Purchaser - Part-Time

Job Description

Job Description

Purchaser & Operations Coordinator

Part-Time | Austin, TX Area / Hybrid Flexibility | Contract or W-2

A growing Austin-area product development and engineering services firm is seeking a highly organized, detail-oriented Purchaser / Operations Coordinator  to support purchasing, expense administration, and project operations.

This is a flexible, part-time opportunity for someone who enjoys bringing structure to a fast-moving environment. The role will begin with a strong focus on purchasing, receipts, expense coding, and documentation, with potential to grow into executive-assistant and broader business-operations responsibilities.

The ideal candidate is proactive, highly accurate, comfortable with online purchasing and spreadsheets, and able to ensure the right items arrive at the right location with complete documentation. You are a dependable, process-minded professional who enjoys making a busy team more effective. Though familiarity with hardware / electrical componoents would be a big plus, you do not need to be an engineer. The technical team will define the materials and requirements; your role is to purchase accurately, document thoroughly, coordinate effectively, and help ensure that project teams have what they need when they need it.

Position Overview

The Purchaser & Operations Coordinator will support a technical team working on product development, prototype, and custom-build projects. Unlike a traditional high-volume manufacturing purchasing role, this position primarily involves sourcing and ordering smaller quantities of materials, components, tools, and supplies needed to keep client projects moving.

Initial responsibilities will be approximately 80% purchasing and expense administration . The successful candidate will quickly become the go-to person for purchase execution, receipt organization, project-cost allocation, and follow-up on orders.

The position is expected to begin around 8–12 hours per week , with a likely range of 10–20 hours per week as the individual becomes established. There is potential for the role to expand beyond 20 hours weekly over time based on business needs and the candidate’s capabilities.

Key ResponsibilitiesPurchasing & Procurement

• Execute purchases for components, materials, tools, supplies, and other project needs based on requests from engineers, project managers, and leadership.
• Place orders through Amazon, vendor websites, company debit cards, Mastercard accounts, and other purchasing channels.
• Create and maintain purchase orders using Excel or similar spreadsheet-based templates.
• Confirm part numbers, quantities, pricing, tax, shipping methods, shipping addresses, and project allocations before placing orders.
• Track orders and deliveries, communicate delays or fulfillment issues, and ensure parts are delivered to the correct site, dock, office, or customer location.
• Support urgent or fast-turn purchasing needs for prototypes, low-volume builds, custom projects, and one-off orders.
• Communicate with vendors as needed to resolve ordering, shipping, invoicing, or delivery issues.
• Maintain organized purchase documentation and a clear record of order status.

Expense Administration & Documentation

• Collect and organize receipts associated with company-card and project purchases.
• Match purchases and expenses to the correct project codes.
• Convert, combine, and file receipts and purchase documentation as PDFs in the appropriate shared folders.
• Maintain complete, accurate, and audit-ready records for project expenses.
• Support expense-entry and expense-management processes within FreshBooks or a similar accounting platform.
• Help document, improve, and consistently follow purchasing, expense, and project-coding processes.

Coordination & Communication

• Participate in a weekday team standup, generally scheduled around 9:30–10:00 a.m. Central Time , when reasonably possible.
• Communicate completed work, active orders, upcoming needs, and purchasing roadblocks.
• Coordinate with engineering, project management, and leadership to understand upcoming project needs and purchasing priorities.
• Identify missing information, risks, delivery concerns, or project-code questions early and follow through to resolution.
• Work independently while remaining responsive and well-connected to the broader team.

Potential Growth Areas

This role can expand over time depending on business needs and the candidate’s interests. Additional responsibilities may include:

• Executive assistant and leadership support.
• Travel coordination, including flights, hotels, and rental-car reservations.
• Meeting coordination, note-taking, scheduling, and follow-up.
• Proposal formatting, proofreading, document organization, and light drafting support.
• Administrative support related to business operations, vendor files, corporate records, banking matters, registered-agent changes, and similar coordination.
• Process documentation and operational support for a growing professional-services organization.

Required Qualifications

• Experience in purchasing, procurement or a similar role.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy when managing pricing, quantities, part numbers, receipts, purchase orders, shipping addresses, and project codes.
• Comfort with online purchasing platforms, company-card transactions, vendor websites, and digital receipt management.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, including the ability to work from templates and maintain organized tracking files.
• Excellent organizational and follow-through skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and ask clarifying questions when needed.
• Comfort working in a part-time, flexible role where needs may vary from week to week.
• Availability to participate in or remain responsive around a weekday morning team standup window.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with FreshBooks or another accounting, invoicing, expense-management, or bookkeeping platform.
• Experience creating, managing, or reconciling purchase orders.
• Experience in an engineering, manufacturing, hardware, product-development, electronics, industrial, construction, technical-services, or professional-services environment.
• Familiarity with BOM-based purchasing, technical components, connectors, wire harnesses, tools, prototype materials, or specialty parts.
• Experience supporting low-volume, custom, prototype, or rapid-turn purchasing.
• Familiarity with domestic and international shipping, customs, import/export documentation, customs brokers, or freight forwarding.
• Experience coordinating travel and providing executive-assistant support.
• Comfort using modern productivity tools and AI-assisted writing tools to improve documents and administrative workflows.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first few weeks, the successful candidate will learn the core purchasing and expense-management workflow and be able to independently handle routine orders, receipt organization, and project-code allocation.

Longer term, success means:

• Purchases are placed accurately and promptly.
• Components and supplies arrive at the correct destination.
• Expense documentation is complete, organized, and allocated to the proper project.
• Delivery issues and purchasing roadblocks are identified early and resolved quickly.
• Technical staff and leadership spend less time on administrative follow-up.
• The coordinator becomes a trusted operational resource with the opportunity to take on broader responsibilities.

Work Environment & Structure

Hours: Part-time; initially approximately 8–12 hours per week, with anticipated growth to 10–20 hours per week and potential for additional hours over time.

Schedule: Flexible, with preferred availability around a weekday 9:30–10:00 a.m. Central Time team standup.

Location: Austin-area candidates are preferred. The role is remote-first.

Employment type: The client is open to considering either 1099 contractor or W-2 employment arrangements.

Compensation: Hourly compensation will be based on relevant experience, availability, employment structure, and scope of responsibilities.