Manufacturing Buyer

Role Summary

The Buyer II is a site-facing procurement professional who owns an assigned portfolio of direct and indirect materials, with emphasis on steel, chemicals, and component hardware, for high-volume manufacturing. The role operates with greater autonomy than Buyer I and leads sourcing events, multi-supplier negotiations, supplier performance improvement, cost improvement, inventory optimization, and supply-risk mitigation. The Buyer II uses JD Edwards or Oracle, MRP, plant-level Kanban, advanced Excel analytics, and tier-board visibility to protect production continuity and manage supplier OTIF, purchase-price variance, inventory turns, backorders, and data integrity through the Oracle transition.

Core Responsibilities

1. Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management

• Own end-to-end sourcing for assigned categories, including market research, RFQs, cost analysis, award recommendations, and contract execution.

• Lead supplier quarterly business reviews and set measurable price, OTIF, quality, and responsiveness goals.

• Drive supplier corrective actions and escalate or transition chronic underperformance.

• Develop multi-source, dual-source, safety-stock, and expediting strategies for critical commodities.

2. Planning, Ordering, and Production Protection

• Convert MRP and Kanban signals into on-time purchase orders.

• Manage open orders daily, including acknowledgments, reschedules, expedites, and cancellations.

• Manage backorders and shortages with Production, Scheduling, and Receiving.

• Protect the weekly SIOP build plan and prevent line interruptions.

3. Cost, Inventory, and Analytics

• Deliver year-over-year purchase-price variance and total-cost improvement.

• Use price analysis, should-cost thinking, price-break analysis, freight trade-offs, and logistics optimization.

• Set reorder points and Kanban quantities and reduce excess and obsolete inventory.

• Build Excel, Power Query, or Power BI models for demand, lead-time, expedite, and hot-list visibility.

4. Master Data and System Discipline

• Maintain accurate item-master and vendor-master data.

• Manage lead times, minimum-order quantities, economic-order quantities, price breaks, calendars, and ship-from and ship-to data.

• Use JD Edwards or Oracle purchasing and MRP systems and support the Oracle transition.

• Reduce system noise through disciplined master-data integrity.

5. Compliance, Quality, and EHS

• Follow procurement SOPs, ethical standards, and applicable regulations.

• Support conflict-minerals, safety-data-sheet, chemical-handling, and EHS vendor requirements.

• Partner with Quality and EHS on supplier nonconformances and corrective-action requests.

• Support safe handling and transportation of materials.

6. Continuous Improvement and Functional Leadership

• Lead or co-lead Kaizen events for material flow, receiving efficiency, and inventory accuracy.

• Apply RCCM, PDCA, root-cause analysis, and standard work to recurring shortages and process gaps.

• Coach Buyer I employees and Coordinators on purchase-order hygiene, follow-up cadence, and supplier communication.

• Serve as backup for the Procurement Manager when needed.

Leadership Expectations

• Operate with autonomy, urgency, and disciplined open-order management.

• Use data and advanced analytics to anticipate demand, supply, cost, and risk.

• Lead effective supplier negotiations and performance reviews.

• Coach less-experienced procurement employees and model strong supplier communication.

• Escalate quickly when production continuity is at risk.

• Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability during the Oracle transition.

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, or a related field, or three to five or more years of progressive manufacturing-purchasing experience.

• Proficiency in JD Edwards or Oracle purchasing and MRP systems and Kanban workflows.

• Strong Excel capability, including lookups, pivots, and basic modeling; Power Query or Power BI preferred.

• Success managing metals, chemicals, or other long-lead or high-volatility commodities.

• Experience running RFQs, negotiating sourcing awards, and managing suppliers to performance indicators.

• Knowledge of price-break analysis, total cost of ownership, purchase-price variance, and freight and lead-time trade-offs.

• Strong open-order, expedite, RCCM, PDCA, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

• Ability to maintain regular manufacturing-floor presence and follow PPE and safety requirements.

• Ability to travel approximately 5% to 10% to suppliers, ASD sites, or corporate locations.

Position Impact

This role directly affects supplier delivery, purchase cost, inventory, master-data quality, and uninterrupted manufacturing execution. Success requires strong sourcing discipline, daily purchase-order management, validated cost improvement, reliable supplier performance, early shortage mitigation, and effective support of the Oracle transition.

Performance Metrics Framework