Supply Chain Lead

K1 Industries; Carson City (NV); Remote; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Early-stage equity

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Job summary

K1 Industries is hiring a Supply Chain Engineer to build and scale a complete supply chain for critical power components. You will work closely with engineers, visit fabrication shops, and negotiate terms with partners to deliver 1 GW+ yearly capacity.

You will be the first dedicated supply chain hire, shaping the function from scratch and driving rapid, scalable solutions across vendors and contracts. This role requires hands-on problem solving and strong commercial judgment.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in supplier development, strategic sourcing, or industrialization for physical hardware.
• Engineering degree or equivalent technical depth; ability to read drawings and assess manufacturability.
• Proven ability to negotiate and close supply agreements worth millions with MSAs or long-term deals.
• Experience taking parts from prototype to production and resolving early-stage issues.

Responsibilities

• Supplier discovery and qualification: vet suppliers for capability, capacity, and quality.
• Sourcing and negotiation: run RFQs, build should-cost models, close multi-million deals.
• Master Supply Agreements: lead MSAs and long-term supplier commitments.
• Design for supply: collaborate with design to enable buy/build decisions and second sources.
• Industrialization: establish article inspections, factory tests, and corrective actions.
• Supplier development and performance: audits, visits, and early capacity locking.
• Market intelligence: track capacity and lead times to secure partners early.

Skills

Supplier development

Strategic sourcing

Industrialization

Read drawings

Negotiation

Education

Engineering degree

Job description

About K1 Industries

For the first time in decades, power demand growth in the US has jumped 5x driving multi-year lead times for critical power infrastructure. K1 converts and deploys jet engines into modular gas turbine power packages at scale now, not in 3 years.

The Role

We are hiring a Supply Chain Engineer to build K1's supply chain for including generator, gearbox, skids, enclosures, controls, electrical, exhaust, emissions controls, etc. Your job is to build a supply chain that scales to 1 GW+ worth of units per year on spec, on time, and at a cost that works.

This role requires excellent technical, strategic, and commercial experience. You will sit with our engineers to understand what a component and subsystems have to do, then get on a plane to find who can build it, qualify them, negotiate the deal, and paper it in a Master Supply Agreement. We are looking for someone comfortable reviewing a drawing with an engineer in the morning, walking a fabrication shop in the afternoon, and negotiating terms with a partner the next day.

You will be K1's first dedicated supply chain hire, building the function from scratch and determining where and what capability to add. This is a high trust role where you will be given a bottomless credit card and a mandate of "turn the problems into answers that scale."

What You'll Own

• Supplier discovery and qualification: find and vet suppliers for all components, capability, capacity, quality system, financial health, and how they will partner with K1 as we grow

• Sourcing and negotiation: run RFQs, build should-cost models, and negotiate price, lead time, capacity commitments, and terms to close multi-million dollar deals.

• Master Supply Agreements: lead MSAs and long-term agreements with our major suppliers, owning the commercial substance and ensuring it meets technical and operational requirements.

• Design for supply: work with our design engineers early on make versus buy, supplier-ready drawings and specs, standard parts, and second sources, so more than one shop can build the design.

• Industrialization: from first articles for K1 to repeatable and scalable production. You will develop article inspections, factory acceptance tests, and corrective actions; engineering is your internal customer.

• Supplier development and performance: audits and site visits, delivery and quality tracking, escalation when a supplier slips, and priority capacity locked in before we need it.

• Market intelligence: know who makes what, where capacity is tight, and where lead times are heading, so K1 locks in partners and orders early.

You Might Be a Great Fit If

• You have 6+ years in supplier development, strategic sourcing, or industrialization for physical hardware, and have built a supplier base from scratch at least once

• You have an engineering degree or equivalent technical depth. You can read a drawing, walk a shop floor, and tell whether a supplier can actually build the part

• You have negotiated and closed supply agreements worth millions of dollars with industrial suppliers, including MSAs or long-term agreements

• You have taken parts or assemblies from prototype to production and lived through what broke along the way: late tooling, bad first articles, suppliers who overpromised

• You have worked with fabricators, machine shops, and packagers on heavy hardware: weldments, skids, enclosures, rotating equipment, or electrical gear

• You operate with minimal structure, are comfortable being the only supply chain person in the room, and would rather be at the supplier than on a call with them

• Your title today might be Supplier Development Engineer, Supplier Industrialization Engineer, or Strategic Sourcing Manager

Bonus Points for any of

• Sourcing experience with generators, gearboxes, switchgear, transformers, or turbine packages

• Time at a hardware startup through rapid scaling (aerospace, defense, EV, energy), or at an OEM or packager building gensets, turbines, or compression equipment

• Familiarity with API, IEEE, ASME, and ISO standards for power generation equipment and manufacturing

Compensation

Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity. As one of the first hires at a venture-backed company, your equity participation will reflect the impact and ownership this role carries. Standard benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance.

Location

Our headquarters is in Carson City, Nevada and welcome exceptional local and remote candidates.