Senior Commodity Manager - (Electro-Mechanical)

Who We Are:

Motive builds technology to improve the safety, productivity, and profitability of businesses that power the physical economy. The Motive Automated Operations Platform combines IoT hardware with AI-powered applications to automate vehicle and equipment tracking, driver safety, compliance, maintenance, spend management, and more. Motive serves more than 120,000 businesses, across a wide range of industries including trucking and logistics, construction, oil and gas, food and beverage, field service, agriculture, passenger transit, and delivery.

Motive is proud to be a Forbes Cloud 100 company and a 2020 Career-Launching Company by Wealthfront.

About the Role:

Build the supply strategy behind our products

Cable, battery, PCB, connector. Four commodities that shape whether our products ship on time, at the right cost, and at the performance our customers expect. You'll own the commercial strategy for all four — and you won't do it alone.

You'll work shoulder to shoulder with design engineers while the schematic is still moving, so component choices reflect both technical need and commercial reality before the BOM freezes. You'll lead negotiations with our supply base, build the supplier relationships that keep material flowing, and bring Engineering, Product, and Operations along with you.

We're looking for someone who likes that kind of role: high ownership, genuinely cross-functional, and close to the people doing the design work.

What You’ll Do:

Set the strategy, and bring people with you

• Build and publish the sourcing strategy for cable, battery, PCB, and connector: technology roadmaps, supply landscape, cost trends, and the reasoning behind where we place our bets.
• Establish a Preferred Vendor List that gives Engineering a clear, well-supported set of partners to design toward — reducing rogue spend and design-in risk.
• Run quarterly deep-dives on the supply base with your engineering and quality counterparts, spotting emerging technology early and qualifying second sources before we need them.

Lead negotiations grounded in real numbers

• Drive meaningful cost reduction through a Total Cost of Ownership approach.
• Report every number on a Landed Cost basis — unit price, logistics, duty, channel margin — so Finance and leadership are working from the same picture.
• Lead RFQs on all new projects over $50k, backed by clean-sheet costing and should-cost modeling. You'll walk into negotiations knowing what a part should cost, and why.

Keep supply flowing

• Own supply assurance end to end: BOM scrubs, multi-sourcing, expediting, and the supplier relationships that help us secure allocation when material is tight.
• Partner with planning and operations to protect build schedules, and flag risk early enough for the team to act on it.
• Run QBRs with top-tier suppliers against clear scorecards — OTD, quality, cost, technology — and turn those conversations into real improvement plans.
• Coordinate the response when supply issues escalate, pulling in the right people rather than carrying it alone.

Be the engineer's ally

• Embed with design teams at the concept phase and translate in both directions: technical requirements into commercial strategy, and cost and lifecycle realities into terms engineers can design around.
• Make sure new designs land on components with long-term lifecycle support.Turn complex supply chain data into short, clear summaries that help leadership make decisions.

Minimum Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in sourcing and supply chain management, with a focus on board electricals for consumer electronics, automotive or related industries.
• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, engineering, business administration, or a related field.
• Demonstrated negotiation skills and proven experience in contract management.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and drive strategic decisions.
• Experience with global supplier management and working in cross-functional teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels and resolve conflicts.

Preferred Requirements

• Demonstrated success in driving supplier innovation and achieving significant cost reduction.
• Knowledge of international trade compliance and tariff regulations.