Head of Supply Chain

About Etched

Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents.

Job Summary

We’re looking for a seasoned supply chain leader to own and scale our end-to-end operations – from component sourcing to L10 server and L11 rack-level system integration. As Head of Supply Chain, you will drive readiness across new product introduction (NPI) and high-volume manufacturing, ensuring we deliver reliable, cost-effective systems at scale.

This role requires both strategic vision and hands-on execution: building partnerships, optimizing cost structures, and developing processes that continually improve efficiency. You will collaborate closely with engineering, operations, and finance to align capacity planning, sourcing strategies, and cost targets with Etched’s ambitious roadmap. Familiarity with silicon and OSAT is highly valuable.

As a critical member of the leadership team, you will define how our systems move from design into production, and ultimately to customers – through a global network of manufacturing and integration partners. This is a unique opportunity to build the supply chain that enables Etched to scale from groundbreaking innovation to world-class delivery.

Key responsibilities

Strategic Supply Chain Leadership

• Build and lead an integrated supply chain strategy covering components, L6 PCBA, L10 Server and L11 rack systems

• Own and evolve supply chain processes, tools, and infrastructure to support scale from prototypes to mass production.

• Serve as the cross-functional interface between internal engineering, NPI, manufacturing, and external partners to ensure program alignment.

Team Leadership & Organizational Growth

• Build and grow a world-class supply chain team, with capabilities spanning planning, logistics, sourcing, and supplier management.

• Mentor and develop team members, setting clear expectations and supporting career growth.

• Establish team operating rhythms, review structures, and performance benchmarks that scale with the company’s needs.

• Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement across the function.

Supplier & Partner Management

• Establish and manage strategic relationships with all component suppliers and system level integrators.

• Monitor supplier performance, lead times, capacity constraints, and negotiate supplier terms as needed.

• Ensure alignment of specs, BOMs, delivery expectations, and quality standards across vendor engagements.

• Manage executive level relationships.

Supply Chain Planning & Execution to Support Production

• Own detailed planning across all component suppliers and system integration suppliers.

• Drive capacity planning and readiness across multiple suppliers to meet aggressive production and delivery timelines.

• Coordinate material availability, and production ramp milestones for both components and systems.

Forecasting, Reporting, and Risk Mitigation

• Develop demand forecasts across system components, integrating yield, build schedules, and market dynamics.

• In regular S&OP, own supply chain planning, supply commit and risk purchase authorization from Supply Chain perspective

• Provide executive-level reporting on supply chain performance, capacity utilization, and delivery KPIs.

• Proactively identify risks, bottlenecks, and recovery plans across the full supply chain stack.

Process & System Improvement

• Implement best practices for lead time reduction, cost optimization, and component lifecycle management.

• Partner with operations and engineering to improve BOM management, yield tracking, and ERP integration.

• Drive continuous improvement across internal workflows and external supplier operations.

You may be a good fit if you have

• 10+ years of experience in supply chain leadership within semiconductor, systems, or high-complexity hardware environments.

• Deep experience managing Tier-1 CM and ODM relationships across advanced systems.

• Strong technical knowledge of advanced manufacturing processes, strategic components and server-level integration.

• Track record building and scaling supply chains across both NPI and volume production phases.

• Familiarity with ERP systems (e.g., Oracle), Excel analytics, and supply chain planning tools.

• Excellent program management, negotiation, and cross-functional communication skills.

• Willingness to travel up to 25% for supplier coordination and production monitoring.

Strong candidates may also have

• Experience with custom components (e.g. PCBs, cold plates, ASICS).

• Exposure to system integration for high-performance computing or AI/ML infrastructure.

Base Salary Compensation

• $225,000 - $275,000

Benefits

• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with generous premium coverage

• Housing subsidy of $2,000/month for those living within walking distance of the office

• Daily lunch and dinner in our office

• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.