Senior Buyer

This position is responsible for managing strategic sourcing activities, negotiating with suppliers, maintaining strong vendor relationships, and ensuring the timely availability of materials to support business and production requirements. The Senior Buyer will collaborate closely with Supply Chain, Planning, Operations, Finance, Quality, and other cross-functional teams to ensure purchasing decisions align with organizational goals.

Responsibilities:

Procurement & Purchasing Execution

• Manage the end-to-end procurement process for assigned ingredients and packaging materials.
• Create, maintain, and manage purchase orders from issuance through receipt and invoice resolution.
• Monitor supplier confirmations, delivery commitments, and order status to ensure continuity of supply.
• Resolve purchasing, delivery, and supplier-related issues in a timely manner.
• Ensure purchasing transactions and supplier information are accurate and up to date within ERP systems.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders to align purchasing activities with production requirements.

Inventory & Supply Continuity Management

• Analyze inventory levels, forecasts, consumption trends, lead times, and supplier constraints to determine purchasing requirements.
• Balance inventory investment, service levels, shelf-life considerations, storage capacity, and operational needs.
• Proactively identify supply risks, shortages, and potential disruptions and develop mitigation plans.
• Monitor inventory health and support initiatives to reduce excess and obsolete inventory.
• Ensure materials are available to support production schedules and customer demand.
• Escalate material risks and coordinate recovery plans when supply disruptions occur.

Supplier Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary day-to-day operational and commercial contact for assigned suppliers.
• Maintain strong supplier relationships to support service, quality, delivery, and cost objectives.
• Monitor supplier performance and drive corrective actions when performance expectations are not met.
• Support negotiations related to pricing, lead times, service levels, MOQs, and operational performance.
• Participate in supplier business reviews and performance improvement initiatives.

Cost Savings & Continuous Improvement

• Identify and implement cost savings, cost avoidance, and process improvement opportunities.
• Support the execution of sourcing initiatives and supplier transitions.
• Analyze pricing proposals and develop cost comparisons to support procurement recommendations.
• Manage working capital improvement initiatives through inventory optimization and purchasing discipline.
• Participate in cross-functional projects involving supplier changes, new product launches, packaging changes, and operational improvements.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Planning to align procurement activities with demand forecasts and production schedules.
• Collaborate with Operations, Quality, R&D, and Finance to resolve supply, quality, and service issues.
• Support new product introductions, reformulations, packaging changes, and supplier qualification activities.
• Coordinate with Finance to resolve invoice discrepancies, pricing issues, and supplier account matters.

Qualifications & Experience

• 4–8 years of procurement, purchasing, supply chain, or materials management experience within a manufacturing environment.
• Experience purchasing direct materials such as ingredients, packaging, raw materials, or production components.
• Experience managing supplier relationships and supporting manufacturing operations.
• Food, beverage, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical, or related regulated manufacturing experience preferred.
• Experience working with ERP systems and inventory management processes

Systems & Tools

• Experience with ERP systems (e.g., VAI, SAP, Oracle)
• Familiarity with sourcing and analytics tools (e.g., RFx platforms, spend analytics systems)
• Advanced Excel and data analysis capabilities