Sustaining Program Manager — Consumer at Mill

<div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mill is a waste prevention technology company reimagining what it means to eliminate waste, starting with food. We build smart systems and infrastructure for homes, businesses, and municipalities that transform food scraps from landfill-bound waste into valuable resources, including chicken feed. Tens of thousands of Mill’s residential food recyclers are already helping households divert millions of pounds of food scraps every year, paving the way for our upcoming launch of Mill Commercial—the industry’s first end-to-end solution for managing, understanding, and preventing food waste in commercial environments (e.g. grocery, restaurants, food services). At Mill, we are passionate about building easy-to-use, beautifully designed technologies that keep food in the food system and out of landfills.</span></p></div><h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Role</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We are seeking an experienced Sustaining Program Manager to own the day-to-day program management of Mill's Consumer hardware line as it scales from launch into steady-state production. You will take ownership of our sustaining engineering and supply chain activities end to end, driving engineering changes, cost-down and alternate-supply qualification, and daily execution with our contract manufacturers, while keeping engineering, quality, supply chain, retail, legal, and finance partners aligned. You will run our recurring Sustaining Core review, maintain our prioritized sustaining project list, and be the go-to person for program status, cost, and risk across our live Consumer products.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Key Responsibilities</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sustaining Program Ownership: Own end-to-end program management for our live Consumer products, running the recurring Sustaining Core review and maintaining a tiered priority list spanning launch-risk, supply-stability, and cost-down workstreams.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Engineering Change Management: Drive ECOs from proposal through approval, requalification, and production cutover, coordinating timing with contract manufacturers to avoid disruption to in-flight builds and inventory.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Contract Manufacturer &amp; Supply Chain Oversight: Hold overall program accountability for CM and supplier execution, partnering closely with the Head of Manufacturing and Head of Supply Chain, who own the direct supplier relationship and day-to-day execution.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finance Partnership: Serve as the point of contact for Finance on the accuracy of COGS projections and actuals, proactively flagging and reconciling variances so cost models and financial forecasts stay current.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">End-of-Life &amp; Inventory Risk Management: Lead end-of-life planning and decisions for sustaining SKUs, including dead-stock and excess-and-obsolete (E&amp;O) inventory risk analysis, to inform product transition timing and minimize financial exposure.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cost-Down Leadership: Lead cost-down and alternate-supply qualification initiatives (materials, suppliers, tooling) cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Marketing, and other partners, sequencing work against business priority and driving from idea to implementation.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cross-Functional Alignment &amp; Risk Management: Serve as the central point of contact and overall owner across engineering, quality, manufacturing, supply chain, and finance, proactively surfacing risks and ensuring the right operational leads are driving them to resolution.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Executive Reporting: Deliver clear, regular updates on program health, budget, and risk to leadership via our Consumer program reviews.</span></li> </ul> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Required Qualifications</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5+ years of program or operations program management experience in hardware, consumer electronics, or appliances, including direct ownership of sustaining/post-launch programs.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Proven experience managing contract manufacturers/EMS partners from mass production through end of life, including PO, pricing, and cost-variance management.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Experience leading engineering change orders (ECOs) and coordinating their cross-functional approval and rollout.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Strong cost and financial acumen, comfortable owning COGS tracking, budget variance, and cost-down initiatives.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Excellent cross-functional communication skills, with experience running recurring program reviews and reporting program status to leadership.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ability to prioritize and sequence a broad portfolio of concurrent sustaining projects under resource constraints.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ability to travel domestically and internationally (including Mexico/Asia) to support build events as needed.</span></li> </ul> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Preferred Qualifications</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Technical background in mechanical engineering, with familiarity with manufacturing processes such as metal stamping, injection molding, or tooling qualification.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spanish fluency and experience working with Mexico-based suppliers. Or Chinese fluency and experience with Asian suppliers.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Experience with kitchen, thermal, or other consumer appliances.</span></li> </ul> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Education &amp; Experience</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">BS degree desired (Engineering, Operations, or related field); MS or MBA a plus.</span></li> </ul> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why Join Us?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is an opportunity to own a critical, highly visible function at a fast-growing hardware company — keeping our Consumer products running smoothly for the customers who already rely on them, while helping build the sustaining processes that will scale as our portfolio grows. If you thrive on solving cost, supply, and cross-functional puzzles in a fast-paced environment, we encourage you to apply.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The estimated base salary range for this position is $185k to $210k, which does not include the value of benefits or a potential equity grant. A wide range of factors are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets, market conditions, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and business and organizational needs. At Mill, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role.</span></em></p>