Senior Category Buyer
Derbyshire (Commutable from Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Stafford and Birmingham)
Up to £35,000 – 40,000 + £4,320 Car Allowance + 24 Days Holiday (Raising to 25 after 1st year) + Company Pension
The Company
My client is a process engineering specialist who design and manufacture turnkey process solutions for clients in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and materials handling amongst other industries. The company have a trading history that dates back over 200 years and a senior management and directorship team who are all home grown from within the business.
The company employs nearly 200 staff of which over 100 are employed in professional engineering roles (18 of whom are chartered) across software, process, electrical and mechanical disciplines. The company are experienced huge growth in capital projects won and are on a mission to grow from a £70+ million to £100 million business in the next four years.
The company are looking to recruit a Senior Category Buyer to join their recently developed and very successful procurement team. The Head of Procurement over the past 12 months has built a team committed to securing a better supply chain which makes this a very exciting time to join the business as they continue to implement new and improved procurement strategies and processes across the business. With a strong team already in place, the Senior Category Buyer will need to come in with a fast-acting and very forward approach to negotiation and the ability to grow supplier relationships. The crux of this position is to secure a more successful supply chain alongside both internal and external stakeholders within their designated category, both form a price point perspective and quality.
The Role
The supply chain has been split into core areas based upon the level of risk and criticality, the successful Senior Category Buyer will carry out category strategies for the areas they are assigned which will be combination of direct and indirect categories. The direct categories consist of all the materials the business needs to procure for carrying out projects including sheet metal, pipework, pumps, electrical panels and other components. The purpose of the role is to review suppliers for the assigned categories, research alternatives, analyse potential opportunities in terms of long and short-term savings/lead times, etc and present these recommendations to the Head of Procurement.
A large portion of the role will be to negotiate commercial agreements with customers, leveraging better deals, notices to proceed, payment terms. Due to the nature of this, the Senior Category Buyer will need to have strong negotiation experience and be forthright in their approach.
As the procurement team is fairly new to the business, a big part of this role is to work alongside internal stakeholders, as well as external suppliers, so secure better deals so a diplomatic approach and ability to cooperate within a team is very important for this position.
Other activities will be:
- Quarterly supplier reviews – reviewing quarterly score cards
- Tendering – supporting with price enquiries for bids
- Identifying and mitigating risk with current suppliers
- Contract Negotiations – re-negotiating terms with suppliers at reviews
- Approving of new suppliers and identifying opportunities to leverage better commercial deals
- Guiding Project Managers towards approved suppliers
- Supporting Projects with complex/challenging supplier related issues
- Following the progress of orders with suppliers and initial remedial action on projects
The Person
To be successful in your application for this Senior Category Buyer role you will need.
- 3 – 5 years procurement experience ideally within an engineering or manufacturing setting
- A degree or equivalent qualification
- Strong buying and negotiation skills
- To be able to build strong relationships with suppliers
- Experience working in a structured procurement environment
The Benefits
Some of the benefits for this Senior Category Buyer role include:
- £35,000 – 40,000
- £360 per month car allowance
- 24 days holiday (increasing to 25 after 1 year)
- Competitive company pension
- Agile working policy 2 days from home per week
- Flexible holiday policy
ATA is committed to creating a diverse workforce and is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation
