Automotive Buyer - Contracts Specialist

Support the entire purchasing lifecycle by buying, evaluating and negotiating at the most favorable price: Engineering Services Contracts and Purchase Orders for Engineering Design & Development (“ED&D”) and in-vehicle Software Development fees for Automotive Vehicle development.  This activity should be performed so that all items are delivered in accordance with company’s quality, quantity and delivery standards.  This role requires the candidate to work in a small team while operating independently and routinely self-checking their results.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate interactions and deliverables of Suppliers, Purchasing, Production, and Design Engineering to provide accurate costing of products.
• Align with Suppliers and Design leadership to understand the application, technical product specification, validation requirements, and regulatory compliance needs.
• Evaluation and execution of 3rd party analysis tools and market data.
• Create and present proposals to management on bid packages and contract evaluation.
• Support execution and negotiation of standard legal contracts with suppliers, focusing on intellectual property and commercial terms.
• Manage the deliverables from the cross-functional team, develop strong relationships with empathy and communicate the main objectives from the starting point.
• General office processes, and document retention.
• Supplier travel is required when requested.

Requirements

• BS Degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain, Engineering or a related degree.
• 3+ years of purchasing and contracts experience.
• Experience in developing and managing contract documents including requests for proposals (RFP), purchase orders, and supplier metrics
• Experience independently leading meetings with external partners including negotiation, delivery and overall assessment discussions.
• Experience leading ongoing Quality, Cost, Delivery and Development discussions with suppliers.
• Highly proficient in all MS Office tools (primarily Excel and PPT).
• Excellent communication skills; both verbal and written.
• Good organizational, analytical and problem-solving skills.

Preferred: 
• Experience using SAP and/or Ariba 
• Automotive direct procurement experience
• Experience with CAD drawings; including knowledge of prototype parts.