Senior Buyer

The Senior Buyer (Buyer II) is responsible for leading procurement execution, supplier performance management, material availability, and purchasing activities to ensure materials, components, and services are available at the right time, quantity, quality, and cost to support production requirements and customer demand.This role serves as a critical link between Sourcing, Planning, Operations, Production, Quality, Finance, Customer Experience, and Leadership, translating business demand and production requirements into effective purchasing actions and supplier commitments.The Senior Buyer owns purchase order execution, supplier follow-up, shortage recovery, lead-time management, procurement risk visibility, supplier accountability, and material readiness while supporting strategic sourcing initiatives, negotiations, cost improvement, and working-capital optimization.This position plays a critical role in evolving Procurement from a primarily transactional function into a proactive, data-driven, disciplined, and scalable business partner capable of supporting the company's continued growth.1. Procurement Execution & Purchase Order ManagementManage the end-to-end purchasing process, including purchase order creation, issuance, confirmation, maintenance, change management, and closure.Ensure purchase orders accurately reflect approved pricing, quantities, lead times, delivery dates, payment terms, freight terms, and other commercial requirements.Ensure critical purchase orders receive supplier confirmation for quantity, pricing, and committed delivery dates, and proactively resolve discrepancies.Maintain active ownership of open purchase orders through receipt and closure and ensure purchasing activity aligns with approved sourcing strategies and production requirements.2. Material Readiness & Production SupportOwn purchased-material readiness against the approved production schedule.Proactively identify shortages, timing gaps, supplier constraints, and other risks before they impact production or customer commitments.Prioritize purchasing and supplier recovery activities based on the approved production schedule, customer requirements, operational criticality, and revenue exposure.Partner with Planning and Production to establish recovery actions for identified shortages and quantify production or revenue exposure associated with critical material constraints when appropriate.3. Supplier Performance & AccountabilityPartner with the Sourcing team to manage supplier relationships and supplier performance.Establish consistent supplier follow-up and accountability for delivery, responsiveness, lead time, quality, capacity, and commercial commitments.Monitor supplier on-time delivery and lead-time adherence and develop recovery plans for late orders, shortages, capacity constraints, and operational disruptions.Initiate and track supplier corrective actions for recurring delivery, responsiveness, quality, or service failures, and support supplier scorecard development and performance reviews.4. Past-Due Purchase Order & Shortage RecoveryMaintain active visibility of all past-due purchase orders and critical material shortages.Establish documented recovery actions for past-due and at-risk orders and work directly with suppliers to secure updated commitments and recovery dates.Escalate unresolved past-due orders based on production, customer, and revenue impact.Drive continuous reduction in past-due purchase order quantity and value and ensure shortages are actively managed through final resolution.5. Supplier Capacity & Lead-Time ManagementValidate supplier capacity against forecasted and committed demand, particularly for critical, high-volume, and long-lead-time materials.Identify supplier capacity constraints before they create production or customer-service risks.Regularly validate actual supplier lead times against ERP planning parameters and recommend updates when actual performance differs from system assumptions.Provide appropriate forecast visibility to key suppliers and escalate capacity or lead-time risks to Sourcing, Planning, and Operations.6. RFQs, Supplier Evaluation & Sourcing SupportSupport RFQ activities for existing materials, components, and services.Analyze supplier quotations based on cost, quality, lead time, capacity, service, commercial terms, and supply risk.Provide supplier selection and sourcing recommendations and support supplier negotiations and commercial discussions as required.Identify sole-source and high-risk material dependencies, partner with Sourcing on contingency strategies, and support new supplier onboarding and operational readiness.7. Cost Management & Working CapitalIdentify and execute cost savings and cost-avoidance opportunities in partnership with Sourcing and Finance.Monitor Purchase Price Variance (PPV), investigate significant purchasing variances, and support corrective actions.Evaluate supplier pricing, MOQs, order quantities, lead times, freight economics, blanket purchase orders, and supplier stocking programs to balance availability with inventory and working-capital objectives.Track and reduce premium freight, expediting, and emergency purchasing costs associated with supplier or planning disruptions.8. Supplier Financial & Commercial RiskPartner with Finance and Accounts Payable to proactively identify supplier credit holds, payment disputes, past-due invoices, and other commercial issues that could interrupt supply.Maintain visibility of suppliers at risk of withholding shipments because of financial or commercial issues and escalate risks before production or customer commitments are affected.Support resolution of invoice, pricing, receiving, and payment discrepancies that could affect supplier relationships or continued supply.9. Supplier Risk & SegmentationSupport supplier segmentation based on spend, criticality, performance, business impact, sole-source exposure, and supply risk.Maintain heightened visibility and communication for critical and high-risk suppliers.Identify emerging supplier risks and partner with Sourcing to develop appropriate mitigation or contingency strategies.10. SIOP & Cross-Functional PlanningActively support the Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP) process.Provide accurate supplier capacity, lead-time, material availability, purchasing, shortage, and supply-risk information to support planning decisions.Translate approved demand and production requirements into actionable purchasing priorities and identify supply constraints that may prevent execution of the operating plan.Provide purchasing and supplier inputs needed for operational and financial planning.11. ERP & Procurement Data IntegrityMaintain accurate purchasing and supplier information within the company's ERP system.Ensure supplier lead times, pricing, quantities, delivery dates, terms, and purchase order data remain current and accurate.Regularly review purchasing data for discrepancies that could negatively affect planning, inventory, production, or financial reporting.Identify and correct inaccurate or outdated procurement master data and support continuous improvement of ERP purchasing processes.12. Reporting & KPI ManagementDevelop and maintain procurement reports, dashboards, supplier scorecards, and KPIs.Monitor supplier on-time delivery, past-due purchase orders, material shortages, lead-time adherence, PPV, cost savings and avoidance, premium freight, data accuracy, supplier corrective actions, and production or revenue impacted by material constraints.Use data to identify trends, recurring supplier issues, and improvement opportunities and provide actionable reporting to Operations and Leadership.13. Operational Communication & EscalationCommunicate material risks, supplier constraints, shortages, lead-time changes, and recovery plans clearly and consistently.Provide timely material and procurement status updates through established daily and weekly operating rhythms.Escalate critical supply disruptions early enough for corrective action and clearly communicate the operational, customer, inventory, and revenue implications of significant procurement risks.Partner across Planning, Operations, Production, Quality, Customer Experience, Finance, Sourcing, and Leadership to resolve critical supply issues.14. Product & Material Change ManagementPartner with Planning, Production, Product Development, Quality, and Sourcing on material changes, substitutions, phase-ins, and phase-outs.Identify inventory and supply risks associated with product or BOM changes and help minimize obsolete or excess inventory.Ensure suppliers receive appropriate communication regarding purchasing changes affecting demand.15. Continuous ImprovementIdentify and implement improvements to purchasing processes, supplier management, reporting, ERP discipline, and cross-functional communication.Develop standardized procurement processes that improve responsiveness, predictability, and scalability.Reduce unnecessary manual work, reactive expediting, and recurring purchasing issues while promoting proactive problem-solving, accountability, and data-based decision-making.Qualifications & ExperienceBachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Operations, Finance, or a related field preferred.4-7+ years of progressive experience in purchasing, procurement, sourcing, supply chain, or materials management.Experience supporting procurement within a manufacturing, consumer-products, or similar operational environment preferred.Demonstrated experience managing purchase orders, supplier performance, material shortages, supplier lead times, and recovery activities.