Hardware Operations Manager

About The Electric Plant Co.

The Electric Plant Co. is building a new category of plant and tree intelligence. Our IoT hardware measures the hidden electrical signals in plants and trees, paired with environmental data, and our foundation model decodes those signals into real-time insights about plant health, growth, and stress. We're a small, fast-moving company in San Francisco working at the intersection of biology, hardware, AI, and IoT. We closed our seed round in November 2025 and our first commercial deployment launches in August.

The Role

We are hiring a Hardware Operations Manager to help scale the operational systems behind our IoT hardware. You'll work across manufacturing, supply chain, inventory, production planning, hardware logistics, and cross-functional hardware programs to ensure our devices move smoothly from engineering builds to customer deployments.

Working closely with our engineering team, contract manufacturers, suppliers, and deployment team, you'll coordinate production, resolve operational issues, improve processes, and help keep hardware programs on track as we grow.

We have approximately 50 hardware units in the field today. By the end of 2026 we expect to have hundreds, and by the end of 2027, thousands. As we scale, you'll play a key role in helping our hardware operations evolve alongside the business.

The work over the next eighteen months is hands-on and varied. You'll help coordinate contract manufacturing builds, manage inventory and supplier communication, support BOM revisions and component sourcing, coordinate research hardware procurement, assist with certification and production readiness activities, support field hardware logistics and returns, and work with engineering to resolve issues that arise once hardware is deployed. Along the way, you'll identify opportunities to improve the systems and processes that help us scale efficiently while maintaining quality and reliability.

What you'll do

• Coordinate production schedules with contract manufacturers and suppliers.

• Track purchase orders, inventory, and hardware availability across prototype and production builds.

• Monitor hardware quality issues and help coordinate resolution between engineering, deployment, and manufacturing partners.

• Support supplier management activities, including lead-time tracking, component availability, and alternate sourcing efforts.

• Maintain BOMs, manufacturing documentation, and operational records across hardware revisions.

• Coordinate logistics for hardware shipments, field deployments, returns, and RMAs.

• Track key operational metrics and prepare regular reporting on production status, inventory, and supplier performance.

• Identify opportunities to improve operational workflows and help implement process improvements as the company grows.

What we're looking for

• Experience supporting hardware products from engineering builds through production. You've worked on real hardware products and understand the operational realities of manufacturing, shipping, and supporting physical devices. You've collaborated with engineering, suppliers, and contract manufacturers to keep hardware programs moving.

• Strong hardware operations fundamentals. You have experience with contract manufacturing, supply chain coordination, BOM management, inventory, production planning, or hardware program management. You understand how these functions come together to deliver hardware successfully.

• Comfort working with global manufacturing partners. You've worked with contract manufacturers or suppliers, ideally in Asia, and are comfortable collaborating across time zones when needed.

• Organized, reliable operator. You create visibility into what's happening, keep projects on track, and proactively identify risks before they become surprises. You communicate status clearly and follow through on commitments.

• Strong cross-functional project management skills. You can coordinate work across engineering, manufacturing, deployment, and external partners, balancing competing priorities while keeping stakeholders aligned on timelines, risks, and next steps.

• Comfortable in an early-stage startup. You enjoy working in an environment where priorities evolve quickly, processes are still developing, and everyone contributes outside of a narrowly defined job description. You're excited to improve existing systems as the company grows.

• Technically curious. You don't need to design the electronics yourself, but you understand enough about hardware systems, manufacturing processes, testing, and component tradeoffs to make sound operational decisions and communicate effectively with engineers and suppliers.

• Process improvement mindset. You naturally look for ways to make operations more efficient, reliable, and scalable. You've helped improve workflows, documentation, reporting, or operational processes that made a team more effective.

• Direct, collaborative communicator. You communicate clearly and respectfully with engineers, suppliers, and teammates. You're comfortable raising concerns early, asking thoughtful questions, and working through operational challenges without creating unnecessary drama.

Nice to have

• Prior experience at a hardware startup that scaled into large volume production (IoT, robotics, autonomy, climate hardware, medical devices)

• Low-power IoT product programs — LoRaWAN, LTE-M, NB-IoT, battery-powered field devices

• Mandarin or another regionally relevant language

• Outdoor or agricultural product experience — IP-rated enclosures, environmental robustness

Compensation & logistics

• The salary range for this role is $140k-$167k annually, with meaningful early-stage equity

• Standard benefits

• Full-time, in-person at our San Francisco office

• Periodic Asia travel and field travel

• Start date: ASAP

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.