Senior Buyer

About the Role

The Senior Buyer at Jackson's Food Company leads the procurement function, ensuring timely, cost-effective, and reliable acquisition of raw materials, packaging, supplies, and other materials required to support production and business operations. This position oversees purchasing activities, supplier relationships, inventory availability, forecasting, pricing, lead-times, and procurement processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee procurement activities for raw materials, packaging, production supplies, PPE, office supplies, and other operational materials.
• Oversee contracting for select raw material items.
• Partner with the Supply Chain Planner and Operations leadership to develop material purchasing strategies that support production requirements and customer demand.
• Analyze forecasted demand, historical usage, inventory levels, production requirements, and supplier lead-times to establish appropriate purchasing requirements.
• Build and supply forecasts to suppliers to ensure adequate supply.
• Identify and proactively address potential material shortages, excess inventory, obsolete inventory, and supply risks.
• Lead supplier negotiations related to pricing, payment terms, lead-times, minimum order quantities, delivery requirements, and other commercial terms.
• Evaluate supplier performance and identify opportunities for supplier consolidation, alternate sourcing, and supply-chain risk reduction.
• Partner with Quality and Operations to address supplier-related material or quality concerns and support corrective actions as needed.
• Ensure appropriate management of material shelf life and minimize the risk of expired or obsolete inventory.
• Analyze purchasing and material costs and partner with Finance to ensure accurate reporting, forecasting, and budgeting.
• Identify opportunities to improve ERP functionality and automate or streamline procurement processes.
• Lead, coach, and develop procurement and purchasing team members to ensure effective execution of purchasing responsibilities.
• Work a varied schedule based on client needs.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent from a four-year college.
• Seven to ten years of related experience and/or training, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Proven aptitude in Microsoft Suite.
• Proven aptitude with ERP systems and ability to query an ERP system.
• Experience in contract negotiations.