Buyer

Buyer Position at Lebermuth

The Lebermuth Company is currently looking for a Buyer to join our Procurement team. Lebermuth is a family owned, ingredient manufacturer, specializing in essential oils and custom-developed fragrance and flavor blends. We serve the personal care, home fragrance and fragrance/flavor reseller markets. Lebermuth culture is rich in family values, a trademark of our 100+ year history.

Location: South Bend, IN | Reports to: Director, Sourcing & Purchasing

Purpose: Strategically drive purchasing performance to ensure quality, availability, and cost-efficiency—delivering seamless procurement that meets both customer and business expectations.

What Success Looks Like:

• Smart, Strategic Buying: You execute well-timed, data-driven purchases that meet customer needs, reduce costs, and protect margins. You balance forecasts, MRP signals, and real-time market insights to keep materials flowing—never overstocked, never short.
• Reliable Product Availability: Inventory levels are optimized. Stockouts are rare, and overages are controlled. Your proactive planning ensures materials are available when needed, aligning tightly with production and customer timelines.
• Supplier Partnerships that Perform: You build and maintain strong vendor relationships that consistently deliver on quality, cost, and reliability. Your vendors respect your expectations and respond quickly, helping you keep Lebermuth ahead of demand.
• Operational Excellence through Data: Purchasing records, MRP systems, and inventory data are accurate, current, and actionable. You're a key player in cross-functional decisions because your data tells a clear, reliable story.
• Market-Savvy, Change-Ready: You stay sharp on supply chain trends and price shifts—adapting sourcing strategies in real time. Whether responding to volatility or identifying opportunities, your decisions keep Lebermuth agile and competitive.

You Bring:

• 5+ years' experience buying in the Fragrance and/or Flavor industry
• Strong supplier negotiation and relationship management skills
• Advanced Excel and MRP/ERP system proficiency
• Strategic thinking, attention to detail, and a proactive mindset
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as needed

Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Requirements

Qualifications:

Functional Skills: Strong math, analytical, and problem-solving skills are required for this role. Excellent planning, prioritizing, attention to detail, and follow-up are also needed to meet the job functions. Experience with structured processes and ability to enhance current processes along the way. Strong ability to research and source material or vendor options to meet production and budget goals. Ability to exercise sound and accurate judgment. Adept at using logic and reasoning to identify solutions to problems. Strategic thinking is a must. Negotiation skills are important.

Technology Aptitude/Skills: Advanced skills in MS Office Suite; primarily Microsoft Excel/Word. Strong MRP/ERP experience. Strong aptitude with technology who could learn quickly and create more efficient processes preferred.

Language Skills: Excellent written and oral communication skills. Ability to read, analyze and interpret business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures and governmental regulations. Excellent ability to write correspondence which is professional in both content and tone. Strong ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from both internal and external customers, and vendors. The ability to speak a foreign language is preferred.

Leadership/Behaviors Skills: Self-starter who can work independently and learn quickly. Excellent ability to build relationships with those internally and externally to influence/mentor others and meet the position needs. Creative and innovative to recognize an issue and work calmly to find a resolution.

Culture Match Behaviors: Enjoys and thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment, with a huge drive to create an impact while also being an effective listener, respectful problem-solver and a collaborative continuous learning team member.