Buyer/Planner

Job Title
Buyer/Planner

Requisition

JR000015984 Buyer/Planner (Open)

Location

Madison, WI

Additional Locations

Job Description Summary
The Buyer/Planner is responsible for the end-to-end management of assigned purchased materials, components, and services, ensuring uninterrupted material availability to support production and business requirements. The role combines procurement, material planning, supplier management, inventory management, and operational execution. The buyer-planner owns assigned materials from identification of demand and supplier selection through purchase order execution, supplier follow-up, delivery to the plant, receipt, and resolution of commercial or transactional discrepancies.

The Buyer/Planner serves as the primary operational owner of the supplier relationship for assigned commodities and is accountable for ensuring that material, information, pricing, and delivery commitments are aligned with business requirements.

Job Description

• Translate production requirements, forecasts, MRP signals, inventory levels, lead times, and safety stock requirements into actionable purchase orders and material planning strategies.
• Identify potential material shortages before they impact production and develop recovery plans to maintain supply continuity.
• Monitor and maintain updated SAP planning parameters (i.e. including supplier lead times, minimum order quantities, order multiples, safety stock levels, and other material planning data).
• Partner with Materials Management, SIOP, Operations, Warehouse, Engineering, Quality, and other cross-functional teams to ensure material availability and support production requirements.
• Maintain visibility of current and projected material availability for assigned commodities and components.
• Drive achievement of 100% material availability at the required point of use by proactively identifying, communicating, and escalating supply risks before they disrupt operations.
• Create, maintain, and manage purchase orders for assigned materials and services.
• Ensure purchase orders accurately reflect approved pricing, quantities, delivery schedules, payment terms, freight terms, and other commercial requirements.
• Communicate purchase orders, revisions, cancellations, forecasts, and delivery requirements to suppliers, and obtain acknowledgement of supplier commitments.
• Monitor open purchase orders from placement through receipt, expediting, deferring, rescheduling, or canceling orders as business requirements change.
• Maintain accurate purchase order dates, supplier commitments, and related procurement records within SAP.
• Ensure purchasing activities comply with established procurement policies, controls, and approval requirements.
• Retain ownership of assigned purchase orders until materials or services have been delivered and successfully received by the facility.
• Serve as the primary operational contact for assigned suppliers.
• Communicate forecasts, demand changes, delivery expectations, performance expectations, and other business requirements to assigned suppliers.
• Monitor supplier performance, facilitate scorecard communication, conduct performance reviews, develop corrective action plans, and escalate chronic performance issues as necessary.
• Identify, evaluate, and support the development of new suppliers and alternative sources for assigned materials and commodities.
• Support RFQ/RFP activities, supplier quotation analysis, and source-selection.
• Support supplier qualification and onboarding activities in collaboration with Quality, Engineering, Operations, and other stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities for supplier consolidation, dual sourcing, localization, lead-time reduction, cost reduction, and overall supply chain improvement.
• Maintain accurate supplier pricing within purchase orders and SAP records.
• Investigate and resolve pricing discrepancies.
• Track supplier price changes, communicate material cost impacts to Supply Chain leadership, and ensure all pricing changes are appropriately reviewed and approved before implementation.
• Own the coordination and resolution of discrepancies involving purchased materials, working with Receiving, Warehouse, Quality, Finance, and suppliers to resolve issues and prevent recurrence.
• Investigate supplier invoice discrepancies and resolve three-way match exceptions involving purchase order, receipt, and invoice transactions.
• Maintain accurate purchasing and planning master data, including supplier lead times, minimum order quantities, order multiples, purchasing units of measure, pricing, acknowledgements, and other information required for effective material management.

Qualifications:

Education:

• High School Diploma or equivalent required.
• Bachelor's degree in supply chain, business, or related field preferred.

Experience:

• 3-5 years of planning, procurement, inventory, or manufacturing experience.

Preferred Skills:

• Working knowledge of ERP systems, preferably SAP.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Solid understanding of inventory management principles, including safety stock, reorder points, and lead time management
• Strong Excel skills
• Strong communication and negotiation skills for vendor interactions
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail and follow-through
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, collaborative start-up environment

Organizational Relationship/Scope:

• Reports to: Senior Manager, Materials Management

Working Conditions:

• Onsite 100%
• Office environment

Keenova offers employees a Total Rewards package which includes competitive pay and benefits. To learn more about our Total Rewards benefits please visit: Keenova Careers | Serve and Grow with Purpose | Keenova

Disclaimer: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications. Management reserves the right to change or modify such duties as required.

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We bring deep expertise and resolve to every therapeutic area we serve, including immunology, urology, men's health, orthopedics, critical care, and pediatric endocrinology. We work with patients, care partners, and physicians to help them navigate healthcare system complexity and access therapies that make a meaningful difference.

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