Buyer - Textiles

About Us

Exemplis started in a small California warehouse with three employees and has grown into a leader in innovative seating and lifestyle brands, including SitOnIt Seating, Timbuk2, X-Chair, Maverick, Mavix, Edloe Finch, and Albany Park. With a focus on sustainable manufacturing, community outreach, and diversity, Exemplis aims to make a positive impact on people and communities. The company operates headquarters, offices, and retail stores across the U.S. and offers flexible work opportunities.

About the Role

We are seeking a driven and detail-oriented Buyer to support procurement, supply planning, and supplier management activities in a fast-paced, global environment. This role ensures material availability, optimizes supplier performance, and contributes to cost and service improvements that support overall business objectives. The Buyer will partner cross-functionally with operations, engineering, and quality teams while proactively managing supplier relationships to meet delivery, quality, and cost targets. This is a hybrid role requiring onsite work three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).

Responsibilities

• Procure supplies, materials, services, and equipment to ensure on-time delivery aligned with production requirements.
• Place, maintain, and update purchase orders to support continuity of supply and prevent backorders or stockouts.
• Plan, schedule, and monitor the movement of materials through the fulfillment cycle.
• Identify and communicate potential material shortages and implement mitigation plans.
• Ensure suppliers have complete and accurate product information to meet quality and delivery requirements.
• Monitor and manage supplier performance using key metrics (OTD, COT, lead time, capacity, safety stock), develop corrective actions, and deliver supplier scorecards.
• Track order fulfillment performance, assign root causes for failures, and drive continuous improvement for assigned commodities.
• Monitor internal min/max levels and vendor safety stock to optimize inventory turns while ensuring material availability.
• Review and manage daily supply chain exceptions including shortages, backorders, late shipments/receipts, excess inventory, and master data discrepancies.
• Track and resolve supplier-related issues including MRB items, non-conformances, and cost recovery actions.
• Conduct regular supplier reviews to evaluate forecasts, capacity commitments, and risk mitigation plans to maintain demand-supply balance.
• Partner cross-functionally to support inventory planning, forecasting, and production requirements.
• Manage engineering change orders (ECOs) and ensure effective material transitions.
• Drive cost improvement initiatives, including PPV and supplier/part transitions.
• Own and report on procurement KPIs for assigned suppliers and commodities.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience in procurement, purchasing, or supply chain roles.
• Knowledge of materials requirement planning (MRP), inventory control techniques, forecasting, and production planning.
• Understanding of cost/price analysis, standard costing, and production processes (internal and supplier-side).
• Experience with supplier kanban, safety stock programs, lead time reduction, and vendor-managed inventory (VMI/VOI).
• Experience managing a global supply chain, preferably including Asia and/or Mexico, with exposure to Just-in-Time (JIT) principles.
• Proficiency in Excel for data analysis (e.g., pivot tables, lookups, and working with large datasets).
• Experience using data and KPIs (e.g., OTD, COT, inventory levels) to identify root causes of supply or performance issues and implement improvements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree.
• Professional certifications such as CPM, CPSM, or APICS.
• Experience in the office furniture or manufacturing industry.
• Experience in textile or fabric procurement and supplier management.
• Bilingual skills in Mandarin.

Why This Role

• Opportunity to make a direct impact on supply chain performance and business results.
• Collaborative, cross-functional environment.
• Exposure to global supplier networks and strategic sourcing initiatives.

Pay

Salary Range: $65,040.00 - $97,561.00.

Schedule

Hybrid work schedule: Remote work on Mondays and Fridays, onsite collaboration on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Benefits

• Competitive salary with externally benchmarked and internally fair compensation philosophy.
• Health insurance options (medical, dental, vision, etc.) eligible the first month following your start date.
• 401(k) with 100% match up to 3% and 50% match of the next 2% deferred.
• Paid time off that starts accruing from day 1.
• 10 company-observed holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Day.
• Employee discounts across all product lines.
• Celebratory lunches when monthly milestones are hit.
• Tuition scholarships through a partnership with UMASS Global, offering 10%-20% off tuition for you and/or your family.