Hardware Procurement Specialist

Gritt Robotics · R&D - Mechanical Engineering

Where: South San Francisco
Posted: Jul 8

You'll work hand-in-hand with the mechanical team. They flag what's needed and when; you make sure it arrives on time, at the right price, at the right quality. This is a hands-on, on-site role for someone who is prompt, organized, and wants to build deep procurement and supply chain expertise inside a fast-moving robotics company.

What you'd do

Source off-the-shelf parts. Procure mechanical components - ranging from brackets, mounts, fasteners, and structural and machined parts to LiDAR units, cameras, compute modules, cabling, and connectors - that go into each system.
De-risk long-lead items. LiDARs, industrial cameras, and compute modules often have multi-week lead times - anticipate them, place orders early, and qualify alternates before a delay becomes a blocker.
Keep the floor stocked. Make sure engineers never stall waiting on a part and have the right components, in the right place, when they're needed.
Manage vendors. Build and maintain relationships with mechanical suppliers, sensor and compute distributors, and local machine shops. Negotiate price, lead time, and quality.
Control cost. Keep spend visible per system, push back on inflated quotes, and help the team make cost-aware sourcing decisions.
Track POs and inventory. Own purchase orders end-to-end, track shipments, and keep an accurate picture of what we have, what we need, and when it arrives.
Maintain BOMs & kits. Keep accurate bills of materials per system configuration, work from mechanical drawings and CAD data, and kit together the parts as needed.
Close the feedback loop. Capture sourcing and quality issues found during assembly, testing, or deployment and feed them back into vendor selection and purchasing so we don't see them twice.
Procurement & Sourcing: Direct supplier portals, plus Digi-Key, McMaster-Carr, and Misumi for off-the-shelf parts. For sensors and compute: working directly with LiDAR, camera, and compute vendors.
Custom fabrication: Self-serve fab services like SendCutSend, Xometry, or OshCut to reorder quick-turn machined and laser-cut parts - as well as direct relationships with local machine shops for more recurring custom work.

What they want

1-5 years of experience in procurement, purchasing, supply chain, or operations, ideally in a hardware, robotics, mechanical, aerospace, automotive, or manufacturing environment. Strong internship experience counts.
Hungry to grow. You're early in your career and want to build real expertise fast, with increasing ownership as we scale.
Prompt and on top of things. You return messages quickly, you don't let things sit, and people trust you to follow through. You create POs, poke the right people to ensure payments are made on time, etc.
Organized by default. You naturally keep clean vendor records, PO trackers, and BOMs. When the existing system has a gap, you notice it and raise it rather than letting it quietly cause problems.
Comfortable with hardware. You can read a mechanical drawing, understand a bill of materials, talk to a machine shop, and source a LiDAR or industrial camera. Or you are eager to learn.
A people connector. You can work with mechanical engineers, suppliers, and leadership - and translate between them.
Calm under pressure. When a part is late, you don't spiral. You make a plan and execute.
Mission-driven. You want to work on something that matters. Helping build the infrastructure of the future is exciting to you, not just a job.

About Gritt Robotics · R&D - Mechanical Engineering

Our hardware team builds the physical layer the AI runs on - the platform that puts intelligence on a machine and sends it to work. We integrate perception, industrial sensors, compute, and robotic actuators to create autonomous field systems that can perceive, decide, and act on a real job site. In practice, that means this role lives at the intersection of sourcing, vendor management, and hardware execution.