# Buyer/Purchaser

**Company:** [9 Mothers](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/9-mothers)
**Location:** Austin, TX
**Role:** Other
**Salary:** $105k – $120k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Procurement, Sourcing, vendor negotiation, Supply Chain Management, ERP, mrp, itar compliance, ndaa section 889, counterfeit parts mitigation, bom management, nvidia jetson, pcb assemblies, cnc machining
**Posted:** 2026-07-22

> First dedicated Buyer owning end-to-end procurement for counter-UAS robotics hardware. Source scarce electronics and mechanical parts from non-Chinese/US-preferred vendors, build purchasing processes and systems from scratch, and scale supply chain from prototypes to production while maintaining ITAR compliance.

## Job Description

## Essential Duties

### Sourcing & Procurement (Primary)
- Source and purchase the full robotics bill of materials: custom electronics and PCB assemblies, CNC-machined metal parts, actuators and motors, cable assemblies, cameras and sensors, and supporting COTS hardware.
- Hunt down hard-to-find and allocated electronics — NVIDIA Jetson modules, GPUs, image sensors — through authorized distribution, direct manufacturer relationships, and carefully vetted secondary-market channels, managing counterfeit risk and allocation constraints.
- Run the quote-to-PO cycle: solicit and compare quotes, negotiate pricing, payment terms, and lead times, place purchase orders, and track and expedite deliveries against build schedules.
- Own vendor selection within our trade-compliance constraints: build and maintain a non-Chinese supply base with a strong preference for US vendors, verifying country of origin down to the component level where required.

### Building the Purchasing Function
- Define the company's purchasing processes from scratch: PO workflow and approvals, vendor onboarding and qualification, receiving and inspection handoff, and spend tracking.
- Select and stand up purchasing tooling — from spreadsheets that actually work today to an ERP/MRP system that supports production volumes.
- Build and maintain the approved vendor list; work with engineering on part numbering, BOM hygiene, and approved alternates.
- Give the company visibility: report on spend, open orders, lead-time risk, and cost trends so engineering and leadership can plan around reality.

### Scaling to Production
- Transition the supply base from prototype and small-run buys to production purchasing: qualify vendors for volume, establish second sources for critical parts, and negotiate volume pricing, blanket orders, and scheduled releases.
- Plan procurement against production build schedules — long-lead items ordered early, safety stock on allocation-risk parts, and no line-down surprises.
- Work with engineering on BOM health for production: component lifecycle and end-of-life monitoring, alternate qualification, and cost-down opportunities as volumes grow.

### Compliance & Risk
- Procure within ITAR constraints and maintain the documentation to prove it: country-of-origin records, vendor certifications, and traceability appropriate for defense customers.
- Screen the supply chain against prohibited-source requirements (e.g., NDAA Section 889 covered entities) and keep Chinese-origin content out of the product.
- Protect against counterfeit components — buy through authorized channels by default, and apply rigorous vetting (testing, escrow, documentation) when the secondary market is the only option.

## Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of procurement/purchasing experience for physical hardware products — robotics, defense, aerospace, automotive, industrial equipment, or similar electromechanical systems.
- Proven ability to source scarce and allocated electronics: you have found parts others couldn't (GPU modules, embedded compute, image sensors, or similar), and you know the authorized-distribution landscape, the broker market, and how to avoid counterfeits.
- Experience buying across our categories: custom PCB assemblies, machined metal parts, actuators/motors, cable assemblies, and cameras or sensors.
- Experience supporting a product transition from prototype/low-volume to production purchasing — vendor qualification, volume negotiation, and lead-time planning.
- Track record of building or substantially defining purchasing processes, not just executing within an established system.
- Self-sufficient as a department of one: you set your own priorities, close your own loops, and don't need a manager to unblock you.
- Strong negotiator with vendors of all sizes — from Fortune 500 distributors to two-person machine shops.
- US person (citizen or lawful permanent resident) — required for ITAR compliance.

## Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in a defense or ITAR-regulated environment; working familiarity with NDAA Section 889, country-of-origin verification, and government customer flow-downs.
- Experience selecting or implementing an ERP/MRP system at a growing hardware company.
- Existing relationships with electronics distributors (Arrow, Avnet, Digi-Key, Mouser, etc.), embedded-compute vendors, and domestic machine shops or contract manufacturers.
- Experience with formal supplier qualification, supplier audits, or purchasing in an AS9100/ISO 9001 environment.
- Early-stage startup experience — comfortable with ambiguity, thin process, and building the airplane while flying it.

## What Success Looks Like
In the first 90 days, purchasing runs through you and nobody misses the old way: engineers hand you a part number or a drawing and parts show up on time. You own the vendor relationships that matter, you've found at least one "impossible" part, and a real PO process exists where none did before.

On an ongoing basis, builds don't slip because of parts. Long-lead and allocation-risk items are ordered before they become emergencies, costs come down as volumes go up, and the supply base is production-ready, second-sourced where it counts, and clean of prohibited vendors. When we scale, purchasing is a reason we can — not a reason we can't.

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