Director of Supply Chain & Hardware Operations (Robotics)

Location: Hybrid in Stuttgart, Germany; willingness to travel to suppliers and customer sites is required.

Company

hirify.global builds AI-driven robotics that enable robots to sense, reason, and act in industrial environments such as warehouses and factories.

What you will do

• Move grippers, robotic cells, safety cabinets, and final assembly to external contract manufacturers and EMS partners.
• Transfer frozen designs into repeatable volume production, including ramp plans, build instructions, work instructions, and jigs; complete an external pilot build of grippers within the first 90 days.
• Select, negotiate with, and manage suppliers while planning capacity and building redundancy for critical and sole-source components.
• Own incoming inspection, supplier quality, first article inspection, PPM targets, and the manufacturing side of the RMA process.
• Build S&OP, forecasting, buffer stock, logistics, and EU/US import and export processes to keep hardware available for deployments.
• Own hardware unit cost, reduce COGS, establish the operating model and KPIs, and define the split between bespoke builds and a standardized product line.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in supply chain, manufacturing, or hardware operations, including several years in a leadership role.
• Track record of taking a complex electromechanical product from prototype to hundreds of units per year and maintaining production after the ramp.
• Experience establishing outsourced contract manufacturing, supplier quality, logistics, and inventory from scratch in a scaleup or growth-stage company.
• Degree in engineering, supply chain, operations, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on supplier selection, negotiation, and supplier quality experience.
• Manufacturing quality, NPI, and industrialization experience.
• Supply and demand planning and inventory management experience.
• Ability to install operating discipline, accountability, and KPIs in a fast-moving, resource-constrained environment.
• Fluent English and willingness to travel to suppliers and customer sites.

Nice to have

• Experience in robotics, warehouse automation, AMRs, or autonomous vehicles.
• Experience turning demos and pilots into repeatable production deployments.
• Experience working with product engineering on design-to-cost and DfM.
• German fluency.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity in a fast-growing Series B robotics company.
• Flexible PTO.
• Collaborative, high-ownership culture.
• Ownership of the supply chain and manufacturing setup while scaling to hundreds of units per year.