Job location: Shenzhen, China
About the role:
The category manager at Sun King will be responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and managing suppliers and the supply chain for solar home system components, including electronic control units, photovoltaic (PV) modules, grid-tie/off-grid inverters, and associated auxiliary parts. Your mandate will be to drive sustainable business growth by building resilient, cost-competitive, and quality-assured supply ecosystems that align with Sun King’s mission of expanding access to affordable clean energy.
Supplier Development & Management
- Support new product introduction (NPI) from a strategic sourcing perspective.
- Identify, evaluate, and negotiate with suppliers for solar panels, inverters, and passive electronic components (e.g., resistors, capacitors, inductors).
- Maintain a high-quality supplier database and conduct quarterly performance reviews covering quality, delivery, cost, and service.
Procurement Strategy & Execution
- Develop comprehensive sourcing plans and cost-control strategies for projects involving solar-powered devices and energy storage systems.
- Lead sourcing activities, price negotiations, and contract discussions, ensuring clarity on technical specifications, delivery schedules, and acceptance criteria.
Cost Optimization & Risk Management
- Identify opportunities for cost reduction, supply chain localization, and supplier consolidation.
- Reduce total procurement costs through competitive pricing, bulk purchasing, and supply chain optimization.
- Monitor market price fluctuations (e.g., for solar panels and electronic components) and technology developments, implementing proactive risk mitigation strategies.
Cross-Departmental Collaboration
- Coordinate with R&D, Project Management, Quality, Operations, and Finance teams to ensure material specifications align with project requirements.
- Resolve quality disputes and address delivery delays effectively.
Compliance & Process Management
- Ensure all sourcing processes comply with industry standards (e.g., photovoltaic component certifications, RoHS compliance for electronic components).
- Maintain accurate records of contracts and documentation.
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A Bachelor’s degree or higher in Supply Chain Management, Electrical Engineering, Renewable Energy, International Trade, or a related field.
- Over 10 years of procurement experience, including at least 5 years specifically in electronics sourcing or procurement.
- Specialized market knowledge and an established vendor network, including reliable suppliers and manufacturing partners, to ensure fast and dependable procurement execution.
- Proficiency in OEM, JDM, and ODM business models, along with deep knowledge of passive electronic component specifications.
- Strong skills in procurement software (e.g., ERP systems) and data analysis tools.
- Proven vendor management and negotiation skills, with the market insight to anticipate price trends and manage supply chain risks.
- High integrity, the ability to thrive under pressure, and strong cross-cultural communication abilities.
- Professional English proficiency (CET-4 or higher), with demonstrated experience in international procurement or cross-border negotiations.
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Professional growth in a dynamic, rapidly expanding, high-social-impact industry
- An open-minded, collaborative culture made up of enthusiastic colleagues who are driven by the challenge of innovation towards profound impact on people and the planet.
- A truly multicultural experience: you will have the chance to work with and learn from people from different geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds.
- Structured, tailored learning and development programs that help you become a better leader, manager, and professional through the Sun Center for Leadership.
Sun King is the world’s leading off-grid solar energy company, combining cutting-edge product design, fintech, and field operations to deliver energy access for the 1.8 billion people who live without an affordable and reliable electric-grid connection.
Sun King has built a new kind of energy utility: distributed, green, customer-centric, and affordable. We bring clean, reliable, decentralized energy directly into people’s lives — from solar kits that provide first-time energy access to multi-kilowatt systems that serve both off-grid users and grid-connected customers powering larger homes, schools, hospitals, farms, offices, and light manufacturing.
Already, 25 million homes and businesses rely on Sun King for electricity supply and the appliances and services it enables: lighting, televisions, fans, refrigeration, and smartphones.
Sun King combines energy generation, energy-efficient appliances, installation, and financing into one seamless offering. Think of it as a distributed utility, designed for wherever energy is needed and designed to scale with its users as incomes and energy needs grow.
Sun King makes solar products affordable to low-income households and businesses via ‘pay-as-you-go’ (PAYG) purchase financing. Sun King installs solar after customers pay a small deposit. Customers then make small, manageable payments of as little as US $0.14 a day via mobile money or cash.
Instead of paying for expensive, polluting, and health-damaging kerosene for lighting or diesel for power, customers unlock savings through accessing solar power and after one to two years of payments, customers own their solar equipment outright.
Sun King collects payments digitally through mobile money systems and its 35,000 field agents — over 1 million payments each day. To date, Sun King has extended more than $1.4 billion in PAYG loans to customers.
Sun King began by powering homes and businesses with solar systems delivered through PAYG financing. Now, we’re using the same model to make smartphones and clean cooking equipment affordable: helping households connect to the digital economy and transition from wood-based fuels to modern, sustainable alternatives.
Sun King employs 3,500 full-time staff in 14 countries, with specialties spanning product design, data science, logistics, customer service, sales, software, operations, and more — all with a passion to serve off-grid families. Sun King is committed to gender diversity in the workplace. Women represent 42% of Sun King’s workforce.
