Staff Supplier Integration Manager - ARC

Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Holidays

Flexible vacation

Sick days

Parental leave

Health/Dental/Vision insurance

401(k) matching

Growth opportunities

Team-building

Job summary

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is seeking a Staff Supplier Integration Manager - ARC to lead global supply chain strategy, working with R&D, engineering and business teams to reduce costs and raise TRL of fusion hardware.

You will build supplier networks, negotiate long‑term agreements, and guide cross‑functional executives through complex sourcing in a high‑uncertainty, low-TRL environment to enable ARC power plants.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field is required.
• Minimum 15 years’ experience in supply chain management and procurement, ideally in complex hardware projects.
• Strong negotiation, analytical, and cross-functional leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive powerplant value engineering, cost reductions, and technology selection with engineering and Fusion Economics teams.
• Lead techno-economic model inputs for future powerplants and support ARC readiness.
• Build and manage senior supplier relationships and long-term, high-value agreements.
• Provide strategic guidance to C‑Suite and cross‑functional teams on opportunities to acquire companies or form partnerships.
• Develop category and commodity strategies in a global context and ensure alignment with research needs.

Skills

15+ years supply chain

Negotiation & supplier management

Cross-functional collaboration

Travel 25-50%

Financial acumen

Strategic sourcing

Experience with R&D & prototyping

Delivery of complex projects

Leadership & communication

Risk management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Engineering, or related field

Job description

About Commonwealth Fusion Systems:

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is on a mission to deliver the urgent transition to fusion energy.

Combining decades of research, top talent, and new technologies, we’re designing and building commercially viable fusion power plants. And we're working with policymakers, suppliers, and many others to build the energy industry of the future.

We’re in the best position to make it happen. Since 2018, we’ve raised $4 billion of capital, making us the largest and leading fusion company in the world.

Now we’re looking for more thinkers, doers, builders, and makers to join us. People who’ll bring new perspectives, solve tough problems, and thrive as part of a team.

If that’s you and this role fits, we want to hear from you.

Join the power movement as a Staff Supplier Integration Manager - ARC

CFS confronts exciting but significant challenges associated with the supply chain for ARC and other new products and projects. Key challenges for ARC include: (a) producing a design that leads to a very cost competitive and producible (deployable) product (b) managing high levels of technical uncertainty and (c) an expensive and operationally difficult path to begin building ARC power plants.

The Staff Supplier Integration Manager (SSIM) will create and execute global supply chain strategies fully integrated with CFS design teams and in close partnership with other functions including R&D, business and corporate development, Open Innovation, and government affairs. This strategy development will include focused and highly technical efforts to improve and simplify CFS designs with practical knowledge of supply chain capabilities, focused on major improvements to product cost and other key metrics. It will require deep, continuous, and insightful research into new technologies, evolving market conditions, and other key trends.

The SSIM will also conduct global, creative and systematic supplier searches, and build and manage complex, senior-level supplier relationships. Finally, the SSIM will lead negotiation of long‑term, high‑value agreements that will be pivotal to CFS’ ability to build and deploy key products such as ARC.

The SSIM must be an established expert in technical sourcing, able to speak the languages of plasma physicists, engineers and material scientists. The SSIM must be experienced and comfortable in uncertain, unstructured, low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) environments, while exercising curiosity and creativity to identify and understand new trends and technologies. The SSIM should be capable of serving as the senior face of CFS to supplier executives and other external audiences, during difficult negotiations and other interactions. Internally, the SSIM should be able to speak directly to the Executive Leadership Team about how design and technical decisions translate into the supply of hardware, including associated cost, risk, etc. and should understand how to marshal internal resources and consensus in support of project objectives.

What you’ll do:

