Buyer

The Buyer will play a critical role in supporting indirect procurement process reporting to the Procurement Manager. This position is responsible for driving indirect supplier relationships and negotiating costs to support the uninterrupted supply of products at optimum price, delivery, terms, and within policies and guidelines established by management. Provides recommendations to the leadership team, proposing cost-optimization/containment solutions, utilizing spend analysis, internal data collection, and analytical expertise.

• Select and qualify suppliers, recommend award of contract and monitors adherence.
• Manage ongoing relationship and communication with suppliers.
• Work with the demand forecasting team to determine appropriate inventory strategies and to monitor supplier performance.
• Ensure suppliers have capacity to support forecast as well as having redundancies and contingency planning.
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative supplier analysis to develop and maintain robust supplier evaluation programs including developing KPI programs to support these efforts.
• Continually improve procurement methods, inventory control and drives down external spend; develops item procurement strategy based on business criticality, forecast accuracy, required service level (availability), lead times, MOQs and EOQs.
• Optimize the efficiency and cost of our supply chain by identifying and implementing opportunities to (i) improve buying patterns to reduce supply risk and improve pricing; (ii) better leverage buying power across all locations; (iii) negotiate savings; and (iv) support operations to achieve the optimal total cost solution.
• Foster close relationships with cross-functional partners (Marketing, R&D, Quality, Sales and Production) and represents the procurement function at key business meetings.
• Provide strategic sourcing support for "special projects".
• Track and report out on specific cross-functional team assignments and activity.
• Solicit quotes, negotiate pricing and schedules, specify and confirm materials for any goods required, and monitors deadlines and shipping requirements. Recommend and proactively manages RFx process.
• Monitor and enter cost changes into JD Edwards via Supplier Catalog.
• Establish inventory policies for optimization of lead times, safety stock, turns, and order quantities.
• Plan the Distribution Center to Distribution Center transfers of inventory with the goal of lower transportation and warehouse handling cost, lower inventory obsolesces expense, and achieving a 98.5% or higher rate.
• Design and produce daily, weekly, monthly and ad hoc reports as required.
• Interact with Production Managers, DC Managers, Transportation, Sales, and Marketing on inventory availability.
• Responsible for maintaining DC and manufacturing Inventory levels based on ERP messages. Must understand safety stocks, order minimums, order multiples, lead- times, and other planning data for all Distribution Centers.
• Produce daily, weekly, monthly and ad hoc reports that are used to run the planning function.
• Supports Allied Monthly Supply Review
• Supports Cash Flow allocation for Allied Vendors
• May perform other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Sourcing, Supply Chain or relevant field.
• 5+ years' procurement experience; contracting experience a plus.

• Proven ability to interact with Senior Management and participate in strategic direction planning.
• Understanding of key cost drivers and their influence on the pricing of the indirect buying categories in question.
• Solid familiarity with supply chain / planning software / SAP, JDE or other ERP Software experience preferred.
• Ability to successfully manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment, deadline-driven.
• Excellent attention to detail, accuracy, quality and strong organizational skills.
• Strong mathematical skills with budget management experience.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills, both quantitative and qualitative.
• Strong computer skills, Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.