Senior Operations Buyer

Job Summary

The Senior Operations Buyer manages current purchasing activities for purchased components and materials in production. They manage and effectively communicate timelines for all purchasing activities to meet project milestones and purchasing deliverables of program in production. As a key member of the Purchasing Team, Senior Operations Buyer will lead sourcing activities and negotiations with suppliers. The Senior Operations Buyer is a functional lead, supporting current production components working in close collaboration with program management, engineering, quality, business development, and manufacturing.

Responsibilities

• Represent Purchasing organization in the cross-functional team three months after production until the end of life.
• Evaluate potential suppliers, assess their capabilities and reliability.
• Negotiate contracts including pricing, terms, and service expectations. 
• Identify and manage supply risk mitigation strategies
• Lead for major categories of thermal, mechanical, and electronics in current production.
• Lead Value Analysis/Value Engineering activities to reduce cost on current production programs.
• Identify opportunities to resource suppliers to meet or exceed the cost, quality, and delivery requirements.
• Utilize market research and industry data to analyze trends for the category and develop commodity strategies that align with the future trends for the market.
• Support cross-functional team initiatives around lead time reduction and cost improvements.
• Develop recovery plans for components' late deliverables.
• Maintain relevant purchasing reports as required for management review.
• Manage supplier commodity strategy and annual cost reduction negotiations to meet financial goals of components.
• Lead supplier performance reviews and manage improvement actions.
• Support the business segments and cross-functional team on business pursuits for all purchased components and assist in cost estimating.
• Support adherence to all statutory regulations concerning health, safety, and environmental standards, as well as the company's sustainable development program.
• Adhere to federal and state regulations.
• Adhere to all company policies, processes, and procedures.
• Performs other duties as requested, directed, or assigned.
• Predictable and reliable attendance.

Position Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in International Business, Business, Economics, Engineering, Supply Chain, or equivalent experience.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of experience in purchasing for the automotive industry.
• Minimum of two (2) years of experience purchasing battery management systems components or similar components in a manufacturing setting.
• Material Resource Planning (MRP) system experience (Plex preferred).

Key Competencies

• Thinks Strategically: Acts with the long-term future in mind. Considers future impact when weighing decisions. Anticipates trends and future consequences.
• Takes Calculated Risks: Takes calculated risks to achieve goals. Finds a balance between analysis and action. When fails, accepts it, learns from it, and moves on to the next challenge.
• Decision Making & Analysis: Makes sound decisions based upon a mixture of data-driven analysis, expertise, experience, and judgment; collects relevant information, seeking input from others, and identifies connections and/or root causes of problems.
• Takes Initiative: Exhibits strong drive for results and success; conveys a sense of urgency and drives issues to closure; persists despite obstacles and opposition.
• Integrity: Acts and makes decisions in a manner consistent with the needs of the public in delivery of products/services. Acts in line with the culture and norms of both the organization and society in general.
• Leads Change: Persistently moves in the face of ambiguity, dilemmas, and resistance to get completion of changes in an organized way; adapts with flexibility to and copes with changing situations while maintaining focus on goals.
• Continual Improvement: Displays a consistent orientation toward producing the highest quality products or services while keeping a focus on sustainability. Constantly looking for incremental improvements in work processes and results.

Physical Requirements / Working Conditions

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to