Senior Manager, Sourcing & Procurement

Location: Remote (US)

About Misen

At Misen, we’re on a mission to make cooking more enjoyable, accessible, and rewarding for everyone. We create thoughtfully designed kitchen tools - from knives to cookware - that combine premium quality with honest pricing. As we scale, we’re building best-in-class operations, technical infrastructure, and ecommerce systems to support both growth and exceptional execution.

About the Role

We’re seeking a hands-on Senior Manager, Sourcing & Procurement to own how Misen finds, develops, and manages the suppliers behind every product we make and to help bring those products from concept to production. The strength of our supplier relationships directly determines what we can launch, when we can launch it, and at what cost.

This role requires a strong background in sourcing and procurement for consumer hard goods. Candidates without direct experience running RFPs and managing overseas manufacturing partners will not be considered.

You’ll work hand in hand with our Product Development team from early concept through launch: refining specs, iterating on samples with factories, and solving the engineering and cost tradeoffs that shape the final product. You’ll make sure we have the right supplier options in place for every new product, run the RFP and negotiation process end-to-end, and own development timelines from first sample to production. You’ll plan ahead with Compliance so testing never becomes a late-stage surprise, work with Marketing to line up launch dates we can actually hit, and build the forecasts that tell our suppliers what’s coming. This role touches every team at Misen and is a key piece of how we grow.

This is an individual contributor role, not a delegation-only role. You’ll do the supplier outreach, run the RFPs, chase and evaluate samples, push design and quality changes through with factories, and negotiate the pricing yourself. Success requires someone who is excited to be in the weeds, moves quickly with agency, and doesn’t need a team behind them to get things done.

Most of our suppliers are in China, so regular early-morning or evening calls are part of the job, not an edge case. This role is remote and we’re open to anywhere in the US for someone comfortable working on our suppliers’ schedule. Occasional travel to supplier facilities may be required.

What You’ll Do

Sourcing & Supplier Development

• Identify, vet, and onboard new manufacturing partners across categories - cookware, cutlery, tableware, glassware, textiles, and packaging - so Product Development always has qualified options to choose from.

• Write and run RFPs end-to-end: build the spec package, manage supplier outreach, compare quotes on an apples-to-apples basis, and recommend a path forward.

• Build should-cost models and negotiate pricing, MOQs, payment terms, tooling costs, and lead times directly with suppliers, and track landed cost - COGS, duties, and freight - against margin targets for every new product.

• Evaluate supplier capability, capacity, and risk before we commit, and build backup options across factories and, where it makes sense, countries, so a single supplier or tariff change never becomes a single point of failure.

Development Timelines & Launch Readiness

• Own development timelines from first sample through pre-production and mass production, and keep Product, Compliance, and Marketing aligned on what’s on track and what’s at risk.

• Manage the sample process - requests, revisions, approvals, and golden samples - so issues are caught early, not at production.

• Partner with Compliance to plan testing into every development timeline so products meet all applicable standards before launch, not after.

• Work with Marketing to set launch dates grounded in real supplier timelines, and flag slips early enough to adjust plans.

Forecasting & Procurement

• Build and maintain forecasts for new and existing products that inform purchase orders, supplier capacity planning, and inventory decisions.

• Share forecasts with suppliers so they can plan materials and capacity ahead of our orders, and flag supply risks like shortages or delays early enough to build a contingency plan.

• Own the full purchase order lifecycle - placement, production, delivery, and payment - and track forecasts vs. actuals, adjusting plans as demand changes.

Supplier Relationships & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as Misen’s day-to-day point of contact for our suppliers, building relationships that hold up when something goes wrong.

• Resolve quality, delay, and cost issues directly with factories, and drive corrective actions to completion.

• Partner with Operations, Finance, and Customer Experience to turn supplier information into clear decisions on cost, timing, and inventory.

• Track supplier performance - on-time delivery, lead-time reliability, and quality - and maintain clear documentation of supplier terms, contacts, and timelines.

Who You Are

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in sourcing, procurement, or product development operations at a DTC/CPG brand or consumer hard-goods company, with meaningful, direct experience in kitchenware, home goods, or a closely adjacent category.

• Proven track record running RFPs and negotiating directly with overseas manufacturers, ideally in China, with quantifiable results in reducing product cost.

• Hands-on experience owning product development timelines from sampling through mass production.

• Forecasting experience is required - you’ve built demand or purchasing forecasts and used them to plan orders and supplier capacity.

• Working Excel skills - comfortable building trackers, cost comparisons, and forecasts.

• Highly organized, with the ability to manage many suppliers, products, and timelines at once without dropping details.

• Moves quickly with agency - you take ownership, make decisions, and follow through without waiting to be asked, while keeping leadership informed of material risks.

• Excited to do the work yourself - you’re comfortable as an individual contributor and don’t need a team to run outreach or negotiations for you.

• Willing to take regular early-morning or evening calls to match our suppliers’ time zones.

Nice to Haves

• Mandarin language skills.

• Experience with cookware materials such as stainless steel, carbon steel, ceramics, glass, including value engineering or material substitution to reduce cost.

• Working knowledge of product testing and compliance requirements for food-contact products (FDA, CA Prop 65, state PFAS laws).

• Experience navigating tariff exposure and landed cost modeling, including freight terms (FOB, DDP).

• Comfortable traveling internationally to supplier facilities.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation + performance bonus

• Full medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Unlimited PTO and flexible working hours

• Remote-first team