Position Summary
The Director of Strategic Sourcing will lead the transformation of AEM's global sourcing strategy, with emphasis on supplier collaboration, engineering partnership, cost optimization, and operational agility. This leader will drive crossfunctional alignment to achieve cost, lead time, quality, and innovation objectives in a highly dynamic engineering and manufacturing environment.
As AEM transitions to an assetlight, outsourced manufacturing model, the role requires deep experience managing contract manufacturers. The Director will establish the operating framework, performance metrics, and governance needed to drive continuous cost reduction and cycle time improvement across the supplier ecosystem.
Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Collaboration
- Lead a collaborative sourcing model in partnership with the Technology, Engineering, and Product Development to align supplier capabilities with AEM's technology roadmap.
- Drive Early Supplier Involvement (ESI) to enhance design outcomes, reduce lead times, and optimize cost structures.
- Develop and implement sourcing strategies that balance cost, lead time, quality, risk, and scalability in support of gross margin and operational priorities.
Supplier Development & Performance
- Build strategic, longterm supplier relationships and evaluate partners based on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), delivery performance, technical capability, local presence, inventory commitment, and roadmap alignment.
- Lead supplier consolidation initiatives, selfqualification programs, and vendormanaged inventory (VMI) to increase efficiency and reduce overhead.
- Establish and maintain robust qualification frameworks with Supplier Quality and Design for Manufacturability (DFM) teams.
- Manage contract manufacturers with strong focus on performance, flexibility, cost control, and scalability.
- Define and maintain structured KPIs and performance dashboards to drive supplier cost and cycle time improvements.
Cost Optimization & Digital Enablement
- Identify and execute costsaving initiatives including component reuse, modular design, tier pricing, localization, and raw material standardization.
- Leverage digital tools, analytics, and AIenabled platforms to strengthen sourcing visibility, risk management, and decisionmaking.
Operational Excellence
- Support New Product Introduction (NPI) through agile and proactive sourcing practices that maintain compliance while accelerating engineering and development cycles.
- Strengthen governance across sourcing processes while implementing scalable, pragmatic practices suitable for fastmoving environments.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, or related field; MBA preferred.
- 10+ years in strategic sourcing or supply chain leadership roles, with proven experience working closely with Engineering and Manufacturing teams.
- Demonstrated experience managing contract manufacturers, including cost, performance, and scalability management.
- Proven ability to design and implement sourcing frameworks and performance matrices to reduce cost and cycle time.
- Strong knowledge of sourcing for both standard components and fabricated parts, with handson experience in localization and supplier development across Asia.
- Track record of driving measurable cost reductions, lead time improvements, and supplier performance enhancements.
- Exceptional influencing, negotiation, and relationshipbuilding skills.
- Handson leadership style and strong changemanagement capability.
