Senior Specialist - Procurement Operations, China

Purpose of the Position

The Procurement Operations Senior Specialist is an experienced procurement operations professional responsible for independently managing complex transactional work, resolving escalated procurement issues, and supporting reliable, compliant, and customer-focused Requisition-to-Pay (R2P) and Procure-to-Pay (P2P) service delivery.

The Senior Specialist partners with Requestors, Corning Shared Services, suppliers, internal customers, and cross-functional stakeholders on purchase requisition to order, invoice, supplier-documentation, system, and service issues. The role applies sound judgment within established policies and controls, identifies root causes and recurring issues, supports process improvements, and provides guidance and peer coaching to Procurement Operations Specialists.

Day to Day Responsibilities

• Independently manage complex procurement operational activities across R2P/P2P processes, ensuring timely, accurate, compliant, and customer-focused execution.
• Support Requestors with requisitioning, purchase-order creation and changes, purchase-order acknowledgements, change orders, approvals, voucher approvals, invoice exceptions, supplier communications, and urgent purchasing requirements.
• Serve as an escalation point for Procurement Operations Specialists on complex purchase-order, supplier, invoice, payment, documentation, system, policy, and customer-service issues; resolve issues within defined authority and escalate material risks or exceptions to the Lead, Procurement Operations.
• Coordinate with Corning Shared Services, suppliers, Buyers, Finance, and internal customers to resolve blocked invoices, payment issues, PO mismatches, supplier master-data issues, unconfirmed POs, service failures, and other business-impacting exceptions.
• Lead or coordinate urgent order-expediting activities, providing clear status updates, documenting actions, and escalating supply, delivery, compliance, or customer-impacting risks as appropriate.
• Review and maintain supplier documentation including agreements, NDAs, certificates of insurance, and supplier setup requirements; identify incomplete, expired, or non-compliant documentation for follow-up.
• Monitor procurement performance, work queues, backlogs, aging items, service levels, and exception trends; take action to address priorities and escalate performance risks promptly.
• Analyze recurring issues and root causes across procurement transactions, systems, suppliers, and processes; recommend and support corrective actions, standardization, and continuous-improvement opportunities.
• Support implementation and adoption of process changes, policies, system enhancements, workflow improvements, reporting, automation, and updated standard work.
• Maintain accurate procurement records and system data; support audit readiness, control testing, compliance reviews, issue remediation, and required documentation.
• Provide advanced guidance to internal customers on procurement policies, R2P/P2P processes, requisitioning, PO management, and system use.
• Coach and support Procurement Operations Specialists through knowledge sharing, peer review, cross-training, onboarding support, and reinforcement of standard work and quality expectations.

Required Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, or a related field preferred.
• 4+ years of progressive experience in procurement operations, purchasing, supply chain, shared services, finance operations, or a related transactional environment.
• Demonstrated experience in R2P/P2P operations, including requisitioning, purchase-order management, supplier coordination, invoice/payment exception resolution, and stakeholder support.
• Experience using data, reports, or dashboards to monitor work queues, identify trends, prioritize actions, and support problem solving.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, judgment, communication, customer-service, and escalation-management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work independently, and maintain accuracy and follow-through in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
• Advanced English proficiency, written and spoken.
• Strong ownership, judgment, and accountability.
• Customer-focused with a proactive, solutions-oriented approach.
• Sense of urgency and ability to manage complex priorities calmly and effectively.
• Strong analytical thinking, root-cause analysis, and problem-solving capability.
• Effective conflict resolution and escalation management.
• High attention to detail, accuracy, compliance, and control awareness.
• Clear and influential communication with internal customers, suppliers, and cross-functional partners.
• Collaborative leadership through peer coaching, knowledge sharing, and positive influence.
• Adaptability and resilience during policy, process, system, and organizational changes.

Desired Skills

• Experience in a regional, global, multi-country, centralized procurement, or shared-services environment.
• Experience with Ariba supplier management, supplier onboarding, e-RFx, e-auctions, purchasing workflows, SAP/S4HANA, PeopleSoft, or comparable tools.
• Experience supporting procurement controls, SOX compliance, audit activities, issue remediation, or data-quality initiatives.
• Experience supporting process standardization, continuous improvement, workflow automation, system deployment, or user training.
• Advanced Excel, Power BI, or comparable reporting/analytics experience.
• Experience acting as a subject-matter resource, peer coach, workstream coordinator, or informal team lead.
• Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt/Green Belt, procurement, supply-chain, or operational-excellence certification.
• Additional language capability relevant to the region or stakeholder base.