Senior Purchasing Manager

Our people are the heart of our business. As the world’s largest provider of thermal processing services, Bodycote employs thousands of highly skilled staff around the globe, including some of the best engineers, scientists, and technicians in the industry. Come join our team!

Due to the nature of our business and a heavy industrial market, Bodycote deems this position to be safety-sensitive.

Position Summary

The Senior Purchasing Manager, North America leads procurement across Bodycote’s North American operations, providing strategic direction and driving cost competitiveness, supplier performance and supply security. The role is responsible for advancing operational excellence and procurement standardization across the region, supporting effective and consistent procurement practices.

Operating within a highly technical and energy-intensive manufacturing environment, the role supports Bodycote’s network of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing facilities. It has regional accountability for North America while working closely with the global procurement organization to support strategic procurement initiatives and deliver consistency across the wider business.

The role acts as the procurement leader for North America and partners with Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, EHS, Finance and Regional Leadership Teams to deliver sustainable value and support Bodycote’s long-term growth and profitability.

It also supports the Global Director Strategic Procurement in the delivery of key regional and global strategic objectives, procurement projects and initiatives.

Essential Job Functions (Duties and Responsibilities)

Procurement Leadership

• Lead procurement activities across all North American Bodycote facilities.
• Serve as the primary procurement business partner to Operations, Regional Leadership, Engineering, and Finance.
• Execute regional procurement strategies aligned with global sourcing objectives.
• Develop and maintain procurement roadmaps supporting operational excellence and EBITDA improvement.
• Ensure procurement compliance, governance, and policy adherence across all sites.
• Support acquisition integrations, facility consolidations, and strategic business initiatives.

Strategic Sourcing & Category Management

• Lead sourcing activities for direct and indirect spend categories across North America.
• Develop sourcing strategies leveraging regional and global purchasing volumes.
• Identify and execute cost reduction, supplier consolidation, standardization, and supply chain optimization initiatives.
• Conduct market intelligence, supplier assessments, benchmarking, and risk analysis.
• Manage competitive tender processes.
• Develop data-driven sourcing recommendations and business cases.
• Maintain a robust sourcing pipeline delivering measurable savings and operational improvements.

Supplier Relationship Management

• Develop and manage relationships with strategic North American suppliers.
• Lead supplier business reviews and performance evaluations.
• Establish supplier scorecards measuring quality, delivery, service, innovation, sustainability, and cost performance.
• Drive supplier development and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Act as the escalation point for commercial supplier issues.
• Identify alternative suppliers and dual-source opportunities to improve supply security and competitiveness.

Contract Management & Negotiations

• Lead complex commercial negotiations with regional and global suppliers.
• Negotiate pricing, service levels, rebates, warranty provisions, productivity improvements, and payment terms.
• Develop and manage regional and multi-site supply agreements.
• Ensure contracts appropriately mitigate commercial and operational risks.
• Monitor agreement compliance and realization of negotiated benefits.
• Support legal review and resolution of supplier disputes when required.

Cost Reduction & Value Creation

• Deliver annual savings targets.
• Drive total cost of ownership (TCO) initiatives across procurement categories.
• Identify opportunities for standardization and volume consolidation across sites.
• Support working capital improvements through payment term optimization.
• Monitor commodity trends, inflation impacts, and market developments affecting procurement costs.
• Develop and execute corrective actions to mitigate cost increases and supply disruptions.

Supply Chain Risk Management

• Proactively assess risks within strategic supplier networks.
• Develop mitigation plans for critical materials, gases, spare parts, and technical services.
• Support business continuity planning across procurement categories.
• Monitor supplier financial stability and operational performance.
• Lead procurement response activities during supply chain disruptions.

Procurement Excellence

• Improve procurement processes, reporting, and spend visibility.
• Increase utilization of contracts and preferred suppliers.
• Support implementation of procurement best practices and standard operating procedures.
• Promote use of sourcing tools.
• Drive greater procurement discipline and compliance across all locations.

Experience & Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years of progressive procurement and sourcing experience.
• Minimum 5 years in a strategic sourcing, category management, or procurement leadership role.
• Experience supporting multi-site manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated success managing high-value supplier negotiations and sourcing projects.
• Experience within the heat treatment, thermal processing, or industrial manufacturing industry is strongly preferred.
• Experience working within matrix organizations and cross-functional teams.
• Proven record of delivering measurable cost savings and procurement value creation.
• Bachelor's Degree, Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Finance, Engineering, Operations Management, or related field.
• MBA, CIPS, CPSM, ISM, or other professional procurement certifications preferred

Skills and Capabilities

• Commercial Leadership
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Strong business and financial acumen.
• Ability to develop and execute sourcing strategies independently.
• Strong contract management capabilities.
• Analytical capability
• Advanced spend analysis and cost modelling skills.
• Ability to evaluate supplier proposals and build executive-level business cases.
• Strong understanding of market dynamics, inflation drivers, and commodity impacts.
• Experience using data to identify savings opportunities and support decision-making.

Stakeholder Management

• Ability to collaborate effectively with plant managers, operations leaders, engineers, finance teams, and executive leadership.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Proven capability to influence across all organizational levels.

Operational Understanding

• Understanding of manufacturing and maintenance environments.
• Knowledge of industrial equipment, technical services, energy-intensive operations, or process industries preferred.
• Ability to understand technical requirements and translate them into commercial sourcing strategies.

Travel expectations

Ability to travel up to 30% throughout North America. Occasional international travel to support global sourcing initiatives and supplier meetings.

Physical & Mental Demands

• Must be able to work in a standing position for extended periods of time in an industrial environment.
• Ability to bend, pull, stoop and reach to perform functions
• Ability to lift up to 35 lbs.
• May be exposed to heat, fumes, noise, and humidity, etc.
• Must have the cognitive and mental capacity to perform essential job functions
• Must be able to communicate effectively orally and in writing
• Visual acuity to read documents, computer screens, files, etc.
• Ability to hear in person and via phone

The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and levels of the work performed by employees, but are not a complete list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, the job description does not constitute a written or implied contract for employment. Bodycote reserves the right to revise or change job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.

Bodycote is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against current and prospective employees based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age for individuals over forty years of age, military and veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state and local laws.

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