lead times, inventory liability, service levels, change controls, and long-term agreements.
• Build and maintain contingency plans, m options, and capacity pathways that support growth and reduce concentration risk.

Should Cost and Cost Improvement

• Build transparent should-cost models that separate raw material and packaging pass-throughs from labor, overhead, equipment, yield loss, scrap, testing, freight, and supplier margin.
• Use open-book costing, market benchmarks, production assumptions, and on-site observations to deliver best-in-class COGS and validate proposed price changes.
• Create fact-based negotiation strategies and deliver measurable savings without compromising quality, service, or supply continuity.
• Partner with Finance and Supply Planning to translate forecasts, volumes, run sizes, and product mix into accurate cost and capacity scenarios.

Manufacturing Operations & Continuous Improvement

• Understand how supplier facilities actually run, including material flow, production scheduling, staffing, equipment constraints, line speeds, yields, changeovers, maintenance, quality holds, and warehouse operations.
• Map end-to-end manufacturing processes and identify bottlenecks, handoff failures, excess handling, avoidable downtime, and other sources of cost or lead-time variation.
• Apply industrial engineering fundamentals such as cycle-time analysis, capacity modeling, line balancing, labor-content analysis, value-stream mapping, and constraint management.
• Develop joint improvement roadmaps with suppliers and track actions through implementation, verified results, and sustained performance.
• Spend time on the production floor to validate assumptions, investigate issues, and build practical solutions with supplier operations teams.

Supplier Relationship and Performance Management

• Serve as the primary commercial relationship owner for assigned contract manufacturers and build productive relationships from the executive team to plant-level operations.
• Establish clear expectations, governance, scorecards, and business reviews covering quality, delivery, cost, responsiveness, inventory, capacity, and continuous improvement.
• Identify performance gaps early, align suppliers on root causes and corrective actions, and elevate decisively when commitments are at risk.
• Hold suppliers accountable while building collaborative, long-term partnerships that support innovation, scale, and mutual value creation.

Cross Functional Execution

• Partner closely with Quality, Regulatory, Product, R&D, Supply Planning, Packaging, Logistics, and Finance to translate business requirements into executable supplier plans.
• Lead sourcing and supplier-readiness workstreams for product launches, site transfers, packaging changes, scale-ups, and other manufacturing transitions.
• Communicate risks, tradeoffs, decisions, and recovery plans clearly to cross-functional teams and senior leadership.
• Create the tools, operating rhythms, and decision frameworks needed to improve supplier visibility, accountability, and execution.
• Step into urgent or ambiguous problems, determine what is needed, and drive the right people to a decision and completed outcome.

Who We're Looking For

Experience & Education

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, Operations, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, contract manufacturing, supplier management, manufacturing operations, or supply chain within a manufacturing environment.
• Experience managing contract manufacturers in nutraceuticals, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, cosmetics, electronics or equivalent industry.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex supplier negotiations and managing senior-level commercial relationships.
• Strong should-cost capability, including the ability to deconstruct conversion costs, assess cost drivers, evaluate supplier margins, and identify negotiation and productivity opportunities.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing operations and industrial engineering fundamentals, including process mapping, labor and capacity analysis, line balancing, bottleneck identification, throughput, yield, and changeover optimization.
• Strong analytical skills and advanced proficiency with Google Sheets and/or Microsoft Excel; experience with NetSuite or another ERP system is preferred.

Competencies & Attributes

• A go-getter with a strong bias for action who does not wait for perfect information or detailed direction before moving important work forward.
• Comfortable moving between executive negotiations, analytical cost work, and hands‑on problem solving on a manufacturing floor.
• Strong commercial judgment paired with operational curiosity and enough technical depth to ask the right questions.
• Ability to create structure, priorities, and clear action plans in fast-moving and ambiguous situations.
• Clear, direct, and proactive communication with supplier executives, plant teams, technical stakeholders, and internal leadership.
• High ownership, sound judgment, and the ability to independently drive multiple complex workstreams to completion.
• Have the courage to challenge convention and be the first mover.
• Will take ownership in solving problems, insatiably curious and demonstrating initiative in finding innovative and sustainable solutions.
• Dedicated to rigor and accountability, forthright with our data, and ethical and transparent with our customers and each other.
• Speak your mind, name the uncertainty, and operate with respect and authenticity.
• Serve as part of our customer's health journey, and support the Pendulum team as we thrive when prioritizing high standards with a low ego in support of our collective ambition.

Travel & Work Environment

• Hybrid role based in San Francisco, CA, with an expectation of working in the office 2-3 days per week.
• Regular travel, approximately 20-30%, to contract manufacturing sites and supplier locations. Travel may increase during launches, transfers, negotiations, or performance-recovery work.

What Success Looks Like

In the first year, success means that:

• Pendulum has a diverse set of qualified fill-and-finish contract manufacturing suppliers that can scale with our growth.
• Pendulum has transparent, trusted relationships and effective governance with its contract manufacturing partners.
• Supplier pricing is supported by data driven cost models, and cost-reduction opportunities are translated into implemented savings.
• Manufacturing capacity, constraints, lead times, and operational risks are visible, quantified, and actively managed.
• Supplier performance improves across quality, delivery, cost, responsiveness, and inventory management.
• Product launches, transfers, and production changes move forward with clear ownership, realistic plans, and fewer supplier-driven surprises.
• Critical issues are surfaced early and driven to resolution with urgency, strong cross-functional alignment, and sustained follow-through.

Salary & Benefits

• $162,900 - $181,000
• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Commuter Benefits
• Life & STD Insurance
• Company match on 401 (k)
• Flexible Time Off (FTO)
• Equity