Supply Chain Leader (Founding)

Coram AI•Sunnyvale, CA

10d•Onsite

About The Position

Coram AI is seeking a founding Supply Chain Manager/Leader to be the strategic "brain" of their supply chain. This role will own the sourcing, securing, and inventory planning of hardware, working with OEMs, JDMs, contract manufacturers, and distributors. The individual will build this function from scratch and report directly to the CEO. The role involves close collaboration with hardware, engineering, logistics, and fulfillment teams to ensure proactive demand planning and securing high-demand inventory like memory, HDDs, and servers, while also working with CMs and JDM partners in Asia. Coram AI is building AI for the physical world, including AI-powered physical security across cameras, access control, and weapon detection, shipping AI security cameras and the compute that powers them, including servers built with GPUs, hard drives, and memory. The company operates with a mix of OEM, JDM, and CM supply chain models, with suppliers in both the US and Asia.

Requirements

Hands-on hardware supply chain experience, ideally with servers, GPUs, HDDs, memory, silicon, or data-center / compute hardware.
Real depth in vendor negotiation and managing OEM / JDM / distributor relationships, and holding them accountable.
Strong grasp of securing supply in constrained markets, pre-buy / down-payment decisions, and the cash-flow implications of inventory.
A builder's mindset: someone who wants to build a function from scratch, not run an existing well-oiled machine.
Strategic and tactical, comfortable in ambiguity.
Smart enough to translate a mature playbook into a fast, scrappy Series-B environment.

Responsibilities

Own how we source, secure, and plan the inventory of our hardware, working across OEMs, JDMs, contract manufacturers, and distributors.
Build the supply chain function from scratch.
Work closely with the hardware, engineering, logistics, and fulfillment teams.
Ensure we are always planning ahead of demand and securing high-in-demand inventory (memory, HDDs, servers).
Work with CMs and JDM partners in Asia.
Source and manage vendors, including OEM vendors, JDM vendors, and distributors (e.g., GPU and server distributors).
Run the full range of sourcing: fully-built (buy the complete assembled product) and parts sourcing (buy and integrate the individual components).
Source across both primary and secondary markets as availability and cost dictate.
Negotiate commercial terms and hold vendors accountable on timelines, delivery, and quality.
Secure supply in advance in tight, allocation-driven markets (GPUs, memory, storage, servers), deciding when to commit and how much.
Own the commercial structure of those commitments, including down-payment strategy, and understand and manage the cash-flow implications of pre-buys and inventory.
Own inventory strategy and readiness: ensure we have enough materials and finished goods in stock to meet demand.
Stand up demand and supply planning, inventory controls, and the requirements for the ERP and how supply chain connects to it.
Build the processes, playbooks, and eventually the team, from zero.
Partner closely with the CEO & finance team on strategy while staying tactical and hands-on.