Job Description
About Harmonic Drive
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Harmonic Drive LLC designs and manufactures precision motion control components — strain wave gearing, actuators, and servo systems — that power robotics, aerospace, semiconductor, and medical automation applications around the world. Our products show up in some of the most demanding, precision-critical machines built today, and our team takes that responsibility seriously.
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About the Role
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We’re looking for a strategic, hands-on procurement leader to own purchasing across our entire business — both the production materials that keep our manufacturing floor running and the non-production spend (facilities, equipment, professional services, and more) that has never had a dedicated procurement owner before. This is a true player-coach role: you’ll spend most of your time leading strategy, negotiations, and a small team of buyers, while staying close enough to the details to jump in on critical sourcing yourself when it matters. If you like building something — not just maintaining what’s already there — this is a rare chance to shape a function from the ground up at a company whose parts end up in aircraft, robots, and life-saving medical equipment.
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What You’ll Do
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- Lead sourcing strategy and supplier negotiations across both production materials and non-production categories (facilities, capital equipment, professional services, and more).
- Build Harmonic Drive’s first formal non-production purchasing program — vendor lists, spend visibility, and controls where none exist today.
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of buyers/planners, while personally leading the most complex or critical negotiations yourself.
- Own key supplier relationships, performance, and risk — including sourcing metals, castings, machined components, and electro-mechanical parts.
- Negotiate and manage supplier contracts and agreements — terms and conditions, long-term supply agreements, NDAs, and more — and make sure customer requirements flow through cleanly into our supplier agreements.
- Create and negotiate safety stock agreements with our customers to help protect on-time delivery.
- Drive supplier-side resolution of excess and obsolete inventory, partnering with Finance on reserves and write-offs.
- Serve as the key procurement contact for quality auditors (AS9100/ISO 9001, with working DFARS awareness) on supplier records and process compliance.
- Bring modern sourcing practices — spend analytics (e.g., Power BI), supplier scorecards, and AI-assisted procurement tools — into a company ready to modernize its purchasing function.
- Travel domestically and internationally to visit suppliers, audit performance, and negotiate in person.
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What You Bring
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- 10+ years of progressive purchasing/strategic sourcing experience in a manufacturing environment, ideally spanning both production and non-production procurement.
- 5+ years leading, coaching, and developing buyers or sourcing professionals.
- Hands-on experience sourcing metals, castings, machined components, electro-mechanical parts, and outside processing services (e.g., heat treat, anodizing, passivation) — required.
- Solid working knowledge of supplier contracts — comfortable negotiating and managing routine agreements and knowing when to bring in Legal.
- Working knowledge of an ERP system (Dynamics 365 F&O, Dynamics AX, SAP, Oracle, or similar); Dynamics 365 F&O experience a plus.
- CPSM, CPIM, or CPM preferred — or willingness to obtain, with our support and sponsorship.
- A strategic mindset paired with a willingness to roll up your sleeves — you’ll operate at roughly an 80% strategic / 20% tactical balance.
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What Success Looks Like
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- Bringing previously unmanaged non-production spend under formal purchasing control and visibility.
- Building real risk visibility across key suppliers — before problems hit, not after.
- Driving fast, effective resolution when supplier quality issues arise.
- Delivering measurable, credible cost savings — and being clear about what’s real savings versus cost avoidance.
- Getting supplier agreements properly in place and current — with customer requirements flowing through accurately.
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Why Harmonic Drive
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- A rare opportunity to build a procurement function — not just inherit one.
- Significant room to grow — this role is built to expand in scope and seniority as you build out the function and prove out its impact.
- Direct visibility with senior operations leadership; this role reports to the VP of Operations.
- Work on components that go into precision robotics, aerospace, and medical technology.
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