Supply Chain Manager - Digital in Hereford

We are a profitable, fast-scaling defence-tech startup - operating on the extreme edge of innovation in the evolving domain of Unmanned Systems / Drones. The Supply Chain Manager owns our ability to find, assess, source and secure the best components for our platforms. That means identifying the right suppliers, getting the right price, reducing lead times, understanding quality and reliability, and making sure engineering, production and operations have what they need when they need it.

This is not a passive procurement role. Our supply chain is part of the product. Radios, cameras, batteries, flight controllers, motors, ESCs, payloads, antennas, datalinks, airframes and embedded compute all shape performance in the field. The Supply Chain Manager works from our operational requirements backwards. Where are our lead-time, cost, quality and single-source risks? How do we turn supplier performance into product advantage? How do we build a supply chain that supports millions of pounds of sales and live operational delivery?

Key Responsibilities:

• Source the best available components for our drone platforms, including radios, cameras, batteries, motors, ESCs, flight controllers, antennas, payloads, compute modules, cabling, connectors and airframe parts.
• Use our ERP system to maintain a live database of approved suppliers, component options, pricing, lead times, minimum order quantities, quality issues and commercial terms.
• Work with engineering and operations to understand which components matter most to platform performance, reliability and cost, which may result in the development and owning of supplier relationship management plans and/or category management plans.
• Help us make clear trade-offs between cost, availability, performance, reliability, exportability and ease of integration.
• Support bills of materials, component costings, spares provisioning, forward stock planning and replenishment for deployed systems.
• Be responsible for ensuring auditable supply chain documents (orders, contracts, contract variations etc) are recorded within our ERP system.
• Support compliance, export-control and NDAA-style supply-chain checks where required.

Experience Required:

• Experience in supply chain, procurement, sourcing, production, manufacturing or technical buying.
• Strong commercial instinct: able to secure better pricing, better terms and better service from suppliers.
• Comfortable reviewing terms and conditions and NDAs against key risk areas.
• Highly organised, with strong attention to detail and the discipline to maintain supplier trackers, cost models, bills of materials and purchasing records.
• Good judgement under pressure: able to distinguish urgent from important, and cheap from good value.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain supply-chain risk, cost and trade-offs in plain English.
• Experience in drones, robotics, defence, aerospace, electronics, automotive, telecoms or hardware manufacturing.
• Experience sourcing from international suppliers and managing long-lead or fragile supply chains.
• Experience with ERP, inventory or procurement systems.
• Understanding of export controls, restricted components, NDAA compliance, dual-use technology or defence procurement.
• Existing supplier network across drone, electronics, RF, composite, battery or manufacturing sectors.

Compensation:

• Competitive salary
• Annual performance bonus
• Private healthcare (family plan)
• Life insurance
• 35 days annual leave (including bank holidays)