Purchasing Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Job Description

FEI is looking for a Purchasing Manager to lead our purchasing organization, overseeing the drop ship, domestic stocking, and import purchasing teams. This is a hands-on management role for someone who thrives on staying ahead of daily priorities, keeping data current, and driving a team to follow through. You'll work closely with senior management, sourcing, operations, and sales teams to keep supply chain running smoothly across all three purchasing functions. You'll be empowered to make day-to-day decisions and resolve issues independently — serving as the go-to point of ownership so purchasing runs smoothly whether or not senior management is directly involved.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary decision-maker and escalation point for purchasing issues across all three teams — resolving problems directly and looping in senior management only when truly necessary

• Manage the drop ship, domestic stocking, and import purchasing teams, ensuring daily purchasing and inventory reports are reviewed and acted upon

• Own the accuracy of delivery date data in the system and build a proactive tracking process (e.g. vendor follow-up cadence, missed-deadline alerts) so ETAs stay current and vendor delays are caught before they become supply chain surprises

• Hold vendors accountable to committed dates, serving as the early-warning link to sales and operations on at-risk orders

• Oversee preparation and submission of Purchase Orders to vendors; verify order acknowledgements and invoices

• Maintain strong supplier relationships

• Monitor inventory levels against forecast across all three functions, flagging shortages or overstock risks, and help refine forecasting reports

• Ensure purchasing operations comply with our ISO quality system

• Manage team workload and recurring administrative purchasing tasks so senior management can focus on strategic priorities

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in purchasing / supply chain management

• Prior experience managing a team or direct reports

• Comfortable making independent decisions and taking ownership of problems

• Track record of building or improving processes (reporting, tracking, follow-up systems) rather than just operating within existing ones

• Working knowledge of ERP systems (NetSuite or similar) — comfortable learning and living inside purchasing/inventory modules daily

• Strong Excel skills, including formulas and pivot tables

• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable managing multiple priorities and teams at once

• Excellent written and verbal communication; responsive and reliable

• Experience with import/customs processes (HTS classification, broker coordination) a plus given oversight of the import team