Head of Contract Manufacturing

Etched is building the world’s first AI inference system purpose-built for transformers - delivering over 10x higher performance and dramatically lower cost and 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. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Etched is looking for a Head of Contract Manufacturing to lead our global contract manufacturing strategy as we scale production of advanced AI hardware systems.

You will own the selection, management, and performance of Etched’s CM, ODM, JDM, and EMS partners across NPI, pilot builds, production ramps, and sustaining operations. This role is highly cross-functional, working closely with hardware engineering, manufacturing, quality, test, supply chain, finance, legal, and executive leadership.

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  Develop and execute Etched’s contract manufacturing strategy across L6, L10, and L11

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  Identify, evaluate, select, and onboard global CM, ODM, JDM, and EMS partners

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  Own executive-level supplier relationships, business reviews, escalations, and long-term partnership planning

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  Lead contract manufacturing capacity planning

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  Negotiate product costing, manufacturing value add, NRE, CapEx, tooling, payment terms, warranty, and capacity commitments

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  Lead contract manufacturing (CM/JDM) engagement process, which includes RFQ/RFP processes, contracting (MSA/SOW/SLA/etc.), and cost negotiations

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  Drive supplier performance across cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, yield, capacity, and responsiveness

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  Partner with engineering, manufacturing, test, and quality teams to ensure factory readiness for NPI and production ramps

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  Build cost models, lead should-cost analysis, and drive cost reduction programs

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  Identify and mitigate manufacturing risks related to capacity, quality, tooling, regional concentration, and supply continuity

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  Present supplier strategy, cost tradeoffs, capacity plans, and risks to executive leadership

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, supply chain, operations, business, or a related technical field

• 10+ years of experience in supply chain, manufacturing operations, sourcing, or contract manufacturing

• Significant experience managing contract manufacturers for complex hardware products

• Experience with PCBAs, systems, servers, networking, compute, datacenter infrastructure, or similar hardware platforms

• Proven ability to negotiate complex supplier agreements and scale global manufacturing partnerships

• Strong understanding of NPI, pilot builds, production ramps, sustaining operations, factory readiness, and supplier quality

• Experience building cost models, managing supplier scorecards, and driving operational improvement

• Strong cross-functional leadership and executive communication skills

• Experience managing suppliers across Asia and working across global time zones

• Ability to operate with urgency, ownership, and sound judgment in fast-moving environments

• Strong candidates may also have experience with

• AI infrastructure, datacenter hardware, rack-level integration, or high-performance compute systems

• Experience at a hyperscaler, OEM, semiconductor company, contract manufacturer, or high-growth hardware startup

• Deep familiarity with EMS cost structures, factory operations, labor models, yield, test, and line utilization

• MBA or master’s degree in engineering, operations, supply chain, or a related field

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 and Taipei, 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.