Procurement Manager

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as ThermalWorks' primary day-to-day point of contact for key component suppliers and contract manufacturers, building and maintaining productive working relationships that support the company's commercial and operational objectives.
• Establish and maintain regular communication cadences with strategic suppliers, including weekly or biweekly vendor calls, supplier scorecard reviews, and supplier business reviews on a recurring schedule.
• Onboard new vendors, including the collection of vendor master data, payment terms, certifications, and compliance documentation; coordinate with Finance and Compliance on vendor approval workflows.
• Resolve day-to-day supplier issues that arise across the order lifecycle, including pricing discrepancies, quantity disputes, delivery schedule changes, and quality holds; escalate to leadership when issues require executive intervention.
• Maintain professional, accountable relationships with suppliers under conditions where commercial pressure is high; represent ThermalWorks credibly in negotiations, escalations, and partnership conversations.
• Maintain a current, accurate view of pricing across all critical components, including base pricing, freight, tariffs, and any volume-related adjustments; flag pricing changes to leadership before they affect quotes or customer contracts.
• Maintain a current, accurate view of lead times across all critical components, with attention to supplier capacity constraints, seasonal patterns, and any supplier-side events that could compress or extend delivery timelines.
• Build and maintain historical pricing and lead time records for use in quote development, contract negotiation, force majeure and cost-recovery cases, and annual budget exercises.
• Identify alternate sources for components where current supply is constrained, single-sourced, or carries elevated risk; develop and qualify backup suppliers as part of supply chain resilience work.
• Support quote development and customer pricing decisions by providing accurate, current cost and lead time data to commercial and engineering teams.
• Maintain visibility on every open purchase order across critical components and contract manufacturing relationships, with clear knowledge of expected ship dates, actual ship dates, and any slippage in between.
• Operate a structured shipment tracking process with documented escalation paths; identify late or at-risk shipments early enough to allow corrective action before manufacturing schedules are affected.
• Cross-functional collaboration with the Senior Operations Manager, the Chief Operating Officer, Engineering, Quality, Compliance, and Finance on initiatives that span procurement and adjacent functions.
• Participate in the company's daily and weekly operational review cadence; contribute procurement perspective to discussions of project status, customer commitments, and operational risk.
• Support engineering change request and engineering change notice workflows where procurement input is required, including component substitution decisions, supplier change implementation, and bill of materials updates.
• Travel up to 20% of the time to support vendor management activities at ThermalWorks sites, manufacturing partner sites, supplier facilities, and industry events as required.

Skills & Requirements

• Education / Experience
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, or a closely related discipline; equivalent professional experience may substitute.
• Five to ten years of progressive professional experience in procurement, purchasing, or supply chain management within a manufacturing environment. Experience supporting multi-site or multi-country operations is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience managing the full purchase order lifecycle, including PO creation, updates, pricing reconciliation, and supplier issue resolution.
• Demonstrated experience managing vendor and supplier relationships, including the structured cadence of supplier communication, performance review, and escalation.
• Demonstrated experience working with materials planning and inventory management frameworks such as Just-In-Time (JIT) and Material Requirements Planning (MRP).
• Professional certification in supply chain management or procurement, such as Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM), or equivalent.
• Direct experience with Epicor, particularly in a manufacturing environment where Epicor is the primary procurement and inventory system.
• Direct experience with international sourcing, including suppliers in Europe and Asia; familiarity with import logistics, tariffs, customs documentation, and Incoterms.
• Experience with cost reduction initiatives that have produced measurable results in expedite costs, freight costs, purchase price variance, or supplier-driven obsolescence.
• Experience supporting a manufacturing company through enterprise resource planning implementation or migration.
• Experience supervising or mentoring junior procurement staff, materials planners, or buyers.
• Familiarity with the HVAC, data center cooling, industrial equipment, or related manufacturing sectors.
• Working knowledge of one or more European languages, given the company's active operations in Europe.
• Specific Skills / Abilities
• Technical and Systems Knowledge
• Working knowledge of one or more enterprise resource planning systems used in procurement and supply chain operations, such as Epicor, SAP, INFOR, NetSuite, or comparable platforms.
• Working knowledge of product lifecycle management systems for bill of materials and engineering change management, such as Arena PLM or equivalent.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including advanced functions, pivot tables, and the construction of analytical workbooks for tracking large numbers of purchase orders, vendor records, and shipment timelines.
• Working knowledge of business intelligence and reporting tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or comparable platforms for procurement analytics and supplier performance reporting.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook for documentation, presentation development, and structured supplier and internal communication.
• Professional Skills
• Strong relationship management skills, with the ability to maintain productive, professional working relationships with vendors and contract manufacturers across multiple regions and over multi-year time horizons.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex supply chain situations into clear, actionable reports for internal leadership and clear, professional communications to external supplier counterparts.
• Analytical discipline and attention to detail. Procurement work is unforgiving of small errors in pricing, quantities, or part numbers, and the role requires comfort working with structured information at scale.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent supplier relationships, purchase orders, and escalations; meet recurring reporting deadlines; and adjust focus quickly when supply chain priorities shift.
• Ability to hold a position firmly under commercial pressure, including in supplier negotiations, contract pricing discussions, and reconciliation conversations with manufacturing partners.
• Ability to work independently in a remote environment, maintain steady communication with team members across multiple time zones, and contribute productively in both individual and group settings.
• Professional discretion. The Procurement Manager will routinely handle non-public commercial information, including supplier pricing, contract terms, internal cost structures, and customer-facing pricing decisions.