Buyer / Procurement Specialist

BUYER  PROCUREMENT SPECIALIST

Manufacturing Startup and Operations Support

Position Summary

The Buyer / Procurement Specialist is responsible for sourcing, negotiating, purchasing, and managing the materials, equipment, services, and supplies needed to launch a manufacturing facility and sustain ongoing operations. During the facility build and startup phase, this role supports construction-related and capital procurement, including production equipment, tools, racking, furniture, safety items, facility services, and contractor requirements. After the facility becomes operational, the role transitions toward component purchasing, supplier management, inventory replenishment, and MRO purchasing to help ensure uninterrupted production.

The successful candidate is organized, hands-on, responsive, and comfortable working in a fast-moving startup environment where requirements, priorities, and schedules may change quickly.

Key Responsibilities

Facility Build and Startup Procurement

• Source and purchase equipment, tools, furniture, racking, workstations, safety equipment, facility infrastructure, and other startup requirements.
• Support purchasing for factory setup, utilities, warehouse equipment, storage systems, production support equipment, and contracted services.
• Coordinate procurement activities with Facilities, Operations, Engineering, EHS, Finance, and external contractors.
• Obtain competitive quotations and negotiate pricing, payment terms, delivery schedules, warranties, and service agreements and statement of work.
• Track capital and startup purchases from requisition and purchase order placement through delivery, installation, and closeout.
• Monitor supplier and contractor commitments to support project schedules and budget requirements.

Component and Production Purchasing

• Purchase electronic, mechanical, fabricated, and other production components required for manufacturing operations.
• Convert approved demand, planning signals, or MRP recommendations into purchase orders.
• Confirm supplier delivery commitments and actively manage late orders, shortages, expedites, and schedule changes.
• Analyze forecasts, inventory levels, open orders, lead times, and production requirements to maintain material availability.
• Partner with Planning, Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, and Warehouse teams to support production and new product introduction.
• Support alternate-source development, supplier qualification, and cost-reduction activities.

MRO and Indirect Purchasing

• Manage purchasing for maintenance parts, spare parts, tools, consumables, PPE, safety supplies, janitorial supplies, office supplies, and production support materials.
• Establish preferred suppliers, catalogs, blanket orders, and replenishment methods for frequently used MRO items.
• Coordinate with Maintenance and Operations to identify critical spares and appropriate minimum and maximum stocking levels.
• Help prevent stockouts while controlling excess, obsolete, and duplicate MRO inventory.
• Support preventive and corrective maintenance activities through timely procurement and delivery of required materials.

Supplier and Commercial Management

• Develop and maintain professional relationships with key suppliers and service providers.
• Evaluate supplier performance based on quality, cost, delivery, responsiveness, and commercial compliance.
• Resolve supplier delivery, invoice, quality, and service issues with the appropriate internal teams.
• Identify supplier consolidation, standardization, payment-term, lead-time, and cost-saving opportunities.
• Maintain accurate supplier records, quotations, contracts, purchase orders, and supporting documentation.

Inventory, Systems, and Reporting

• Maintain accurate purchase orders, promise dates, pricing, lead times, and supplier information in the ERP or MRP system.
• Assist with inventory parameters such as safety stock, reorder points, order quantities, and planning lead times.
• Support cycle counting, inventory accuracy, receiving discrepancy resolution, and invoice matching.
• Prepare purchasing reports and track open orders, shortages, past-due items, savings, and supplier performance.
• Follow purchasing controls, approval requirements, documentation standards, and company policies.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Operations Management, Engineering, or a related field preferred. Equivalent relevant experience may be considered.

Experience

• 3-7 years of purchasing, procurement, materials, or supply chain experience.
• Experience supporting manufacturing operations and purchasing direct materials, indirect materials, or MRO supplies.
• Facility startup, factory launch, greenfield, construction procurement, or capital equipment purchasing experience preferred.
• Working knowledge of ERP or MRP systems such as SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Epicor, or Microsoft Dynamics.

Required Skills and Capabilities

• Strong sourcing, negotiation, supplier management, and follow-up skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and urgent requirements with limited supervision.
• Working knowledge of purchase orders, RFQs, lead times, inventory control, and MRP concepts.
• Strong analytical, organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and standard Microsoft 365 applications.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and maintain accurate records in a changing startup environment.

Key Performance Indicators

• Supplier on-time delivery and past-due reduction.
• Material availability and shortage prevention.
• Purchase price variance and documented cost savings.
• MRO stockout rate and critical-spares availability.
• Purchase order accuracy and supplier confirmation cycle time.
• Inventory health, lead-time improvement, and supplier quality performance.
• Completion of facility startup purchasing milestones within approved schedules and budgets.