Strategic Sourcing & Cost Engineer

Position Summary

The Manager, Strategic Sourcing & Cost Engineering is responsible for reducing the total cost of raw materials, purchased components, packaging and externally provided services across Aptyx. The role leads enterprise material-cost reduction, supplier sourcing, cost modeling, value engineering and commercial support for customer quotations and new-product programs.

A major initial focus will be developing and executing sourcing strategies for resins and other high-value material categories. The role will also support the Aptyx quote process by obtaining credible supplier quotations for third-party materials, components, packaging, tooling and outsourced services.

Core value chain: Supplier cost -> customer quote -> program award -> launch -> actual production cost and margin

Primary Responsibilities

1. Enterprise Material-Cost Reduction

• Develop and maintain an enterprise view of raw-material, component, packaging and outsourced-service spend by supplier, material family, site and customer program.
• Identify and prioritize cost-reduction opportunities based on addressable spend, margin impact, technical feasibility and implementation risk.
• Build category strategies for key resin families and other significant material or service categories.
• Lead supplier RFQs, commercial negotiations, volume consolidation and sourcing events.
• Develop resin-cost models that separate underlying resin/feedstock movement from supplier conversion charges, freight, packaging, yield assumptions, rebates and other commercial factors.
• Establish appropriate index-based pricing mechanisms and supplier review processes where applicable.
• Analyze total landed cost rather than unit price alone, including freight, duties, minimum-order quantities, inventory, scrap, lead time, tooling, qualification cost and supply risk.
• Maintain a rolling pipeline of cost-reduction opportunities with named owners, implementation dates, risks and expected financial impact.

2. Cost Engineering & Value Analysis

• Develop should-cost models for raw materials, purchased components, packaging and external processes.
• Partner with Engineering, Technical Operations, Quality and site teams to identify opportunities involving alternative materials or resin grades, specification rationalization, packaging simplification, standardization, yield and scrap improvement, supplier process improvement, make-versus-buy decisions and alternate providers.
• Facilitate value-analysis and value-engineering activities while ensuring compliance with customer, regulatory and quality requirements.
• Quantify the full business case for proposed changes, including savings, implementation cost, validation requirements, timing and operational risk.
• Ensure no material, supplier or specification change is implemented outside established engineering, quality and customer change-control processes.

3. Customer Quote & Commercialization Support

• Support the quotation process by obtaining competitive and technically credible supplier quotations for third-party materials, components, packaging, tooling, testing and outsourced services.
• Establish standard RFQ packages defining technical requirements, volumes, timing, quality expectations and commercial assumptions.
• Provide quote teams with supplier-supported unit costs, tooling/NRE costs, minimum-order quantities, lead times, freight assumptions, volume-break pricing, inflation/index assumptions, supplier/capacity risks and qualification requirements.
• Partner with Commercial, Program Management and Technical Operations to ensure quote assumptions are realistic and executable.
• Maintain traceability from the original customer quote through supplier selection, program launch and actual production cost.
• Analyze quoted-versus-actual purchased cost and use findings to improve future quotation accuracy.
• Participate in program reviews and stage gates where external sourcing is material to cost, timing or launch risk.

4. Supplier Identification & Development

• Identify suppliers with the required technical capabilities, capacity, quality systems and commercial competitiveness.
• Coordinate technical and quality assessments with Supplier Quality, Engineering and site Operations.
• Develop alternate and dual-source options for high-risk or high-spend categories.
• Partner with suppliers on cost reduction, process capability, lead-time improvement, packaging optimization and capacity planning.
• Support supplier business reviews for strategically important material and service providers.
• Escalate significant supplier cost, capacity, delivery or technical risks before they affect customer commitments.
• Develop preferred-supplier recommendations based on total business value rather than price alone.

5. Sourcing Governance & Standardization

• Establish one Aptyx sourcing and cost-engineering process across sites.
• Create standard tools for RFQs, bid comparisons, total-cost analysis, should-cost modeling, supplier selection and savings tracking.
• Build and maintain an accessible database of approved/preferred suppliers, historical quotes, material/service pricing, volume assumptions, tooling/NRE costs, lead times, minimum-order quantities and pricing-review dates.
• Ensure sourcing decisions comply with Aptyx purchasing policies, delegated authority, quality-system requirements and applicable customer/regulatory obligations.
• Partner with Finance to define baselines and distinguish realized P&L savings, purchase-price variance, cost avoidance, working-capital improvement and one-time benefits.
• Present progress through the appropriate ABS and business-review cadence.

6. Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the primary connection between suppliers, Technical Operations, Program Management, Commercial, Quality, Finance and site Operations for strategic material and external-service sourcing.
• Challenge specifications, historical sourcing practices and site-specific preferences when they prevent enterprise leverage or increase total cost.
• Balance cost reduction with quality, customer requirements, delivery, inventory, resilience and program timing.
• Communicate recommendations in clear financial and operational terms to senior leadership.
• Support development of a broader Aptyx strategic sourcing and supply-chain capability over time.

Role Focus

Allocation	Primary Focus
60%	Enterprise material and external-service cost reduction
25%	Quote, NPI and commercialization sourcing support
15%	Supplier risk reduction, sourcing governance and capability building

Key Performance Indicators

• Finance-validated annualized material and external-service savings implemented and reflected in the P&L.
• Purchase-price performance versus agreed baseline or relevant market index; cost avoidance reported separately from realized savings.
• Supplier RFQ turnaround time and percentage of material third-party quote content supported by current supplier quotations.
• Quoted purchased cost versus actual purchased cost after launch.
• Percentage of addressable spend covered by a category strategy and/or negotiated agreement.
• Supplier consolidation, enterprise-volume leverage and qualified alternate-source coverage.
• Supplier quality, delivery and cost performance for strategic suppliers.
• Reduction in single-source and supply-continuity risks.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, Business or a related discipline; engineering or technical degree preferred.
• Seven or more years of experience in strategic sourcing, cost engineering, supplier development, manufacturing engineering or procurement within manufacturing.
• Demonstrated experience delivering measurable material or purchased-component cost reduction.
• Experience conducting RFQs, supplier negotiations, bid analysis and total-cost modeling.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to convert spend, price, volume and specification data into executable sourcing actions.
• Experience supporting new-product quotations, product launches or commercialization activities.
• Ability to influence technical, commercial and operational stakeholders without direct authority.
• Strong communication, negotiation and project-management skills; proficiency with ERP purchasing data, Excel and cost-analysis tools.
• Willingness to travel to Aptyx sites and supplier locations as required.

Preferred

• Experience with polymers, engineered resins, extrusion, injection molding, packaging or other relevant medical-device manufacturing materials.
• Experience within medical-device, life-sciences or another regulated manufacturing environment.
• Understanding of supplier qualification, design controls, validation and formal change-management requirements.
• Experience developing index-based material pricing agreements.
• Experience with should-cost modeling, value analysis/value engineering and design-to-cost.
• Knowledge of contract manufacturing or CDMO commercial and quotation processes.
• Professional certifications such as CPSM, CSCP or equivalent are beneficial but not required.

Critical Competencies

• Understands how material specifications affect manufacturability, validation and product performance.
• Challenges supplier pricing with data rather than simply requesting discounts.
• Translates technical choices into customer quote and margin impact.
• Operates across sites rather than optimizing one plant.
• Separates genuine savings from cost avoidance and accounting noise.
• Challenges specifications or legacy supplier preferences that unnecessarily increase total cost.
• Moves quickly without bypassing quality and regulatory controls.