Buyer Planner

About the role

At Zygo, your skills and insights will be integral to our core values of curiosity, collaboration, and persistence. For over 50 years, Zygo Corporation in Middlefield, CT, has been a global leader in designing and manufacturing advanced optical metrology systems, ultra-precise optical components, and complex electro-optical systems and assemblies. Join our team, where your expertise will drive cutting-edge solutions, address complex technical challenges, and uphold the highest standards of precision and safety. As a Buyer Planner for our Navitar team in Rochester, NY, you will ensure materials are available to support production and customer delivery while balancing cost, lead time, and inventory. The role combines purchasing and materials planning, managing supplier commitments, and partnering across functions to identify risks, resolve shortages, and maintain continuity of supply.

Responsibilities

• Safety: Follow safety requirements and escalate supplier, material, or process risks affecting safety, product integrity, or compliance.
• People: Build effective supplier and cross-functional relationships; communicate priorities, risks, and recovery plans with urgency and accountability.
• Quality: Coordinate supplier responses to nonconforming material and documentation issues. Maintain accurate purchasing and planning data; support quality requirements, engineering changes, and new product introductions.
• Delivery: Analyze demand, schedules, and MRP signals to determine material requirements and priorities. Create, maintain, and expedite purchase orders; monitor shortages, commitments, and constraints. Develop mitigation plans and maintain planning parameters to support production and customer delivery.
• Value: Balance availability, cost, lead time, and inventory to reduce shortage, excess, and obsolescence risk. Monitor supplier quality, delivery, responsiveness, and cost; support sourcing, negotiation, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree
• At least 3 years of purchasing, materials planning, supply chain, or manufacturing operations experience
• Working knowledge of ERP/MRP, purchasing, material planning, inventory, and supplier management
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, prioritization, communication, and Microsoft Excel skills
• Ability to manage changing priorities and collaborate across functions
• Uses data and investigates root causes before acting
• Builds trust and works across functions to resolve constraints
• Maintains urgency and follow-through until issues are resolved
• Makes sound decisions and escalates risk with facts and recommendations
• Owns commitments, data accuracy, and outcomes
• Connects decisions to production and customer requirements
• Improves cost, inventory, quality, and delivery performance
• Must have the legal right to work in the United States and be legally authorized to access export-controlled information and source code

Qualifications

• Experience in precision manufacturing, optics, aerospace, defense, medical device, or another regulated environment
• Experience with ERP platforms
• Experience with new product introductions, engineering changes, supplier corrective actions, or inventory reduction
• APICS/ASCM, ISM, or related supply chain certification

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Benefits package
• Retirement (401(k))
• Paid time off programs

Pay

• Employee type: Salaried
• Currency: USD
• Salary range: $65,000 – $80,000 per year
• Incentive: No
• Actual salary offered will be based on experience, skills, qualifications, market/business considerations, and geographic location