Contract Manufacturing Manager

About Etched

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. 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.

Job Summary

Etched is looking for a Contract Manufacturing Manager 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.

Key Responsibilities

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

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

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

• Lead contract manufacturing capacity planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)

• 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

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage

  • $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits

• Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office

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

• Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more

• Daily lunch and dinner in our office

• Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system, betting early on transformer and transformer-like architectures and on increasing model sizes. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference, unlike many of our competitors.

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.