Purchaser - Part-Time

Purchaser & Operations Coordinator

Part-Time | Austin, TX Area / Hybrid Flexibility | Contract or W-2

A growing Austin-area product development and engineering services firm is seeking a highly organized, detail-oriented Purchaser / Operations Coordinator
to support purchasing, expense administration, and project operations.

This is a flexible, part-time opportunity for someone who enjoys bringing structure to a fast-moving environment. The role will begin with a strong focus on purchasing, receipts, expense coding, and documentation, with potential to grow into executive-assistant and broader business-operations responsibilities.

The ideal candidate is proactive, highly accurate, comfortable with online purchasing and spreadsheets, and able to ensure the right items arrive at the right location with complete documentation. You are a dependable, process-minded professional who enjoys making a busy team more effective. Though familiarity with hardware / electrical componoents would be a big plus, you do not need to be an engineer.

The technical team will define the materials and requirements; your role is to purchase accurately, document thoroughly, coordinate effectively, and help ensure that project teams have what they need when they need it.

The Purchaser & Operations Coordinator will support a technical team working on product development, prototype, and custom-build projects. Unlike a traditional high-volume manufacturing purchasing role, this position primarily involves sourcing and ordering smaller quantities of materials, components, tools, and supplies needed to keep client projects moving.

Initial responsibilities will be approximately 80% purchasing and expense administration
. The successful candidate will quickly become the go-to person for purchase execution, receipt organization, project-cost allocation, and follow-up on orders.

The position is expected to begin around 8-12 hours per week
, with a likely range of 10-20 hours per week as the individual becomes established. There is potential for the role to expand beyond 20 hours weekly over time based on business needs and the candidate’s capabilities.

• Execute purchases for components, materials, tools, supplies, and other project needs based on requests from engineers, project managers, and leadership.
• Place orders through Amazon, vendor websites, company debit cards, Mastercard accounts, and other purchasing channels.
• Create and maintain purchase orders using Excel or similar spreadsheet-based templates.
• Confirm part numbers, quantities, pricing, tax, shipping methods, shipping addresses, and project allocations before placing orders.
• Track orders and deliveries, communicate delays or fulfillment issues, and ensure parts are delivered to the correct site, dock, office, or customer location.
• Support urgent or fast-turn purchasing needs for prototypes, low-volume builds, custom projects, and one-off orders.
• Communicate with vendors as needed to resolve ordering, shipping, invoicing, or delivery issues.
• Maintain organized purchase documentation and a clear record of order status.

• Collect and organize receipts associated with company-card and project purchases.
• Match purchases and expenses to the correct project codes.
• Convert, combine, and file receipts and purchase documentation as PDFs in the appropriate shared folders.
• Maintain complete, accurate, and audit-ready records for project expenses.
• Support expense-entry and expense-management processes within Fresh Books or a similar accounting platform.
• Help document, improve, and consistently follow purchasing, expense, and project-coding processes.

• Participate in a weekday team standup, generally scheduled around 9:30-10:00 a.m. Central Time
  , when reasonably possible.
• Communicate completed work, active orders, upcoming needs, and purchasing roadblocks.
• Coordinate with engineering, project management, and leadership to understand upcoming project needs and purchasing priorities.
• Identify missing information, risks, delivery concerns, or project-code questions early and follow through to resolution.
• Work independently while remaining responsive and well-connected to the broader team.

This role can expand over time depending on business needs and the candidate’s interests. Additional responsibilities may include:

• Executive assistant and leadership support.
• Travel coordination, including flights, hotels, and rental-car reservations.
• Meeting coordination, note-taking, scheduling, and follow-up.
• Proposal formatting, proofreading, document organization, and light drafting support.
• Administrative support related to business operations, vendor files, corporate records, banking matters, registered-agent changes, and similar coordination.
• Process documentation and operational support for a growing professional-services organization.

• Experience in purchasing,…