We’re building an AI-native manufacturing marketplace transforming how the best companies get custom parts manufactured. There aren’t many early stage companies where you’ll get to work with industry titans like Apple and Anduril, solving their hair on fire problems, but you will at Vendra.

We help teams at these companies (and many more) get their critical hardware built in the United States through smarter supplier matching and automation. Our vision is to become the only platform that an engineer ever turns to when they need things made. We’re backed by Y Combinator and top investors, and we’re building a team to ship fast and solve hard problems as we continue to build and scale.

Note: Vendra is ITAR registered and works on federal and defense programs. All employees must be US citizens located in the US.

About the founders 👨‍🔧👨‍💻

Anish (CTO) built machine learning algorithms for one of the largest satellite datasets in the world at General Atomics, and was founding machine learning engineer at Ship Angel.

Shan (CEO) worked on next-gen hardware at Microsoft (HoloLens 2), Apple (Vision Pro), and designed most of the cameras on Skydio’s latest generation X10 drone, spending months working onsite with manufacturers across the US and Asia.

About the Role 👨‍🚀

As Supplier Operations Lead, you’ll be the right hand to the CEO on all things supply in Vendra’s two-sided marketplace. You’ll own the workflows, processes, and relationships that power our manufacturing network, and help define the internal tools and product roadmap to scale it fast. This role is for someone with hands on experience in hardware and loves working directly with manufacturers and technical teams to solve real, physical problems.

What you’ll do

• Manage and support active supplier relationships to ensure reliable manufacturing, quality, and delivery across active customers and orders
• Act as a feedback loop between suppliers and engineering to prioritize product features that streamline operations for both sides of the marketplace
• Define and track key metrics like supplier lead time, rejection rates, and responsiveness, and build reporting systems to monitor and improve performance
• Work directly with the technical team to ensure capacity planning and load balancing across Vendra’s supplier network, making sure supplier utilization is optimized
• Continuously scout and qualify new suppliers, especially in specialized or high-priority geographies or capabilities (ex: ITAR, aerospace, medtech, etc.)
• Work directly with customers and users to collect feedback and help define requirements on the product and supplier side of the marketplace

What we’re looking for (and what makes you a strong fit)

• You have a deep understanding of manufacturing processes and workflows (from quoting to DFM to production to inspections)
• You have hands on experience with hardware manufacturing programs, either as a technical contributor (mechanical/electrical engineer) or as part of a supply chain or manufacturing ops team
• You’re comfortable working directly with machine shops and contract manufacturers, including on-site visits, audits, and production troubleshooting
• You’re comfortable as definition of this role changes, as you might be required to hop in and contribute to a sales call with the CEO or join a technical product review with the CTO
• You know how software systems are built and can contribute meaningfully to product and feature discussions with engineers
• Bonus: Experience as a mechanical or electrical hardware design engineer, especially in high-mix production environments
• Super Bonus: Experience with AI tools to build automation and eliminate manual workflows to make your own life or work easier 😉

We care about clean system architecture, performance under pressure, and fast iteration. Everyone ships.

Tech stack:

• Frontend: React, TypeScript
• Backend: Node.js, Python
• ML and Agents: OpenAI, Claude, fine tuned models, custom LLM orchestration
• Infra: AWS, Postgres, Redis, S3, Vercel, Docker
• Data: Real time quote intelligence, supplier availability, historical manufacturing performance

We are looking for engineers who want to move fast, own real product surfaces, and help define how custom parts are sourced in the future.