Supply Chain Manager

About the role:

Greyparrot builds AI-powered waste analytics — software that identifies and quantifies material streams in real time, delivered through analysers we design and manufacture. Hardware and software are equally core to the product: the analysers exist to feed the software, and the software is only as good as hardware that ships on time, works reliably, and scales with demand.

We are moving out of an R&D-volume phase into steady, operationalised production — roughly 150 units built in 2026, with 2027 volumes forecast at 500+. Analysers are built by a production partner based in Wales, using parts sourced from Asia & Europe, and shipped to customers across the US, Europe, and the UK. Right now, production ownership is split: forecasting and budget approval sit with the COO, while purchasing, including placing parts orders and fielding supplier and production-partner queries, has defaulted to the Hardware Manager, who knows the suppliers best but needs to return to R&D. Neither is a dedicated supply chain role, which makes this a function that can't scale independently of either of them.

This role exists to take that ownership on properly: the production partner relationship, the parts pipeline that feeds it, the ERP that tracks all of it, and the supplier and freight relationships that determine what it costs, including outbound and returns flows. Stock and order tracking is manual today, and a first version of the ERP will be stood up before you start. You take it over from day one and own it from there: what it holds, how well it fits, and how it grows with volume. This role sits alongside the Logistics & Delivery Lead, who owns shipment booking, last-mile delivery, and on-site installation. This role owns carrier contracts and rates, customs, and returns, plus the planning, forecasting, and partner management that everything downstream depends on, and the handover between the two is explicit.

Mission

To ensure Greyparrot always has the analysers, parts, and shipping capacity to meet demand - on time, at a defensible cost - as production scales from early stage volumes into growth scale.

Outcomes

These are the results you will be held to. How you achieve them is yours to figure out.

• Production and stock are actively managed, not tracked after the fact. Iota’s build schedule, work-in-progress, and finished-goods stock are managed against real, current demand — the business is never caught short of analysers to ship, and never sitting on cash tied up in stock it doesn’t need yet. Stock is held within Iota’s holding limit (currently around 50 units), with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for anything that needs to sit beyond it.

• Parts arrive before they’re needed, not when they’re missed. Global parts orders — mostly from Asia — are placed against a rolling forecast that respects real lead times (currently around 18 weeks), so a line ramp or a demand spike never stalls production because an order went in too late. Orders within the agreed purchasing budget are yours to approve; only spend above it goes to the COO.

• Capacity is a known number, not a guess. Production capacity — build rate, ramp time, and refurbishment throughput — is forecast against the sales pipeline and board targets, so Operations and Commercial always know what can actually be built and shipped, and by when, without needing to ask.

• Stock, orders, and production status are visible across the business, in a system you own. You own the ERP that replaces today’s manual tracking — its requirements, configuration, data quality, adoption, and ongoing administration, and the roadmap for it as volume grows — so the current picture of parts, stock, and production is visible to whoever needs it, whenever they need it.

• Supplier economics are actively managed, not accepted as given. Rates with the parts suppliers and shipping providers are benchmarked and renegotiated on a regular cycle, keeping landed cost per unit under control as volume scales.

• Commercial demand drives purchasing only when it’s firm. Forecasts and reserves from Commercial turn into purchase orders and dispatch only once there is a signed contract and a completed site-readiness form, so parts and units aren’t committed against demand that doesn’t land.

• Product version changes land cleanly. When a new analyser version or bill of materials replaces the current one, the cutover is planned across parts, stock, and Iota’s build schedule, so old-version parts aren’t left stranded and the new version isn’t held up waiting for them.

• Returned and refurbished units flow back into supply deliberately. Returned units are tracked, assessed, and either refurbished and restocked or retired, with their costs and customs treatment accounted for, so the refurbishment stream adds supply rather than confusion.

• Outbound logistics is reliable in every market we ship to. Shipments to the US, Europe, and UK are planned and executed to account for each region’s customs, duties, and documentation requirements, so delivery timelines hold and nothing gets stuck at a border; returns are tracked against outbound shipments so customs and duties reconcile.

• A single point of failure doesn’t stay a single point of failure. The risk of relying on one production partner and long parts lead times is named explicitly, with real mitigations in place — buffer stock, an escalation path, and a live plan to qualify a second production partner (likely US-based) so the business isn’t exposed to one site, one region, or one relationship.

• Hardware, Finance, and Commercial all work from the same picture. Production status, capacity constraints, and cost data are visible and current for the teams that plan around them, without each function needing a separate update. And, Hardware's time goes to R&D, not purchasing or supplier calls.

Competencies

How you work matters as much as what you deliver. These reflect Greyparrot's values, at Senior IC tier.

CURIOSITY

You build a culture of asking why in the supply chain — why a forecast missed, why a part slipped, why a supplier's price moved — and you encourage Hardware, Finance, and Commercial to ask the same of you. You're willing to be wrong and to update your view publicly when new evidence warrants it, whether that's a supplier, a forecast, or how the ERP is set up, and you share your reasoning where others can see it.

CUSTOMER CHAMPION

You encourage the people around you to put the customer at the centre of production and purchasing calls, not as an afterthought. You translate customer and demand signals into forecasting, ordering, and capacity decisions the team can act on, and you translate operational reality — what can be built and shipped, and by when — back to Commercial in terms they can take to a customer.

IMPACT

You take on the higher-ambiguity work — the ERP, a second production partner, a forecast that has to hold at 500+ units — not only the convenient pieces. You state outcomes, not outputs: what changed in cost, lead time, stock accuracy, or capacity because of your work, published where the company can read it, including when it didn't land. You summarise a problem, your recommendation, and the trade-offs concisely so decisions can be made quickly.

AGILITY

You review and improve processes, routines, and tools when they've stopped fitting purpose — manual tracking, ordering rhythms, forecasting cadence. You make decisions in ambiguity — a demand spike, a delayed part, a product version cutover — without pushing uncertainty up or sideways, and you document the trigger, the decision, and the trade-offs. You run changes as tests and share what you learned openly, including when it didn't work.

INTEGRITY

You make decisions in public forums, not private channels, and you name what you're holding back and why. You hold peers accountable to commitments in the moment — a forecast sign-off, a delivery date, a handover — and give candid feedback regularly rather than saving it up. You make it safe to flag a missed order, a bad forecast, or a supplier problem early, so it isn't buried.