Vice President of Purchasing

Our client is a family-owned group of manufacturing businesses serving the automotive and broader industrial markets. With multiple manufacturing operations in the United States, the organization provides an integrated range of capabilities spanning product design and development, engineering, tooling, advanced machining, injection molding, value-added assembly, and related manufacturing services. As a family-owned enterprise, the organization takes a long-term approach to its business, customers, suppliers, and employees. Its culture values teamwork, accountability, innovation, continuous improvement, and a commitment to delivering high-quality results.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Our client is seeking a strategic, hands-on Vice President of Purchasing who brings an ownership mentality and thrives on turning opportunity into results. This executive will lead purchasing across multiple businesses, combining enterprise-level thinking with a willingness to stay close to the plants, programs, suppliers, and people who make things happen. The VP will leverage the organization’s collective buying power and supplier relationships to reduce total cost, strengthen quality and delivery, mitigate risk, and create greater value across the businesses. This is an opportunity for a proven purchasing leader to make a meaningful impact—building upon a solid foundation while advancing a more integrated, disciplined, and forward-looking purchasing organization positioned for continued growth.

This position reports to the Chief Administrative Officer and has four (4) direct reports.

JOB DEFINITION

The VP of Purchasing must be a leader that’s not afraid of be in-the-trenches with broad functional expertise across strategic sourcing, supplier management and development, commodity management, contract negotiation, cost optimization and supply-chain risk, bringing the manufacturing depth and commercial acumen necessary to create value across complex engineered products, plastics and tooling environments.

SKILLS

• Develop and execute an enterprise-wide purchasing strategy aligned with the organization’s business, operational and financial objectives, while balancing the unique needs of individual businesses, manufacturing operations and customer programs.
• Leverage the collective buying power of the organization by identifying opportunities to consolidate spend, strengthen supplier relationships, standardize purchasing practices and create greater value across businesses and locations.
• Own strategic sourcing and major commercial decisions, providing executive leadership on supplier selection, negotiations, contracts, commodity strategies, and other significant procurement matters.
• Develop sourcing strategies that deliver the best total value by balancing cost, quality, delivery, technical capability, capacity, reliability, and continuity of supply—not simply lowest price.
• Stay close to the market and ahead of potential disruption, monitoring commodity trends, economic conditions, supplier capacity and other external factors to anticipate risk, protect supply and capitalize on opportunities.
• Build and maintain a high-performing supplier network, establishing clear expectations and disciplined processes for supplier selection, qualification, performance, and development while building strategic relationships with critical suppliers.
• Know the spend and know the numbers. Establish meaningful purchasing metrics and analytics that provide visibility into cost, supplier quality, delivery, sourcing performance, and risk, and use that information to drive decisions, accountability, and measurable improvement.
• Partner closely with Finance and operational leadership on purchasing objectives, budgets, forecasts, cost performance and opportunities to improve total cost and long-term business value.
• Be an active partner to the plants and operating teams, working shoulder-to-shoulder with Operations, Engineering, Quality and Program Management to solve supplier issues, remove roadblocks and ensure materials, components and services meet cost, quality, and delivery expectations.
• Collaborates with other functions to define current and future inventory requirements and manage inventory levels aligning purchasing activity with production needs and customer programs.
• Incorporates auditing processes to ensure procurement and recordkeeping comply with any applicable industry standards, company policies and procedures, contractual obligations, and applicable regulatory standards.
• Ensure purchasing has a seat at the table early in new programs, product development, engineering changes, capital requirements, and product launches so sourcing decisions support successful execution from the outset.
• Lead purchasing initiatives across businesses, locations, and functions, bringing people together to solve problems, improve processes, leverage technology and systems, and implement practical solutions that produce measurable results.
• Drive continuous improvement throughout purchasing, challenging existing practices when appropriate, eliminating waste and inefficiency, sharing best practices, and ensuring processes support customer, quality, and regulatory requirements.
• Build, lead and develop a high-performing purchasing team, establishing clear expectations and accountability while promoting ethics, urgency and cross-functional collaboration; empower people to make sound decisions, solve problems and take ownership of results while identifying and retaining top talent, addressing performance issues, and developing the next generation of purchasing leadership.

BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE

• 15+ years of progressive experience in purchasing, procurement, strategic sourcing, commodity management, or supply chain with significant leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated success leading purchasing within a complex, multi-site manufacturing environment.
• Experience within automotive, engineered products, plastics, tooling, or another technically sophisticated manufacturing environment strongly preferred.
• Broad expertise in strategic sourcing, supplier management, commodity strategy, negotiations, contracting, cost analysis, and supplier performance management.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver measurable cost and value improvement while maintaining appropriate quality, delivery, and supplier performance.
• Experience supporting new product or program launches and collaborating with engineering, manufacturing, quality, operations, program management, and finance.
• Strong understanding of lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and quality-management principles.
• Experience operating within disciplined automotive or manufacturing quality systems preferred.
• Strong analytical and financial acumen with the ability to translate purchasing information into business insight and action.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop high-performing purchasing professionals.
• Proven ability to influence across organizational and functional boundaries and effectively lead changes.
• Firm but fair approach, strong negotiation, communication, and relationship-building skills with the executive presence necessary to interact effectively with senior leadership and key suppliers.
• Get-it-done mentality, results oriented and metrics-driven with the ability to move comfortably between strategy and execution.
• High degree of integrity, humility, accountability, and respect for others in an environment where relationships, reputation, long-term thinking and organizational culture are important.
• Travel required is less than 20% to company and supplier locations, and/or as business needs require.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business, engineering, finance or a related discipline required; an advanced degree or relevant professional certification is preferred.