Buyer

Equal Opportunity Employer – Veterans/Disabled

About the role

The Buyer position is a critical role in the day-to-day operations at PEI, responsible for planning and purchasing specific products. This includes managing orders, monitoring and managing inventory, and negotiating favorable purchase pricing with suppliers. The buyer works as a team with several Product Managers and Expeditors to ensure total quality and effective customer service.

Qualifications

• Minimum High school diploma and/or 3+ years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Bachelor’s degree and/or advanced relevant experience preferred.
• Experience in a manufacturing environment or other company with Bills of Material is preferred.

Skills

• Effective communication skills (written and verbal).
• Ability to quickly learn products, processes, and technically complex systems.
• Experience planning, buying, and/or pricing products with Bills of Materials.
• Experience with an ERP/MRP system such as Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, or other.
• Organization and task management skills.
• Microsoft Excel – intermediate spreadsheet skills.
• Microsoft Outlook and Word.
• Customer service mindset.

Responsibilities

• Plans purchasing activities and develops purchasing strategies for components and assemblies assigned to them.
• Works intimately in detail in our ERP planning/purchasing system.
• Negotiates pricing with suppliers and schedules annual supplier blanket orders.
• Performs stock checks and obtains delivery information (may utilize online vendor access) for sales representatives to process customer quotes.
• Processes purchasing suggestions daily and in a timely manner, making appropriate decisions beyond the system-generated “recommendations.”
• Verifies POs are processed correctly; ensures POs requiring special handling are dealt with in a timely manner.
• Responds with a sense of urgency to any request or issue and provides information and/or resolution in an expeditious manner.
• Communicates important supplier information to Product Managers and Expeditors, including problem deliveries, price increases, etc.
• Coordinates order problem resolutions with Expeditors and Product Managers and Sales Representatives if needed.
• Communicates directly with company Salespeople, develops relationships, and exhibits a clear customer service mindset.
• Develops relationships to achieve a “favored” status with suppliers.
• Assists Expeditors and Product Managers in daily activities as required.
• Interacts with all internal customers in a friendly, timely, and helpful manner.
• Sends and receives faxes; makes copies; runs reports as needed.