Senior Commodity Manager – Mechanical & Electrical

POSITION OVERVIEW

As the Senior Commodity Manager – Mechanical & Electrical (M&E), you will own the end-to-end strategic sourcing, cost engineering, supplier ecosystem, and capacity governance for core electro-mechanical infrastructure. In this role, you will partner closely with Hardware Engineering, Mechanical/Thermal Engineering, Power Electronics, Quality, and Operations to drive high-density packaging, complex thermal dissipation, and mission-critical power distribution across advanced systems.

You will lead global category roadmaps for precision CNC/die-cast enclosures, sheet metal chassis, active/passive thermal solutions (vapor chambers, cold plates, heat pipes), high-layer-count PCBs/PCBAs, power delivery components (VRMs, PMICs, discrete magnetics), and high-speed electro-mechanical interconnects. This role demands deep manufacturing process knowledge, raw material indexing expertise, tooling lifecycle management, and strong negotiation skills.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Sourcing & Category Roadmaps

- Category Strategy: Develop and execute multi-year sourcing strategies across custom mechanical fabrications (precision CNC, die casting, sheet metal, structural plastics) and electrical commodities (rigid/rigid-flex PCBs, PCBAs, power stages, magnetics, interconnects).

- Supply Ecosystem: Establish dual-sourcing ecosystems and qualify scalable EMS/ODM partners and specialized tier-1 fabricators to eliminate single points of failure.

- Technology Alignment: Align commodity technology roadmaps with engineering hardware architectures (e.g., liquid cooling/direct-to-chip interfaces, 112G/224G high-speed interconnects, and 48V power architecture transitions).

Cost Engineering, Should-Cost Modeling & Tooling Governance

- Should-Cost Modeling: Build bottom-up parametric should-cost models that break down raw materials (aluminum, copper, and resin indices), cycle times, machine tonnage and rates, plating/surface finishing, and scrap fallout.

- Tooling Lifecycle: Manage custom tooling CAPEX (injection molds, progressive stamping dies, die-casting molds), verifying tool life, cavity counts, maintenance amortization, and asset tracking.

- Commercial Contracts: Negotiate Master Supply Agreements (MSAs), Statements of Work (SOWs), tiered volume rebate structures, warranty terms, and raw material index adjustment mechanisms.

NPI Delivery & Design for Excellence (DFX)

- DFM/DFX Partnership: Partner with Mechanical and Electrical DFX/Reliability teams from EVT through PVT to ensure designs are optimized for yield, tooling efficiency, SMT placement speed, and automated assembly tolerances.

- NPI Schedule Control: Manage high-risk, long-lead procurement timelines (complex multi-cavity tooling, custom cold plates, specialized magnetics) to safeguard product launch schedules.

- Compliance & Reliability: Enforce rigorous environmental and industry qualification standards (IPC Class 2/3, UL, RoHS/REACH, shock/vibration, thermal shock cycling).

Risk Mitigation & Global Supply Continuity

- Geopolitical Resilience: Drive geographic manufacturing de-risking and nearshoring/China+1 strategies across North America, Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand), Taiwan, and Mexico.

- Allocation & Continuity: Mitigate supply allocation constraints by securing forward wafer allocations, raw copper/aluminum reserves, and strategic buffer inventory agreements.

- Performance Governance: Lead Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) evaluating suppliers on On-Time Delivery (OTD), DPPM quality metrics, technology milestones, and cost reduction roadmaps.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Required Qualifications

- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Materials Science, or Supply Chain Management.

- Experience: 7+ years of strategic sourcing, commodity management, or global procurement experience supporting complex hardware systems (datacom, enterprise computing, networking, or automotive electronics).

- Commodity Domain: Demonstrated commodity management experience covering both custom mechanicals (CNC, die casting, thermal assemblies) and electrical components (PCBs, discrete power semiconductors, passives, interconnects).

- Process Fluency: Strong understanding of precision mechanical fabrication (sheet metal, CNC, MIM, injection molding, anodizing) and electronics manufacturing processes (SMT, selective soldering, PCB stack-ups, IPC standards).

- Negotiation Track Record: Proven success negotiating complex MSAs, multi-million-dollar tooling agreements, and market-indexed pricing models with tier-1 Asian and North American suppliers.

Preferred Qualifications

- Advanced Degree: Master’s degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, or an MBA.

- Advanced Thermal Sourcing: Experience sourcing thermal management solutions for ultra-high-power compute (vapor chambers, direct-to-chip liquid cooling cold plates, quick disconnects, manifold assemblies).

- Commodity Indices: In-depth knowledge of global commodity indices (LME aluminum/copper, Brent crude/resins, rare-earth materials for magnetics) and their pass-through mechanics in cost formulas.

- EMS/JDM Ecosystem: Direct experience working with major tier-1 EMS/JDM partners (e.g., Celestica, Flex, Jabil, Sanmina, Foxconn).