Senior Technical Buyer - Indirect Material & Services

DEPARTMENT Indirect Purchasing
LOCATION Greenville, SC or other JTEKT NA locations
REPORTS TO Purchasing Manager – Indirect Material & Services
Level 106
REVISION DATE June 18, 2025 REVISION LEVEL 2

Position Overview
We are seeking a highly skilled and detail-oriented Senior Buyer to complement our team at JTEKT North America Corporation, a leading automotive supplier. This role involves identifying and implementing cost-effective procurement strategies, optimizing supplier relationships, and ensuring that non-product-related expenditures are aligned with business goals and objectives. This requires ownership and accountability for the supply base across various indirect categories within the organization, and collaborate cross-functionally, ensuring clear expectations. The role will be responsible for optimizing procurement strategies, managing supplier engagement, and driving cost efficiencies across various indirect categories (IT, Packaging, Chemicals & Gas, HR, Marketing & Sales, Professional Services, Facility Management, Travel, etc.). This role focuses on category strategy development, RFP processes, contract negotiations, and cost reduction initiatives to enhance operational effectiveness.
Key Responsibilities
• Drive Indirect category strategy and supplier selection.
• Generate and lead sourcing events & plans including Request for Proposal (RFP) processes to identify and secure optimal suppliers.
• Build and maintain strong supplier relationships, ensuring quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Identify and develop supplier relationships & supplier performance with a strong focus on customer service, flexibility / agility, quick response times, process flow efficiency, product quality, on time commitments, distribution excellence and supplier reliability.
• Monitor key supplier score cards that provide an objective view of our supply base, and implement corrective actions as required.
• Lead contract negotiations to optimize cost and value.
• Work with manufacturing facilities to align sourcing and ensure buy-in to achieve decentralized execution of the sourcing and strategy.
• Analyze spending levels and confirm JTEKT remains within budget.
• Analyze market trends and sourcing opportunities to drive continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders (plants, facilities, engineering, departments, etc.) to align sourcing strategies with business objectives.
• Investigate and implement new technologies or methods that improve purchasing and inventory management.
• Ensure compliance with company policies, industry regulations, safety, and demonstrate the JTEKT Way.
• Participate in the company, department and team Objectives.
• Support / attend and participate in meetings scheduled by the Purchasing Manager, customers and/or Buyers, and Weekly / Monthly Operating Reviews unless circumstances prevent attendance. Support 1-on-1 meetings with the Purchasing Manager.
• Support Buyers and Coordinators with supplier issues.
• Perform other duties as assigned / requested by Purchasing Manager.
Qualifications & Skills
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Engineering, or related field. MBA preferred. A certification in Purchasing or Procurement is a plus.
• 5+ years of experience in the Purchasing field or in a related area. Proven expertise in Indirect procurement and strategic sourcing.
• Experiences in a variety of procurement concepts, practices, and procedures.
• Ability to read engineering drawings and prints and understand technical concepts.
• Project management skills that are cross functional.
• Solid communication skills external and internal to the organization.
• Proven experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, or supply chain management.
• Strong negotiation and contract management skills.
• Excellent analytical and complex problem-solving abilities.
• Strong command of ERP and sourcing tools.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and manage multiple projects.
• Comfortable with data – able to analyze and interpret large amounts of data to support decision making. Ability to work with ambiguous and imperfect data / information, operate in “gray” area (when issues are not black or white).
• Time Management (including effectively managing email and calendar).
• Collaboration and teamwork are crucial to perform this role well.
• Effective Communication skills (verbal – in person and by phone / MS Teams – and written), assertive when appropriate.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), MS Outlook, MS Teams, SharePoint, MS Copilot and other computer application