Founding Lead Supply Chain Engineer
Pillar Space
Founding Lead Supply Chain Engineer
Pillar Space
Reusable orbital infrastructure for payload hosting
Equity: 0.3% – 1% depending on experience
We're a stealth team building space hardware at the edge of what's currently possible — high-stakes, flight-grade systems where the engineering bar is unforgiving and the upside is enormous. While we can't share full details yet, our founding and early engineering team includes talent from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Impulse Space, the group includes people who've pulled off feats almost no one else on Earth has.
We are seeking a Lead Supply Chain Engineer to own the supply base behind our spacecraft from first principles — the suppliers, parts, and processes that turn our designs into flight hardware, on time and at the quality flight demands.
This is a senior technical leadership role. You will not only build and run the supply chain for our first vehicles, but also help build the supply chain team, set technical standards, mentor engineers, and establish the systems, processes, and culture required to source flight-grade hardware at speed.
This is not a narrow purchasing role. You will be the primary technical point of contact between our engineers and our suppliers across machined and fabricated structures, propulsion components, electronics and harnesses, and procured flight units — finding and qualifying suppliers, introducing new parts at their shops, driving out cost and lead time, and owning the root cause when something goes wrong. You will partner closely with design, manufacturing, and quality on manufacturability and sourcing decisions, and make tradeoffs across cost, lead time, quality, supplier risk, and schedule.
The ideal candidate has direct experience with aerospace supply chains, manufacturing processes, supplier quality, and technical team leadership. We recognize that very few people have all of this. What matters most is that you have exceptional fundamentals, have taken real hardware from released drawing to delivered part through a supply base, have managed or mentored engineers in high-performance technical environments, and act with high agency and urgency in ambiguity while making sound engineering tradeoffs. You will have direct ownership over one of the company's core technical challenges.
Own the supply chain for flight and ground hardware, from early sourcing strategy through new product introduction, production, delivery, and sustaining support.
Act as the primary technical point of contact with suppliers for critical components — machined and fabricated parts, castings and forgings, composites, propulsion components, PCBs and assemblies, harnesses, and procured flight units — and own the risk they carry to the program.
Build the supply base from scratch: identify, assess, and onboard suppliers through technical audits, capability and capacity reviews, qualification activities, and process capability validation.
Own new product introduction at suppliers: first articles, qualification of new parts, drawing and process changes, and transfers between suppliers.
Drive cost, lead time, and quality improvements from first principles — break down design, material, and process choices to find step-change gains in yield, cost, and schedule.
Identify and qualify alternative manufacturing methods (e.g., additive, castings, forgings, machining, sheet metal) where they cut cost or lead time without compromising flight quality.
Influence design and sourcing decisions early, giving engineers data-driven input on manufacturability, cost, lead time, and supplier risk before designs are released.
Lead make-versus-buy trades and vertical integration decisions with engineering and manufacturing.
Own root cause and corrective action for supplier issues: lead cross-functional investigations, apply structured problem-solving, and make sure fixes are permanent across the supply base.
Manage long-lead and single-source risk through dual-sourcing strategies, buffer stock, last-time buys, and schedule protection for critical-path hardware.
Establish supplier quality requirements: purchase order quality clauses and flowdowns, first article inspection, source and receiving inspection, certificates of conformance, and special process controls.
Set up material traceability, counterfeit parts prevention, and export-control (ITAR/EAR) compliance across the supply base.
Select and stand up supply chain systems and tools: ERP/MRP, purchasing workflows, supplier scorecards, and on-time delivery and quality metrics.
Negotiate pricing, terms, and long-term agreements with key suppliers, and build relationships that hold up under schedule pressure.
Provide technical leadership across sourcing, supplier quality, supplier development, purchasing, and logistics efforts.
Help hire, manage, mentor, and develop supply chain engineers and buyers as the team grows.
Establish supply chain processes: supplier selection and approval, the approved supplier list, supplier nonconformance handling, and verification discipline appropriate for flight-grade hardware.
Help define sourcing strategy, procurement budgets, and the supply plan for the first vehicles and the ramp to production.
Work closely with avionics, propulsion, structures, mechanical, manufacturing, quality, test, and finance to close sourcing gaps and deliver flight hardware on schedule.
Work closely with the founders and early engineering team to shape the technical roadmap, engineering culture, hiring plan, and long-term supply chain and manufacturing strategy.
Represent the supply chain function in design reviews, supplier visits and audits, customer conversations, investor diligence, and program planning as needed.
Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline (e.g., mechanical, aerospace, materials, industrial, or electrical).
8+ years in supply chain engineering, supplier quality, manufacturing, or process engineering roles for aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability hardware.
Prior experience leading technical workstreams, managing engineers, mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, or building high-performing teams.
Demonstrated ability to take complex hardware from released drawing through supplier qualification, first article, and production delivery.
Strong fundamentals in manufacturing processes, materials, GD&T, and engineering drawings.
Hands-on experience qualifying suppliers and running new product introduction at supplier facilities.
Experience with supplier quality processes such as first article inspection (e.g., AS9102), PPAP, and APQP.
Experience leading root cause and corrective action investigations with structured methods (e.g., 8D, 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, fault trees).
Experience with aerospace quality systems (e.g., AS9100, ISO 9001, NADCAP special processes).
