Buyer, Electronics, Interconnect & General Procurement
Role Overview
This role owns sourcing for the electronics and interconnect category — wire harnesses, connectors, PCBs, PCBAs, and electrical components — while carrying a full tactical procurement load across direct and indirect categories as OW scales from first launch toward multi-program production.
It is a both-hands role: one hand builds multi-month category strategies, coordinates FAI campaigns, and presents sourcing recommendations to engineering, finance, and leadership; the other runs the daily PO rhythm — requisitions to purchase orders, expediting, frame agreements and blanket orders, indirect buys, and tight coordination with production and material planners. Honest split: roughly 60–70% tactical execution, 30–40% category building, flexing with launch campaigns and program tempo.
The person who succeeds treats no task as beneath them — presenting a category strategy one week, helping close a cycle count or untangle a NetSuite reconciliation the next. Works most closely with: the peer buyer (mechanical), material & production planners, Engineering/D2M, Quality, and Finance.
\n- 3–6 years of procurement experience in manufacturing or industrial environments, including hands-on tactical buying, purchase order management, expediting, and supplier follow-up.
- Proven ability to manage high-volume tactical procurement activities while balancing strategic sourcing responsibilities.
- Experience sourcing electronics, PCB/PCBA, cable and wire harnesses, connectors, electro-mechanical components, or the technical aptitude to rapidly develop expertise in these categories.
- Ability to engage confidently with both suppliers and engineering teams on technical sourcing decisions.
- Experience within aerospace, defense, space, or another highly regulated industry.
- Working knowledge of AS9100, AS9102 First Article Inspection (FAI), counterfeit-part prevention, Certificates of Conformance (CoC), and material traceability requirements.
- Ability to interpret engineering drawings, Bills of Materials (BOMs), specifications, and other technical documentation.
- Experience collaborating closely with Engineering and Design-to-Manufacturing (D2M) teams on component selection, approved alternates, and obsolescence management.
- Experience establishing and managing procurement contract mechanisms, including blanket purchase orders, purchase contracts, and framework agreements.
- Understanding of procurement automation and continuous improvement initiatives to streamline repeat purchasing activities.
- Strong analytical and communication skills, with the ability to develop sourcing recommendations and present them to technical, commercial, and leadership stakeholders.
- Experience developing and presenting category strategies to cross-functional teams.
- Proficiency with ERP systems, preferably NetSuite, for procurement and supplier management.
- Experience working with global suppliers across multiple time zones.
- UAE-based with valid residency and work authorization.
- Ability to work effectively in a full-time, on-site environment.
Orbitworks' mission is to make space simple for organizations that want to deploy physical and virtual missions to space. Building on Loft Orbital's heritage, Orbitworks will be the first commercial firm in the United Arab Emirates to mass-manufacture satellites. Orbitworks aims to manufacture tens of satellites annually and operates out of a 50,000-square-foot facility in Abu Dhabi.