{"id":1208805,"url":"https://alion.io/job/pendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing","title":"Sr. Sourcing Manager, Contract Manufacturing","company":{"id":1799182,"name":"Pendulum","domain":"pendulumlife.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/pendulumlife","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":null},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"contractor","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":162900,"max":181000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":181000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Google Sheets","optional":false},{"name":"Microsoft Excel","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-24T19:37:41Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-24","last_verified_at":"2026-10-31T11:00:14Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":36,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":36},"description":"About Pendulum\nPendulum® is leading a revolution that is occurring around the world to improve physical and mental health by first understanding, then restoring and enhancing the human microbiome.\nStudies have shown that our microbiome (the bacterial communities in and on our bodies) is linked to everything from metabolism and diabetes, to longevity, weight loss, healthy immune systems, cancer prevention, feelings of well-being, inflammatory bowel disease, and even healthy skin. We have just scratched the surface on understanding the impact that our microbiome has on our lives. During early life we develop a diverse and balanced microbiome that plays a critical role in shaping our long-term health. Over our lives, a combination of diet, lifestyle, antibiotics, and aging can decrease the effectiveness of our microbiome.\nPendulum recognized the enormous impact they could have on people’s lives if they were able to address the imbalances in the microbiome. To accomplish this, Pendulum created proprietary probiotic pipelines and a unique discovery platform to identify key, novel bacterial strains and the prebiotics that feed them. The company has also built and developed the world’s first manufacturing technology to produce bacteria in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment at scale.\nThe medical probiotics that Pendulum has formulated have transformed the consumer probiotics market into a new category of therapeutic offerings that deliver the power and efficacy of a pharmaceutical with the safety and accessibility of a natural probiotic. Due to Pendulum’s explosive revenue and customer growth over the last two years, the company earned a spot on Forbes Magazine’s exclusive “The Next Billion Dollar Startups” list.\nIf you’re interested in improving the lives of people globally and you love working in a cross-functional, collaborative, inspiring environment, please continue reading.\nThe Opportunity\nWe are looking for a Sr. Sourcing Manager, Contract Manufacturing to own the commercial and operational performance of Pendulum's contract manufacturing network. This role manages the partners that purchase and control raw materials and packaging inventory, blend powders, encapsulate products, fill bottles, load cartons, and prepare finished goods for distribution.\nThis person will combine strategic sourcing discipline with a practical understanding of how manufacturing facilities operate. The right candidate can engage credibly with supplier executives, build fact-based should-cost models, map processes on the production floor, and turn operational gaps into executable improvement plans. We need a self-directed operator who moves quickly, gets close to the work, and takes ownership through resolution.\nWhat You'll Do\nContract Manufacturing Strategy and Commercial Ownership\nOwn category strategy and commercial relationships for Pendulum's contract manufacturers across blending, encapsulation, bottling, labeling, cartoning, and related finished-goods operations.\n\nDevelop a clear supplier network strategy that balances capability, quality, capacity, service, cost, speed, and business continuity.\n\nLead supplier identification, diligence, selection, qualification, contracting, onboarding, transfers, and ongoing commercial management, including in connection with our active fill-and-finish CMO RFP.\n\nNegotiate pricing, payment terms, capacity commitments, lead times, inventory liability, service levels, change controls, and long-term agreements.\n\nBuild and maintain contingency plans, m options, and capacity pathways that support growth and reduce concentration risk.\n\nShould Cost and Cost Improvement\nBuild transparent should-cost models that separate raw material and packaging pass-throughs from labor, overhead, equipment, yield loss, scrap, testing, freight, and supplier margin.\n\nUse open-book costing, market benchmarks, production assumptions, and on-site observations to deliver best-in-class COGS and validate proposed price changes.\n\nCreate fact-based negotiation strategies and deliver measurable savings without compromising quality, service, or supply continuity.\n\nPartner with Finance and Supply Planning to translate forecasts, volumes, run sizes, and product mix into accurate cost and capacity scenarios.\n\nManufacturing Operations & Continuous Improvement\nUnderstand how supplier facilities actually run, including material flow, production scheduling, staffing, equipment constraints, line speeds, yields, changeovers, maintenance, quality holds, and warehouse operations.\n\nMap end-to-end manufacturing processes and identify bottlenecks, handoff failures, excess handling, avoidable downtime, and other sources of cost or lead-time variation.\n\nApply industrial engineering fundamentals such as cycle-time analysis, capacity modeling, line balancing, labor-content analysis, value-stream mapping, and constraint management.\n\nDevelop joint improvement roadmaps with suppliers and track actions through implementation, verified results, and sustained performance.\n\nSpend time on the production floor to validate assumptions, investigate issues, and build practical solutions with supplier operations teams.\n\nSupplier Relationship and Performance Management\nServe as the primary commercial relationship owner for assigned contract manufacturers and build productive relationships from the executive team to plant-level operations.\n\nEstablish clear expectations, governance, scorecards, and business reviews covering quality, delivery, cost, responsiveness, inventory, capacity, and continuous improvement.\n\nIdentify performance gaps early, align suppliers on root causes and corrective actions, and escalate decisively when commitments are at risk.