Senior Supply Engineer; K7, K1 Family, H1

About Knightscope

Knightscope is a security technology company building the Nation’s First Autonomous Security Force. The Company combines autonomous machines, advanced software, and human expertise to help protect people, property, and critical infrastructure. Knightscope’s long‑term mission is to make the United States of America the safest country in the world.

Knightscope is seeking a Senior Supply Engineer to own the strategic supplier relationships that power our hardware programs — the K7 Autonomous Security Robot, the K1 family (Hemisphere, Capsule, Super Tower), and the H1 wearable Augmented Security Agent platform. This senior individual‑contributor role on the ASR Engineering team builds the commercial, technical, and relational framework required to supply design‑led, low‑volume, custom‑heavy physical AI platforms reliably, affordably, and with the responsiveness autonomous systems demand.

Reporting to the K7 Chief Program Engineer and partnering closely with the K1/H1 Chief Program Engineer, you will own the top‑30% supplier portfolio in each program — by cost or by criticality — and build the multi‑year, multi‑million‑dollar strategic agreements that determine the pace and cost of every program ramp. The role exists because Knightscope’s hardware programs have accumulated strategic supplier dependencies that require supplier engineering attention a transactional procurement function was never designed to provide.

You will sit inside the CPE arc at our Sunnyvale HQ — when a supplier issue surfaces, you own it until it is resolved.

Full‑time, on‑site at Sunnyvale HQ (No relocation provided)

• Build the commercial framework, with compliance built in — negotiate Master Purchase Agreements with volume‑based pricing, tariff‑deferred offshore stocking (TAA countries only), warranty terms fit for mission‑critical use, and forecast/cancellation mechanisms. Maintain a TAA‑ and BABA‑compliant portfolio with no PRC sourcing for parts or embedded software, and structure tooling investments that protect Knightscope’s IP.
• Provide ready‑five technical escalation — build direct relationships with the principal engineers at every top‑30% supplier; make hot‑fix, failure analysis, and design consultation accessible in hours rather than weeks; read drawings, understand the platform at module level, and write the engineering escalation email yourself.
• Transition sourcing in‑house — lead the two‑step handoff of integration‑partner‑sourced BOM lines to direct Knightscope ownership, transfer customer‑of‑record status at each strategic supplier, and reduce outside consulting spend by substituting your own sourcing capability.
• Run the co‑marketing and reference partner program — structure the non‑monetary value Knightscope offers suppliers (visibility on a deployed physical AI platform, case studies, “powered by” branding) as a commercial lever, in coordination with the Chief Design Officer and Creative Director.
• Wean the BOM off catalog‑sourced parts — transition high‑spend catalog lines (McMaster‑Carr, Digi‑Key, distributor stock) to volume‑sourced alternates as production warrants, structuring release agreements that preserve responsiveness without retail pricing.
• Own embedded subsystem supplier strategy — track the AI compute and embedded vision ecosystem (NVIDIA Jetson, Qualcomm, Ambarella, Hailo, TI, Mobileye), keep Knightscope a credible partner, and re‑engineer accumulated dependencies so Knightscope drives technical direction.
• Drive supplier cyber compliance and software supply chain security — qualify suppliers against NIST 800‑171, CMMC, SBOM completeness, and signed‑update mechanisms, serving as the supply‑chain‑side counterpart to the Director of Cybersecurity through contract language and ongoing posture monitoring.

• Senior engineer, 10+ years, with strategic supplier engineering experience in low‑volume, high‑complexity, custom‑heavy product development.
• Automotive industry background required — must walk in already speaking automotive vocabulary and cadence fluently.
• Fluent in automotive supplier‑development…