• Partner with Chief Engineer, R&D organization and Fusion Economics teams to drive powerplant value engineering, cost reductions, technology selection, and increase TRL of fusion specific hardware
• Take an active role in the techno-economic model development and inputs for future powerplants
• Serve as a feedback loop to the R&D and engineering organizations to understand the key levers to continuously drive down ARC costs and LCOE
• Advise Supply Chain, Open Innovation, Government Affairs, and C‑Suite teams on potential opportunities to acquire companies, develop joint ventures, drive public and private partnerships, and other creative or sophisticated strategies to drive supply chain readiness and reliability of fusion powerplants
• Stay informed of the latest worldwide state of fusion industry, how major and minor players are moving in the market, and has an overall high fusion industry acumen to help drive decisions within CFS - this person is seen as an expert in the fusion supply chain
• Develop and lead category and commodity strategies including spend analysis, benchmarking, cost, market analysis, supplier selection and contracting in the global technology & economic context
• Support potential customers, sponsors, partners, and investors in diligence processes
• Support management in developing scope, budget, and schedule for new projects based on matching expertise and capabilities to research needs and project opportunities
• Respectfully raises execution or design concerns, providing a sound rationale or data to support their perspective.
• Support Investor Relations, Business Development, Corporate Finance, and Engineering teams as needed, and on-demand with queries and reports
• Develop, drive and execute annual and strategic plan with supporting commodity strategies
• Timely execute strategies to align with business growth and new product introductions
• Build and deepen relationships with key supplier leadership
• Align with Engineering, Technology, Business, Operations, Finance and Quality for world class performance
• Manage sourcing processes and performance through an effective management operating system
• Prepare briefing materials, write and publish research results in internal technical reports and public-facing presentations, including collaborations with key external partners
• Manage organizational effectiveness through continuous improvement and functional transformation
• Relentlessly gathers intelligence on the health of strategic suppliers’ business and informs Sr. Leadership of long-term risk and proposed countermeasures
• Conduct periodic supplier business reviews to communicate supplier performance to internal and supplier management teams
• Conduct site surveys and business evaluations of existing and potential suppliers
• Serve as a point of escalation and resolution of corrective actions with suppliers
• Contribute to the resolution of sourcing issues from CFS or their subtiers

What we’re looking for:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Engineering, or a related field
• 15+ years minimum experience managing supply chains in raw materials, metals, machined components, welding and fabrication, and/or contracted assemblies
• High finance acumen to be able to understand a company's financial structure and strategize contract incentives
• Extensive technical knowledge of contracting for long lead time items based on project milestones
• Must be able to travel 25% - 50% of time and to remote sites
• Experience in sourcing for both R&D (prototypes) and on-going production
• Ability to work effectively both independently and in cross-functional teams
• Strong communication skills and ability to manage multiple tasks and projects
• Exceptional organizational and analytical skills, and a proven ability to drive complex projects with minimal oversight
• Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and strengthen our culture of inclusion
• Generates work plans, defines milestones for own tasks, and helps define processes that impact direct work. Contributes to process improvement.
• Strong organizational abilities to manage many various cases and scenarios
• Ability to map out and understand complex interconnected systems
• Exquisite attention to detail applied across a multitude of systems, ensuring comprehensive analysis and identification of gaps in quality or detail
• Reliable and persistent work ethic, seeing tasks through to completion. Stays determined in the face of uncertainty and setbacks.
• Ability to identify the right level of detail for a given task and flexibility to adapt to modeling both rough, quick estimates for establishing development priorities and detailed, reliable models for finalizing project specifications
• Adaptability to a start-up environment, capability to take initiative, develop own tasks and timelines, and solve broad, ambiguous problems.
• Operates with general guidance from management and increasingly takes independent ownership of developing execution approaches to assigned work.
• Proven writing and communication ability, and consistent quality of work appropriate for preparing material for a broad external audience

Bonus points for:

• Previous experience with Mergers and Acquisitions, Joint Venture formation, or strategic partnership framework development

Must-have Requirements:

• Perform activities such as typing, standing, or sitting for extended periods of time
• Willingness to travel or work required nights/weekends/on-call regularly
• Work in a facility that contains industrial hazards including heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead (Pb), high voltage, high current, pressure systems, and cryogenics

$130,000 - $200,000 a year

Salary range for this full-time position + equity + benefits. The actual salary will depend on level, location, qualifications, and experience. The range displayed on each job posting reflects new hire salaries for the position across all US locations.

Benefits include:

• Competitive compensation with equity
• 13 Company-wide Holidays
• Flexible vacation days
• 10 sick days
• Generous parental leave policy
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with employer matching
• Professional growth opportunities
• Team-building activities

#remote

At CFS, we excel in fast-paced environments, driven by our values of integrity, execution, impact, and self-critique. As we grow, we’re eager to bring on mission-driven folks who offer diverse perspectives and fresh ways to tackle challenges.

We value diversity deeply and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer by choice. We consider all qualified applicants equally, regardless of race, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, protected veteran status, religion, physical or mental disability, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, or any other basis protected by law.

This role requires compliance with U.S. laws concerning the export of controlled or protected technologies or information (collectively, “Export Control Laws”). Any offer of employment will be contingent on the need for compliance with such Export Control Laws.