Experience negotiating with suppliers and managing cost, lead time, and capacity for critical components.
Strong written and verbal communication, and the ability to work credibly with engineers, technicians, executives, and suppliers.
Ability to work independently with limited direction, act with urgency in ambiguous and high-pressure environments, and drive problems to resolution.
Ability to make practical tradeoffs across cost, lead time, quality, supplier risk, and mission schedule.
Ability to lead through influence in a cross-functional environment spanning engineering, manufacturing, quality, test, and finance.
We do not expect every candidate to have all of the following. The strongest candidates will likely have depth in some areas and the ability to quickly learn the others.
Demonstrated flight heritage — hardware you sourced or brought up at suppliers that has flown.
Experience leading supply chain, supplier quality, or supplier development teams.
Experience managing engineers in a startup, aerospace company, defense contractor, launch company, or other high-reliability technical environment.
Experience building a supply chain from zero for a startup or new program.
Experience with machining, castings, forgings, sheet metal, additive manufacturing, composites, and special processes such as heat treat, plating, welding, and NDT.
Experience sourcing spacecraft components: propulsion valves, tanks, and regulators; structures; solar cells and batteries; PCBs and PCBAs; harnesses; and procured units such as star trackers, reaction wheels, and radios.
Experience with EEE parts procurement, screening and upscreening, counterfeit prevention (e.g., AS5553, AS6174), and obsolescence management.
Experience with statistical methods such as design of experiments, SPC, Six Sigma, and process capability analysis.
Experience with ITAR/EAR compliance, DFARS flowdowns, and government contract requirements in the supply chain.
Experience with ERP/MRP, PLM, or manufacturing execution systems (e.g., NetSuite, SAP, Arena, ION).
Experience with source inspection, receiving inspection, and metrology (e.g., CMM, CT scanning).
Experience with cost modeling, should-cost analysis, and design-to-cost programs.
Experience scaling from prototype quantities to production rate, including capacity planning with suppliers.
Experience with international sourcing and logistics, including hazardous materials shipping for batteries and propellants.
Experience in early-stage startups, small high-performing teams, or environments where engineers must own broad technical scope.
Experience recruiting, interviewing, closing, and onboarding exceptional technical talent.
You are an exceptional supply chain engineer with strong fundamentals and the ability to reason from first principles.
You are a technical leader who raises the bar for the people around you.
You have managed, mentored, or led engineers before and know how to create clarity, accountability, and momentum in ambiguous environments.
You are comfortable owning large, ambiguous, mission-critical problems without waiting for detailed direction.
You can move fluidly between drawings, supplier shop floors, the receiving dock, negotiations, team leadership, and system-level tradeoffs.
You own problems end to end. You don't pass blame; you dig into the details and stay on it until the problem is solved.
You are not just interested in placing orders; you want to stand on the supplier's floor, understand how the part is made, and make it better, cheaper, and faster.
You challenge the status quo, and you act with urgency when the schedule is on the line.
You are willing to learn unfamiliar domains quickly and deeply, whether that means propulsion, avionics, materials, electronics manufacturing, export control, or finance.
You have strong opinions loosely held. You can defend a technical position, accept feedback, change course when the system demands it, and make appropriate tradeoffs in support of the mission.
You are collaborative, low-ego, and rigorous.
You want founding-level ownership and are motivated by building a company, not just completing assigned tasks.
You are excited to help build not only the product, but also the engineering organization behind it.
This role is on-site at our facility; remote work is not considered.
Willingness to work extended hours, including some nights and weekends, when critical deadlines require it.
Ability to travel domestically and internationally to suppliers, up to 30% of the time.
Health Insurance — We cover the full base premium for Blue Shield's Bronze plan. If you would like more coverage, you can upgrade to the Gold plan and cover the difference in premium. You are also welcome to add dependents and a spouse to your plan.
Dental & Vision — We cover the base premiums for both dental and vision through Guardian. Coverage for dependents and a spouse is available as well.
401(k) — We offer a 401(k) with a 4% company match.
Equity — You will receive meaningful equity in the company, so you share in what we build together.
PTO & Sick Time — We offer unlimited PTO and sick time, and we trust you to take the time you need to rest and recharge.
Build ambitious, world-first space hardware alongside an exceptional technical team.
Own the supply base that turns every design into flight hardware.
Build and lead one of the most important technical functions at the company.
Work on systems where design, manufacturing, suppliers, and operations all have to come together.
Define the product, culture, technical standards, and trajectory of a breakthrough company from the beginning.
Take on significant technical and organizational challenges and create outsized impact.
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a: (i) U.S. citizen or national; (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card holder; (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157; (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158; or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Reusable orbital infrastructure for payload hosting
Pillar Space builds reusable satellites that stay in orbit and act as rentable infrastructure for other payloads. A customer launches a payload in a standardized adapter, and Pillar Space’s satellite autonomously docks with it in low Earth orbit, then supplies power, data, thermal management, mobility and mission operations for the lease, with an optional capsule re-entry to return finished products to Earth. This on-orbit docking-based service lets customers test and operate in microgravity without owning their own spacecraft. The team includes veterans from Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicles and alumni from SpaceX and Impulse Space, backed by South Park Commons, with a first mission window targeted for 2028 to provide persistent orbital infrastructure for biotech, semiconductors, materials, and defense clients.
Explore more opportunities at Pillar Space