Senior Buyer

Position: Senior Buyer
Report to: Manager, Materials
Department: Materials
Location: Houston or relocation as required

Main Functions
1) INVENTORY: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for driving the Inventory Turns performance on a customer-by-customer basis. Working with Account Managers to ensure the correct Inventory policies are being applied to support the individual customers' supply requirements and the Business Goals.
2) MATERIALS PLANNING: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for ensuring that a good material pipeline is established and that Material requirements for each customer are in line with the Site build schedule.
3) SUPERVISION: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for the coordination of all Material Planner and Expeditor activity daily. Ensuring that the correct level of staff is in place at the correct skills level to effectively manage all material aspects of the business.
4) SYSTEMS:  The Senior Buyer will be responsible for the Integrity of all Materials data loaded onto systems within the facility. Also, the responsibility extends to ensuring that all those required to use systems, such as SAP, MAPS, etc, are fully trained and are aware of these systems' capabilities.

Duties and Responsibilities
1) INVENTORY: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for establishing a process that will analyse and publish inventory accuracy reports every week. Also looking at all inventory movement, processes, and procedures that are required to accurately track, move, and dispose of inventory.
2) MATERIALS PLANNING: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for ensuring that all materials demands are loaded onto the SAP systems in line with the Build / MRP requirements.  
3) CLEAN TO BUILD: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for chairing a weekly clean-to-build process that will establish in advance the Materials position from a weekly build viewpoint. This will also provide the key shortages that need to be worked on to maintain build levels in the coming weeks.   
4) RESCHEDULES: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for managing all reschedule activity with the Vendors and the Purchasing group in line with rescheduled customer orders. This will be required on an ongoing basis to ensure that a balanced inventory profile is maintained.
5). TRY FOR FIT: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for the Materials group’s input into the try for fit process, which will be required when a customer or prospective customer requires analysis of potential upside business. The key area is normally the existing and future availability of production components.
6). BOM ANALYSIS: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for ensuring that all Materials inputs on the Item masters and BOM’s conform to both Corporate guidelines and local business requirements. This includes pricing, order policy codes, materials classifications, pricing etc.
7) MRB / DISPOSALS: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for the Movement and disposal of all / any Excess, damaged, or obsolete Materials. This also entails management and assignment of tasks of the MRB process for all non-conforming material, which must be actioned and disposed of daily.
8) COMMUNICATION: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for establishing and maintaining effective communications with all members of the Materials Planning Group, ensuring that all employees are aware of all issues within the Group and the Factory.
9) TEAMWORK: The Senior Buyer will be required to act as a good team member, being aware of all business issues affecting the group and the company at any point in time. In certain circumstances, the Materials Supervisor may be required to deputize for the Materials Manager in both an Internal and/or External capacity.
The Materials Supervisor will be required to participate during customer visits and presentations, and must be able to ensure a cohesive Materials participation.
10) APPRAISALS: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for administering the agreed structured appraisal system for all employees within the Materials Planning Group. This will be the basis for assessing an employee’s overall performance and the subsequent salary increases and /or promotions that may result. It will also be required to conduct both Training Needs Analysis and Succession Planning as a function of this exercise and to ensure ongoing Employee Development.  
11) REQUISITION CONTROL: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for the manual and electronic approvals of all Materials requisitions prior to the placement of purchase orders by the European Procurement group.
12) MEASUREMENTS: The Senior Buyer will be responsible for the following measurements:
REGULAR MATERIALS KPI, MINIMUM E&O, SUPPLIERS KPI, % INVENTORY IN MRB, LINE DOWNTIME DUE TO MATERIAL, EXCESS, INVENTORY AGING
The Senior Planner will be responsible for implementing processes to measure and report these metrics on a weekly basis.

Job specification
Qualifications/Experience

• The Senior Buyer will have a further education qualification such as a Degree in relevant Discipline, or an equivalent qualification from a recognised authority.
• The Senior Buyer will have at least three years of Management / Supervisory experience in a Materials role, preferably within a high-volume electronics manufacturing environment.
• The Senior Buyer will have a clean driving license and a current full passport.
• The Senior Buyer must be flexible with respect to working hours and foreign travel, on the basis that overtime is expected and allowed for in the employee's salary.
• The Senior Buyer will have a good command of business English; further language skills would also be a benefit.

Primary skills/ competences

• The Senior Buyer will have good organisational and leadership skills with the capability to delegate and re-prioritise based upon prevailing, business conditions.
• The Senior Buyer will have a good command of business English; further language skills would also be a benefit.
• The Senior Buyer will be a good communicator with the ability to work at all levels in a positive and constructive manner.

Second priority skills and competences

• Presentation skills.
• Monotonous tolerance.
• Advanced Excel user.
• Responsibility for other’s work.