Sourcing Commodity Manager

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California, +2 more states.

📋 Description

• Take ownership of technical decisions and financial outcomes related to memory and storage commodities

• Collaborate with hardware engineering, manufacturing, and supplier engineering teams

• Ensure alignment between supplier technologies and Cisco’s product architecture and roadmap

• Engage in technical design reviews, assessing feasibility, manufacturability, and performance trade-offs

• Initiate early supplier technical engagement for new designs and architectures

• Lead discussions on supplier technology roadmaps, focusing on design strategies, materials, processes, and manufacturing capabilities

• Serve as the technical escalation point for issues related to supplier design, yield, reliability, and manufacturability

• Hold suppliers accountable for meeting development milestones, technical readiness, and qualification timelines

• Manage supplier technical readiness from prototype stages through to mass production

• Encourage collaboration between supplier engineering teams and Cisco engineers to address design and manufacturing challenges

• Assist in ramp readiness, yield enhancement, and the transition from NPI to sustained production

• Spearhead value engineering initiatives and formulate second-source strategies

• Support geographic diversification and strategies for non-China manufacturing

• Identify technical and manufacturing risks and create mitigation strategies

• Conduct supplier reviews focusing on technology readiness, NPI execution, yield, capacity, and risks

• Provide technical status updates to cross-functional leadership

• Collaborate with Component Engineering on quality investigations and corrective measures

• Propel continuous improvement, establish technical KPIs, and facilitate data-driven supplier performance

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 5 years of technical experience in memory and storage technologies, particularly NAND solutions like SSD, eMMC, UFS, and uSD

• Experience in supporting designs and engaging in manufacturing processes

• At least 8 years of direct experience working with hardware design engineering teams on New Product Introductions (NPI)

• A minimum of 8 years of interaction with suppliers on technical development, qualification, manufacturing readiness, cost negotiations, should-cost modeling, contract management, and RFQ/RFI quotation processes

• Proven experience in supporting hardware designs throughout development, manufacturing, and scaling

• Comfort in engaging in in-depth technical discussions regarding memory and storage design, materials, and manufacturing processes

• A Master’s degree in mechanical engineering or a related field is preferred

• Familiarity with AI system architectures and high-performance computing platforms is preferred

• Strong technical communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement skills are preferred

🏝️ Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance

• 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution

• Paid parental leave

• Short- and long-term disability coverage

• Basic life insurance

• Cisco restricted stock unit grants may be available, subject to eligibility

• 10 paid holidays for each full calendar year

• 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees

• Paid day off for your birthday

• Paid year-end holiday shutdown

• 4 paid personal wellness days

• 16 days of paid vacation for every full calendar year for non-exempt employees

• Flexible vacation time off program with no defined limit for eligible exempt employees

• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire and each January 1st

• Up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward

• Additional paid time off for critical or emergency family situations

• Optional 10 paid volunteer days each calendar year

• Annual bonuses for non-sales positions, contingent on Cisco policies

• Sales incentive compensation does not apply to this non-sales role

• Opportunities for professional growth

• Collaboration and impact within a global team