\n\nHold suppliers accountable while building collaborative, long-term partnerships that support innovation, scale, and mutual value creation.\n\nCross Functional Execution\nPartner closely with Quality, Regulatory, Product, R&D, Supply Planning, Packaging, Logistics, and Finance to translate business requirements into executable supplier plans.\n\nLead sourcing and supplier-readiness workstreams for product launches, site transfers, packaging changes, scale-ups, and other manufacturing transitions.\n\nCommunicate risks, tradeoffs, decisions, and recovery plans clearly to cross-functional teams and senior leadership.\n\nCreate the tools, operating rhythms, and decision frameworks needed to improve supplier visibility, accountability, and execution.\n\nStep into urgent or ambiguous problems, determine what is needed, and drive the right people to a decision and completed outcome.\n\nWho We’re Looking For\nExperience & Education\nBachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Business, Operations, or a related field, or equivalent experience.\n\n8+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, contract manufacturing, supplier management, manufacturing operations, or supply chain within a manufacturing environment.\n\nExperience managing contract manufacturers in nutraceuticals, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, cosmetics, electronics or equivalent industry.\n\nDemonstrated experience leading complex supplier negotiations and managing senior-level commercial relationships.\n\nStrong should-cost capability, including the ability to deconstruct conversion costs, assess cost drivers, evaluate supplier margins, and identify negotiation and productivity opportunities.\n\nWorking knowledge of manufacturing operations and industrial engineering fundamentals, including process mapping, labor and capacity analysis, line balancing, bottleneck identification, throughput, yield, and changeover optimization.\n\nStrong analytical skills and advanced proficiency with Google Sheets and/or Microsoft Excel; experience with NetSuite or another ERP system is preferred.\n\nCompetencies & Attributes\nA go-getter with a strong bias for action who does not wait for perfect information or detailed direction before moving important work forward.\n\nComfortable moving between executive negotiations, analytical cost work, and hands-on problem solving on a manufacturing floor.\n\nStrong commercial judgment paired with operational curiosity and enough technical depth to ask the right questions.\n\nAbility to create structure, priorities, and clear action plans in fast-moving and ambiguous situations.\n\nClear, direct, and proactive communication with supplier executives, plant teams, technical stakeholders, and internal leadership.\n\nHigh ownership, sound judgment, and the ability to independently drive multiple complex workstreams to completion.\n\nHave the courage to challenge convention and be the first mover.\n\nWill take ownership in solving problems, insatiably curious and demonstrating initiative in finding innovative and sustainable solutions.\n\nDedicated to rigor and accountability, forthright with our data, and ethical and transparent with our customers and each other.\n\nSpeak your mind, name the uncertainty, and operate with respect and authenticity.\n\nServe as part of our customer’s health journey, and support the Pendulum team as we thrive when prioritizing high standards with a low ego in support of our collective ambition.\n\nTravel & Work Environment\nHybrid role based in San Francisco, CA, with an expectation of working in the office 2-3 days per week.\nRegular travel, approximately 20-30%, to contract manufacturing sites and supplier locations. Travel may increase during launches, transfers, negotiations, or performance-recovery work.\nWhat Success Looks Like\nIn the first year, success means that:\nPendulum has a diverse set of qualified fill-and-finish contract manufacturing suppliers that can scale with our growth.\nPendulum has transparent, trusted relationships and effective governance with its contract manufacturing partners.\nSupplier pricing is supported by data driven cost models, and cost-reduction opportunities are translated into implemented savings.\nManufacturing capacity, constraints, lead times, and operational risks are visible, quantified, and actively managed.\nSupplier performance improves across quality, delivery, cost, responsiveness, and inventory management.\nProduct launches, transfers, and production changes move forward with clear ownership, realistic plans, and fewer supplier-driven surprises.\nCritical issues are surfaced early and driven to resolution with urgency, strong cross-functional alignment, and sustained follow-through.\nSalary & Benefits\n $162,900 - $181,000\nMedical, Dental, and Vision\nCommuter Benefits\nLife & STD Insurance\nCompany match on 401 (k)\nFlexible Time Off (FTO)\nEquity","description_format":"text","description_chars":10573,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Flexible time off"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Electronics Manufacturing","Contract Manufacturing","Biotechnology","Microbiome"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-25T02:04:46Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":38,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.682,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":36,"expected_fill_days":28,"reasons":["conf:2","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-31T05:58:55Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":181000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/pendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/pendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-31T14:17:25Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":22183,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-01T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1799182},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1799182"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fpendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fpendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fpendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/pendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fpendulum-sr-sourcing-manager-contract-manufacturing"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":1208805}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"pendulumlife.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":1208805},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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