Lead Buyer

POSITION SUMMARY

The Lead Buyer reports directly to the Director of Procurement and is responsible for supporting the Procurement function for a multi-plant network. This position will manage centralized procurement activities, ad hoc purchases, and renewals. The position will also assist with the sustained success of Procurement category strategies and value creation. Lastly, the position will be assigned various tactical projects to help the team meet certain objectives. The Lead Buyer negotiates and purchases large items, materials, or services of a more technical and specialized nature. He/she will source appropriate vendors, review specifications with departmental managers and recommend purchase opportunity.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serves as the SME for the purchasing function with robust knowledge of key processes and tools, also establishing status as an Oracle superuser
• Serves as first point of contact for assigned categories with cross-trained proficiency in all other purchasing categories, which can include hardware, molded components, printed materials, labels and outside processing services
• Works with business and functional stakeholders to understand sourcing requirements and timelines and provides sole ownership for procurement of assigned categories within required timeline and pricing
• Responsible for strategic vendor management within assigned categories, including price and service optimization
• Manages supply programs across the vendor base, maintaining active understanding of vendor capabilities and capacity, qualifying new vendors and allocating supply as is needed to meet organizational objectives
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to develop and execute new product supply programs that support new product launches
• Performs initial review of supplier terms for Director approval prior to contract execution
• Obtains and submits all required documentation to vet and onboard a new supplier to the company’s ERP system
• Facilitates resolution of service, quality, and other supplier-related issues or claims for de-centralized categories
• Identifies opportunities to consolidate and leverage spend between plants
• Assists management with the development of category profiles by gathering data on company spend, market intelligence, benchmarking data, and supplier dynamics
• Monitors, reports and ensures appropriate inventory levels of products under assigned categories

• Obtains and maintains knowledge of market trends, changes in business practices in the assigned markets, new or altered types of materials entering the market, etc.

• Maintains and ensures stakeholder compliance to programs established by management
• Other responsibilities or special projects may be assigned as necessary.

KEY SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Excellent verbal & written communication skills with ability to present with confidence to all audiences
• Ability to think critically and challenge the status quo when necessary while problem-solving and a fast-paced environment
• Own the procurement process and ensure effective collaboration between stakeholders
• Ability to identify and impact policies and procedures that can help improve the procurement function and daily work, with focus on repeatable and structured process
• Capable of complex, detailed analysis with a steadfast objective of delivering meaningful business insights
• Ability to develop granular reports from raw data and summarize in high-level one-pager executive reporting
• Advanced-to-expert level computer skills in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams) with an emphasis on Excel
• Significant experience in a Manufacturing MRP/ERP system (Oracle, SAP, Sage, MS Dynamics etc.) is required with Oracle experience highly preferred
• Hands on leader that will develop a deep understanding of the business to understand full impacts of decisions and performance
• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field of study
• 5 - 10 years of experience
• Supervisory experience is a plus

Work Environment: This position will perform most job duties in an office environment where using a computer, software applications, telephone, printer, etc. are essential.