Supplier Relationship Manager

Our client has built a great product, now they need to make sure it reaches their customers - on time, every time.

The root cause of our biggest operational headaches isn't complex: it's delivery. When suppliers miss windows, production schedules slip, plant managers scramble, and customers feel it. We've decided to stop absorbing that pain and start solving it - and that means bringing in seasoned professionals who know how to get suppliers back on track and keep them there.

But we're not just hiring firefighters. We're building a function that sits at the heart of our operations - one that creates a real, working relationship between our supplier network and our plant teams. The person who succeeds in this role will be equally comfortable at a supplier's production floor and in a plant manager's weekly ops review.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

Supplier Accountability & Vendor Management
* Manage a defined portfolio of suppliers as their primary performance contact - setting expectations, tracking commitments, and driving accountability.
* Lead structured recovery programs when suppliers fall behind, building and owning the plan from diagnosis to resolution.
* Develop and maintain performance scorecards and early-warning indicators that give us visibility before problems become crises.
* Work directly with suppliers to understand root causes of delivery failures and hold them to meaningful corrective action.
* Evaluate and activate contingency options - alternative sourcing, expedited logistics, buffer strategies - when delivery timelines are at risk.
* Identify suppliers whose structural setup (e.g. single-source arrangements, capacity constraints, geographic risk) requires a proactive management strategy, not just reactive oversight.

Plant Liaison & Internal Alignment
* Serve as the dedicated connection point between the supplier base and plant operations - the person both sides call when things get complicated.
* Build working relationships with plant managers to understand their production realities, constraints, and priorities.
* Translate supplier limitations into operational language plant teams can act on - and translate plant urgency into clear, time-bound demands for suppliers.
* Facilitate collaborative problem-solving between plant leadership and supplier contacts when delivery risk threatens production continuity.
* Keep plant managers ahead of supply disruptions with accurate, timely updates - so they're planning with facts, not hoping for the best.
* Align cross-functional stakeholders - Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, Commercial - around a unified response when situations escalate.
* Deliver clear, structured reporting to senior leadership that communicates status, risk, and action without burying the headline.

WHO YOU ARE
* You have hands-on experience managing supplier or vendor performance in a manufacturing or industrial environment - and you've dealt with delivery failures, not just quality metrics.
* You know how to hold a supplier accountable without destroying the relationship - and you know when to escalate and how to do it effectively.
* You're equally comfortable on a plant floor and in an executive briefing. You read the room and adjust accordingly.
* 5+ years experience in strategic sourcing or Supplier Relationship Management
* Bachelors Degree
* Autorization to work in the United States without sponsorship