Job Posting: Procurement & Logistics Specialist - Full-time

Location: Costa Rica based or remote-friendly with regular site visits to Nosara

About Shift Esperanza

Shift Esperanza is a 108-acre regenerative community taking shape on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, 11 neighborhoods, a permaculture farm, 17 km of trails, a wellness-led culture of care, and architecture designed for two decades of hard rain, salt air, and hard use. We work with HWKN and a team of Costa Rica based architects and tropical-design engineers, and we partner with Costa Rican led businesses wherever we can.
https://www.shiftesperanza.com/

We aren’t a typical developer. Our founder, Matthew Blesso, walked away from a $230M project in Brooklyn to build something here that we actually want to live in, sourced as locally as possible, with supply chains we can defend, and a long-term mindset baked into every decision.

About the Role

You’ll run procurement for the active scope at Shift Esperanza, foundations to finishes, multiple homes in build, more queued behind. This isn’t an order-entry job. It’s an analytical seat with real decision authority over what we buy, how we contract it, and from whom.

Your job is to make sure we are not overpaying, not duplicating margins, and not finding out the imported tile was actually more expensive once duties and inland transport are factored in.

You’ll help build the procurement system that supports Shift Esperanza as the community grows.

What You’ll Own

• Local supplier network. Communicate, build and manage a strong roster of suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers across Costa Rica, with a clear understanding of pricing, quality, availability, and lead times. Continuously benchmark the local market before considering imports.

• GC alignment and challenge. Work hand in hand with the General Contractor to understand their pricing structure, hold the line on scope, and challenge cost when the math doesn’t work. You won’t be adversarial, you’ll be respected.

• Cost & contract structuring. Decide how each scope should be handled: kept inside the GC contract, supplied by owner / installed by contractor (SPIC), or fully carved out and directly contracted including installation (NEC). Run independent cost analysis to make and defend the call.

• Imports, only when they make sense. Work with the design team for international sourcing when the math works, and only when the math works. Run real landed-cost analysis (product cost, freight, duties, taxes, handling, inland transport to Nosara). Keep import timelines under control so procurement doesn’t put the construction schedule at risk.

• Purchasing execution. Vendor selection, purchase orders, delivery tracking, logistics coordination to site. Own it end to end.

• Cross-functional alignment. Coordinate with the design team (specifications and quality intent), the construction team (sequencing and buildability), and the finance team (budget control and forecasting). You’re the connective tissue.

• Performance accountability. You’re ultimately responsible for procurement performance across cost, timing, quality, and execution. If a number moves, you know why before anyone asks.

What You Inform

You inform:

• Whether each scope stays in the GC contract, moves to SPIC, or moves to NEC, and you defend the call with numbers.

• Local sourcing vs. import for every material category we touch.

• Which suppliers earn long-term partnerships and which ones don’t.

• When to push back on GC pricing and when to let it ride.

• When a delay is worth absorbing and when to escalate it.

Who You Are

• Three-plus years in procurement, cost engineering, or project budgeting inside a construction or development company.

• Have worked on medium-to-large projects in Costa Rica (or you know the country well enough to operate here from day one).

• Speak the GC’s language, you understand how contractors price their work, where their margins live, and how to challenge them without breaking the relationship.

• Comfortable running independent cost analyses and validating your own assumptions.

• Have lived through import logistics, and know that landed cost is the only number that matters.

• Comfortable with remote, coastal, logistically complex contexts. Nosara is not a typical market.

• Bilingual Spanish and English (working fluency in both).

• Long-term builder mindset, you’re here to build a system, not just push purchase orders.

• Detail-oriented, organized, calm under simultaneous demands from vendors, GC, design, and finance.

• Curious about materials and craft, you have an opinion on tile, hardware, and concrete mix.

Must-Have

• Procurement or construction-cost experience in development or general contracting (3+ years).

• Working fluency in Spanish and English.

• Demonstrable experience running independent landed-cost analysis on imported materials.

• Comfortable analyzing GC pricing and structuring SPIC / NEC carve-outs (or directly comparable cost-structuring work).

Nice-to-Have

• Existing relationships with Costa Rican suppliers in tile, plumbing, lighting, hardware, or concrete.

• Experience on tropical, coastal, or remote-site builds (Nosara, Pacific coast, Caribbean, or similar).

• Procore, Buildertrend, or comparable construction-management software.

• Direct experience importing meaningful volumes from the US, Mexico, Europe, or Asia.

• Background in cost engineering, quantity surveying, or construction finance.

Growth Path

Shift Esperanza is a multi-year, multi-neighborhood build, so this role has real room to grow as the community scales:

• Year 1. Own procurement for active homes. Build the supplier roster. Establish the landed-cost framework and the SPIC/NEC playbook.

• Year 2. Standardize procurement across the active neighborhoods. Help define the system, supplier scorecards, GC scorecards, escalation paths.

• Beyond. With strong performance and as Shift Esperanza scales, this role can grow into a senior procurement lead seat with broader scope and team responsibility.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary

• USD $2,500 per month, paid monthly.

Statutory entitlements (Costa Rican law)

• Aguinaldo, your 13th-month salary, paid in December as required by Costa Rican law.

• CCSS medical coverage, full enrollment in the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social.

• 14 paid vacation days per year (the legal minimum).

Additional benefits

• Performance-based bonus equivalent to one month’s salary, paid based on annual review.

• Tenure-based vacation: one additional vacation day for each year of service, up to a maximum of 20 days.

• Travel expenses fully covered for any trips to Nosara on the company’s behalf, transportation and lodging included.

What Success Looks Like

• By Day 30. Every active scope mapped, kept in GC contract, SPIC, or NEC, with a one-page rationale per call. Landed-cost framework drafted.

• By Day 60. Top-10 supplier roster locked. First three carve-outs structured and signed. GC pricing baseline understood and documented.

• By Day 90. Zero surprise costs in the prior 30 days. On-time delivery rate above 90%. Clean weekly reporting cadence to design, construction, and finance.

• By Year 1. A reliable, diversified supplier network, local and international. Reduced procurement risk across cost, time, quality, and execution. Final material costs land on or under budget, every time.

How to Apply

Send a résumé + a 200-word note to studio.mgr@savageforms.com

In the note, tell us about a procurement decision you made that saved a project, and one that didn’t go the way you hoped, and what you learned. Bilingual applications welcome (Spanish or English).

https://forms.clickup.com/10643780/f/a4ua4-92877/54H81H72A3W0B73BEQ

We read every application and reply to everyone within one week.

Shift Esperanza is an equal-opportunity employer. We hire for talent, curiosity, and craft, not background, identity, or pedigree. If you’d do this job well but don’t hit every bullet, apply anyway.