Inventory 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 As an Inventory Manager at Etched, you will own the end-to-end strategy, control, and execution of our contract manufacturer (CM) and 3PL inventory operations. In this role, you will lead excess and obsolescence (E&O) mitigation, champion inventory audit and reconciliation processes across global sites, and build robust dashboards to deliver high-precision visibility for leadership and Finance. Operating at the intersection of supply chain operations and financial stewardship, you will play a critical role in optimizing capital efficiency and ensuring operational rigour as Etched scales frontier AI hardware. Key Responsibilities - Inventory Analysis and E&O Mitigation - Review slow-moving and aged inventory on a regular basis to identify E&O risks, and drive timely disposition decisions in partnership with CMs and internal stakeholders. - Analyze CM demand waterfall reports and lead deep-dive root cause analysis of E&O drivers, such as forecast changes, MOQ/lead time constraints, EOL, and engineering changes. - Partner with CMs, suppliers, internal teams, and spot market channels to mitigate E&O exposure through supply reallocation across CMs, reuse on new programs, rework, vendor returns or cancellations, open-market resale, or scrap as a last resort. - Inventory Audit and Control - Coordinate with CMs and 3PL warehouses to fulfill consigned inventory requirements, and maintain complete, auditable transaction records for all inventory movements to ensure full traceability and support reconciliation. - Conduct on-site audits and physical counts of consigned and excess inventory held at CM sites and 3PL warehouses to ensure inventory accuracy and proper control. - Lead periodic three-way reconciliation among NetSuite, 3PL warehouse records, and CM inventory reports, and investigate and resolve any discrepancies in a timely manner. - Reporting and Financial Partnership - Build and maintain inventory dashboards and KPIs, including inventory turns, aging, E&O value, and inventory accuracy. - Deliver regular inventory health reports to management with actionable recommendations to reduce E&O exposure. - Partner with Finance on inventory valuation, E&O reserves, write-offs, and quarterly/annual audits. - CM Build Validation and Cost Accounting Support - Review and validate CM as-built reports for accuracy, including component consumption, build quantities, and lot/serial traceability, against BOMs and work orders. - Reconcile CM build and consumption data to NetSuite (work orders, assembly builds, component issues) and resolve variances before month-end close. - Validate CM invoices and charges (components, MVA/labor, and E&O claims) against agreed pricing and actual builds. - Serve as the primary liaison between Cost Accounting and the CMs regarding BOM and cost discrepancies, scrap/yield losses. You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications) - 5+ years of experience in supply chain, inventory management, or material program management within electronics manufacturing or big tech. - Proven track record of managing contract manufacturers (CMs) and 3PL warehouses, including conducting physical audits, 3-way reconciliations, and consigned inventory controls. - Strong analytical capability to perform E&O root-cause analysis, drive inventory disposition strategies, and build inventory health dashboards/KPIs. Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications) - Experience working with ERP systems such as NetSuite, SAP, or Kinaxis for inventory transaction tracking and financial reconciliation. - Background partnering with Finance and Cost Accounting on inventory valuation, E&O reserves, and audit readiness. - Direct experience with server rack hardware, complex electronics, or fast-paced NPI-to-production hardware environments. Benefits - Competitive compensation packages, including generous equity packages - Comprehensive insurance coverage and other top-of-market benefits How we’re different Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html. 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 and work across disciplines as needed.