JOB SUMMARY

The Purchasing Manager is responsible for leading the company's purchasing and strategic sourcing activities to ensure the timely availability of raw materials, packaging materials, ingredients, supplies, and services required to support production and business operations. This position is responsible for developing and executing purchasing strategies, managing supplier relationships, negotiating pricing and terms, improving supplier performance, controlling procurement costs, and maintaining appropriate inventory levels. The Purchasing Manager works closely with Supply Chain, Production Planning, Production, Quality, Warehouse, Finance, and Sales to ensure materials are available at the right quantity, quality, cost, and timing to support customer demand and production requirements.

RESPONSIBILITIES 1.

Purchasing & Procurement Management

• Lead daily purchasing activities and ensure purchase orders are issued accurately and on time.
• Review MRP, production plans, inventory levels, forecasts, demand requirements, and material availability to determine purchasing needs.
• Develop and maintain purchasing plans for raw materials, ingredients, packaging, components, supplies, and other operational requirements.
• Monitor open purchase orders and proactively expedite, reschedule, or cancel orders based on changes in demand and production requirements.
• Ensure materials are purchased in accordance with approved specifications, quantities, lead times, and budget requirements.
• Establish appropriate purchasing parameters including minimum/maximum quantities, safety stock, order quantities, and lead times.
• Coordinate with Warehouse to ensure timely receiving and accurate inventory transactions. 2. Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Management
• Develop and execute sourcing strategies for key materials and services.
• Identify, evaluate, qualify, and develop new suppliers to improve cost, quality, capacity, lead time, and supply continuity.
• Maintain a qualified supplier base and establish alternative sources for critical materials.
• Negotiate pricing, payment terms, lead times, MOQs, freight terms, contracts, and other commercial conditions.
• Conduct supplier performance reviews and develop corrective action plans when performance does not meet expectations.
• Build strong, professional relationships with strategic suppliers while maintaining appropriate commercial leverage.
• Monitor supplier financial, operational, capacity, and supply-chain risks. 3. Cost Management
• Develop and execute cost-reduction initiatives through strategic sourcing, supplier negotiations, volume consolidation, and specification optimization.
• Monitor material price changes and identify opportunities to reduce procurement costs.
• Maintain accurate purchasing price information and communicate significant cost changes to Finance and Supply Chain leadership.
• Support annual budgeting and forecasting of material and procurement costs.
• Analyze purchase price variance (PPV) and identify root causes of unfavorable variances.
• Partner with Finance and Operations to evaluate total landed cost, including material, freight, duties, MOQ, inventory carrying cost, and other related costs. 4. Inventory & Supply Planning
• Balance material availability with inventory investment and working-capital objectives.
• Monitor inventory levels, excess and obsolete materials, slow-moving inventory, and potential shortages.
• Establish and maintain appropriate safety-stock levels for critical materials.
• Coordinate with Supply Chain and Production Planning to align purchasing decisions with production schedules and customer demand.
• Proactively identify potential material shortages and develop recovery plans.
• Support inventory accuracy initiatives, cycle counting, and root-cause analysis of inventory discrepancies. 5. Supplier Quality & Performance
• Work with Quality and suppliers to resolve material quality issues and non-conformances.
• Ensure suppliers meet approved specifications, quality standards, documentation requirements, and regulatory requirements.
• Track supplier performance using metrics such as: o On-Time Delivery o Quality Acceptance Rate o Lead-Time Performance o Fill Rate o Pricing / PPV o Responsiveness o Corrective Action Closure
• Participate in supplier audits and supplier qualification activities when required. 6. Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Work closely with Production Planning to ensure material availability supports production schedules.
• Partner with Production to understand material consumption, production requirements, and capacity constraints.
• Coordinate with Warehouse on receiving schedules, inventory availability, and material discrepancies.
• Partner with Quality on supplier qualification, specifications, and quality issues.
• Work with Finance and Accounting on pricing, invoices, payment terms, purchase-price variances, and vendor issues.
• Work with Sales and Customer Service, when applicable, to understand demand changes and customer requirements.
• Participate in new product introductions, product changes, packaging changes, and material substitution projects. 7. Procurement Systems & Process Improvement
• Ensure purchasing transactions, purchase orders, receipts, and supplier information are accurately maintained in the ERP system.
• Establish and maintain purchasing policies, procedures, and controls.
• Improve purchasing processes through automation, standardization, and system utilization.
• Support

ERP/WMS/MRP

implementation and process improvements related to procurement and inventory.

• Reduce manual purchasing activities and improve data accuracy and visibility.
• Develop standard purchasing reports and dashboards to monitor procurement performance. 8. Team Leadership
• Lead, coach, and develop purchasing personnel.
• Establish clear goals, responsibilities, and performance expectations for the purchasing team.
• Monitor team workload and ensure purchasing activities are completed accurately and on time.
• Develop team members' capabilities in sourcing, negotiation, supplier management, ERP systems, and analytical skills.
• Establish appropriate segregation of duties and purchasing controls.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain management, Business, Operations, or a related field.
• 5+ years of purchasing, procurement, sourcing, or supply-chain experience.
• Manufacturing experience preferred.
• Strong strategic sourcing and supplier negotiation skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with ERP/MRP systems.
• Strong Microsoft Excel and data-analysis skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills.

Pay:

$90,000.00 - $98,000.00 per year

Benefits:

401(k) 401(k) matching Dental insurance Health insurance Life insurance Paid time off Tuition reimbursement Vision insurance

Work Location:

In person