Buyer

Aspen Aerogels® is a rapidly growing aerogel technology company founded in 2001 to capitalize on patented advances in aerogel manufacturing. Aspen’s extensive portfolio of proprietary aerogel products are manufactured at scale and sold worldwide in the Electric Vehicle, Energy Infrastructure, Sustainable Building Materials, and Power Generation industries. Aspen is a Tier 1/2 Automotive supplier of PyroThin® thermal barriers, and our Pyrogel® and Cryogel® insulation products are used by virtually all leading petrochemical and refining company across more than 50 countries. We’re on a mission to build a world-class organization as we continue to grow our energy infrastructure business, and expand to meet demand for PyroThin thermal barriers in the rapidly growing Electric Vehicle sector over the next decade. We’re looking for great passionate, dynamic talent to join our team.

The primary role of the Buyer is to develop and implement raw material procurement strategies in support of manufacturing execution, improving efficiencies, and balancing material availability against working capital inventory investment. The Buyer also negotiates with suppliers and executes procurement activities for non-material (MRO) purchases including: capital equipment, services, supplies, chemicals, and packaging materials. This role requires strong understanding of business processes and risks, strong business acumen and negotiation skills, ability to manage difficult people and situations, and dealing with ambiguity to successfully navigate across internal and external challenges that face the Aspen supply chain. The Buyer will identify and resolve issues with suppliers, provide strong internal customer service through timely communication, and manage and improve purchase process execution to support the success of the Aspen Supply Chain Team.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Efficient and effective purchasing of raw materials. Development and implementation of raw material purchasing plans based upon business needs including plant production schedules, inventory management goals, and anticipated material needs, changes, or risks that affect the supply chain. 35%
  • Development of raw material purchasing schedules
  • Communicating internally and externally the supply chain plans
  • Execution of plans from start to finish including PO issuance, delivery coordination, raw material consumption tracking, and PO closure and supporting accurate invoicing/payment
• Drive cost savings through negotiation and second sourcing activities, particularly around non-raw material purchases, capital and spare parts acquisitions, and service contracts. 30%
  • Development of negotiation strategies to secure competitive pricing, payment terms, favorable contract language, etc.
  • Identification of second source options and implementation of competitive bid processes
  • Execution of purchases at competitive pricing and management of suppliers to assure fulfillment to Aspen requirements
• Leads raw material issue investigations and manages suppliers throughout the process until corrective actions are implemented and issues are closed. 10%
  • Drives SCAR process and works with Quality Engineers to resolve raw material quality problems effectively and efficiently
  • Investigates raw material discrepancies, such as inventory or consumption inaccuracies, and resolves issues, both immediate corrective actions and longer-term process improvements
• Drives Supply Chain process excellence and supports transactional excellence to maintain SOX compliance. 15%
  • Continuous monitoring and management of supply chain metrics including inventory levels/turns, supplier OTD, etc.
  • Opening/closing/truing up of PO’s to prevent or explain variances
  • Supports inventory accuracy processes, such as with cycle count and full physical inventory execution
  • Drives supplier performance processes including scorecards
• Actively contributes to cross functional projects as required. 10%
  • Support raw material sourcing projects with R&D
  • Support service contract development and sourcing with Operations, QA, IT, HR, etc.
  • Deploy Supply Chain expertise throughout the organization broadly
• Performs other related duties as assigned by management.
• Adopt and follow Aspen’s core values of Safety, Quality, Integrity, Teamwork, Customer and Innovation on both a personal and professional level.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 5 years of Sourcing experience in a manufacturing environment
• Experience in purchase of chemicals or other technical commodities preferred
• Experience with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems and processes, Oracle a plus
• BA in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Business or related field. Additional C.P.M. certification/education a plus
• Experience working in an ISO9000 environment
• Computer skills required: (Select all applicable: Accounting Software; Contract Management Systems; Inventory Software; Microsoft Office Suite; Payroll Systems; Project Management Software)

Aspen Aerogels, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. The EEO is the Law poster is available here: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf.

Aspen Aerogels, Inc. is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to abuttitta@aerogel.com or call (508) 466-3111 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

For Our Rhode Island Applicants:
Aspen Aerogels, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. The East Providence, RI facility of Aspen Aerogels is subject to Title 28, Chapter 29-6.2 of Rhode Island General Laws, which governs Worker’s Compensation.