Supply Chain / Procurement Manager
Complex Electronics and Controlled Goods
Burlington ON
(Start Date March 2025)
**Please note that to be considered for any position at PV Labs, all candidates must be eligible to meet the requirements of the Canadian Controlled-Goods Program of the Defense Production Act and be able to hold and maintain a Canadian Security Clearance. If you are not clear about your eligibility, please consult the Government of Canada website HERE**
About the Role
PVLabs is seeking Supply Chain/Procurement Manager to join our team at a critical time in our organizations evolution, to help build and mature a competitive, efficient and reliable supply chain ecosystem.
This is not your typical, stay-in-your-lane Supply Chain role. Instead, its a multi-disciplinary role that is essential to all aspects of Materials Management, Procurement, MRP/ERP integrity and Inventory Management for materials and components ranging from complex machined parts to circuit-card assemblies, electro-optical assemblies and sub-assemblies and more. Its also about working with new vendors, and alongside our engineering teams - helping them get up to speed on what were building, the tolerances associated with the manufacturing process and minimizing waste.
With PVLabs being well underway with our transitioning from an innovative engineering company with a product to a multi-variant, airborne sensor systems product company backed by innovative engineering the Supply Chain/Procurement Manager at PVLabs will take a clean-slate approach to defining and leading the supply chain, procurement, pricing/costing, supplier-management, production planning/scheduling and logistics, allowing you to apply your own unique signature on how to build a supply chain function that makes the most sense with the least bureaucracy and solve complex problems with significant business impact.
If that weren't enough we've added layer of "that's cool" with having implemented a slick new ERP System that isn't monolithic but instead agile, as well as leveraging a localization-partner ecosystem who will build our systems in-country meaning the procurement and supply chain framework is a truly global entity despite our small size.
About the Responsibilities
Obviously, some typical Supply Chain/Procurement Management fundamentals will anchor the roles responsibilities, including the following are the back-of-the-hand' things we should all know like:
- Finding efficiencies in Order Management (including Engineering BOM management), Demand Planning/Management, Procurement/Sourcing, Materials/Inventory Management and Distribution & Logistics.
- Oversee materials/parts activities to contribute to the successful timing of manufacturing our systems to meet schedule requirements for on time Customer deliveries.
- Lead Purchasing, Supplier Management, Production Planning/Scheduling, Inventory Management and Logistics.
- Facilitate early engagement between our local/global Suppliers and Engineering team to drive manufacturability, repeatability, cost, and lead time improvements.
What PVLabs is seeking, in addition to the basics, is an objective supply-chain thinker who can look at an opportunity or a problem from several perspectives and co-create solutions that makes sense for both now and the future. Someone who can understand the what if about procurement, the downstream business impacts to a decision, and solving for issues before they arise by removing limits on current or conventional thinking.
What We Consider to be a Big Deal Around Here:
- Point person for owning various vendors and supply chains for our highly-complex electro-mechanical and opto-mechanical products, in multiple geographies.
- Interpret internal or external business issues and recommend best practices (even where there may be none)
- The ability to take a look at current-state and show us all the ways we can do something even better.
- Work closely with engineering to identify preliminary critical parts, long-lead parts, and inspection requirements.
- Effectively liaise between Suppliers and Finance.
- Solve complex procurement problems with a broad perspective to identify/enable innovative solutions.
- Communicate NCR quality issues to Suppliers to drive Root Cause and Corrective Actions.
- Take the lead/initiative on coordinating Supplier support with Engineering.
- Demonstrate the ability to effectively conduct Supplier audits and evaluations.
- Support Internal and External ISO9001
- Sustain the AVL and create a scorecard of relevant suppliers (local and global) in the key categories such as quality, price, delivery/lead times, cost saving opportunities
- Drive dual sourcing activities to mitigate supply risk where needed
- Execute commodity sourcing strategies and support key contract negotiations and bids.
Skills and Competencies That are Important:
- Understanding what happens without a relationship with new vendors, and how to build them effectively.
- Not being an order-taker. Your decisions and input, experience and perspective will be counted on for helping us grow at a critical point in our companys evolution.
- You need to be comfortable making informed decisions and being transparent about it.
- Advanced knowledge of the flow-down of customer contractual requirements to Supplier contract terms and conditions, and the general extended value stream/flow of value from suppliers to final customers.
- Able to identify areas of greatest opportunity to minimize waste/manage cost and increase customer value.
- A good understanding of Controlled Goods-regulated components and their impact on supply chain and inventory management.
- Strong understanding of finance/accounting and managing working capital limitations.
- Exceptional organizational, analytical, communication, negotiation and relationship building/management skills.
- Demonstrated leadership in negotiating high-value and long-term agreements.
- Ability to prioritize daily issues and strategize longer-term projects.
- Comfortable with, or ability to thrive in an NPI-driven engineering organization where competing priorities happen.
- Naturally curious, diplomatic, and innovative.
Experiences That are Important
- CSCP, SCMP or APICS (or similar) accreditation, combined with a degree/diploma in a business-related discipline
- 10+ years' progressive experience in a Procurement/Materials related role within a complex engineering-focused, electronics or discrete technology product focused environment.
- Experience with supply chain management with multi-geography suppliers and assembly sites.
- Experience with electronics/mechatronics manufacturing, assembly and logistics.
- Track record of applying solid data with finance & accounting fundamentals (ie: common sense) to the overall supply chain management ecosystem.
- Familiarity with inventory management and supply chain conditions borne from international offset agreements.
About You as a Supply Chain/Procurement Manager with PVLabs
Our success is not only derived from the collective technical capabilities of an extraordinary team, but more importantly HOW that teams works together. Here's what we really value, and we seek those who share the following:
- Creativity, Curiosity and Problem Solving, with healthy obsession for attention to detail and right-sizing solutions.
- Not afraid to seek out responsibility and opportunities to take the lead.
- A confident communicator who can articulate ideas and concepts, but who also knows that confidence in communication means the ability to ask for help when you need it.
- A continuous-improvement approach to anything you touch
- Participating in everything you think is relevant - we have no lanes to stay in and it works very well.
- Not participating in things that don't make sense to. (We don't like having too many meetings, hope that's ok...)
- Drives the Supply Chain/Procurement function, and our organization not being a passenger.
- Constructively provide and receive guidance, feedback and mentoring to/from other members of the team as were all in this together.
- Preference for working on smaller, nimble, and agile teams that can make decisions locally, quickly and implement solutions that matter.
- The kind of professional maturity that enables you to manage your own time and priorities and finds motivation from multiple sources.
What's in It for You? (great question...)
PV Labs is where your procurement or supply chain career meets limitless innovation and unparalleled impact. You'll be immersed in an environment where groundbreaking technology meets exceptional talent. We take immense pride in our distinctive workplace culture - it fosters collaboration and ingenuity, creating an atmosphere of autonomy, mastery and purpose.
One of those distinguishing culture signatures is our work-life philosophy we've fully embraced a 4-day, 8-hour per day work week, throughout the year supported by a hybrid-remote working model that allows you to work from where it makes the most sense. If that means from home great. If it means coming in and working on site when it makes sense - perfect. We focus on maximizing performance by measuring outputs instead of metrics on hours or location, and the idea that team performance achieved through individual performance.
As an integral member of our Operations Lab, you'll be able to really drive all your experience and expertise into an array of ground-breaking systems, products and projects. Your contributions will span the design, development, and maintenance of our state-of-the-art electro-mechanical stabilization platforms, motion-control systems, camera and lens control systems, video-processing technologies, remote I/O subsystems, and the integration and control of cutting-edge laser technologies.
