Head of Supply Chain

Icarus•El Segundo, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Icarus builds solar-powered aircraft designed to fly at 60,000 feet for weeks at a time. The Head of Supply Chain will build and lead the supply chain that turns aircraft designs into repeatable production and reliable field operations. The role owns procurement, material planning, warehousing, and logistics, and works closely with engineering, manufacturing, finance, and flight operations. It is a hands-on leadership position: the successful candidate will build the team and systems while staying close to day-to-day work to resolve important shortages and supplier problems. The role is based at Icarus’ El Segundo factory and requires working there five days a week. Icarus describes its culture as an elite sports team, emphasizing fun, hyperfocus, extreme ownership, and radical transparency.

Requirements

At least 7 years of supply chain, procurement, material planning, or manufacturing operations experience in a hardware environment.
Experience leading a team and scaling a supply chain through a production ramp.
A record of negotiating supplier agreements and resolving difficult capacity, quality, or delivery problems.
Strong understanding of BOMs, ERP/MRP, inventory control, and the connection between engineering changes and material demand.
Ability to move between strategic decisions and hands-on execution without losing detail.
Clear communication, sound commercial judgment, and a habit of making risks visible early.
Ability to work at the El Segundo factory five days a week.

Nice To Haves

Built a supply chain at an aerospace, defense, robotics, or other hardware startup.
Experience with ION or a comparable modern manufacturing ERP.
Experience working across electronics, precision mechanical components, batteries, or composite materials.
Experience improving warehouse operations across multiple production sites.

Responsibilities

Translate aircraft build schedules and field demand into purchasing priorities, clear-to-build reviews, inventory policies, and supplier commitments.
Own strategic supplier relationships, negotiations, capacity planning, lead-time reduction, and practical mitigation of sole-source risk.
Build and lead a team of Buyer/Planners responsible for procurement and supply planning across electrical, mechanical, propulsion, composites, and raw materials.
Lead warehouse operations, including receiving, putaway, kitting, inventory control, and delivery to the production line; establish clear ownership from the receiving dock to the point of use.
Ensure ION and underlying BOM, item, supplier, lead-time, and inventory data are dependable enough to run the business.
Coordinate inbound, outbound, inter-site, and field-support material flows with the logistics lead.
Partner with engineering and quality on supplier qualification, acceptance requirements, corrective actions, and changes affecting the supply base.
Hire and develop the team, set clear expectations, and improve on-time delivery, inventory accuracy, material availability, and total cost.