Sourcing Specialist - Plastics & Polymers

LOCATION: Aylesford, Kent, Office based or Hybrid

WORKING HOURS: 8.00am – 4.30pm

CONTRACT: Full-time, Permanent

We’re looking for a commercially driven sourcing professional with strong technical knowledge of plastics manufacturing to help shape and develop our supplier base.
This is a specialist role sitting at the intersection of strategic sourcing, polymer-processing technology and supplier development. You’ll work closely with internal stakeholders and external manufacturing partners to improve cost, quality, capacity, innovation and long‑term supply performance.
We’re particularly interested in people who understand how plastics components are manufactured and can translate that knowledge into better sourcing decisions, stronger supplier relationships and measurable commercial results.

• You will develop and implement sourcing strategies for plastics, polymers and associated manufactured components.
• Identifying, evaluating and developing suppliers, including assessing technical capability, capacity, quality and commercial competitiveness.
• Leading supplier negotiations, cost-reduction initiatives, cost breakdown analysis and commercial agreements.
• Working with new product development, materials development, and purchasing teams on new products, materials, tooling and manufacturing processes.
• Supporting tooling investment decisions, supplier industrialisation and new product introduction.
• Assessing manufacturing methods such as injection moulding, rotational moulding, extrusion, blow moulding and thermoforming.
• Managing supplier performance, risk, continuity of supply and continuous improvement.
• Building a resilient, competitive supply base that supports our product development and business growth.
• Any other ad hoc duties as required by the business.

Success looks like developing a competitive, reliable supply base for plastics and manufactured components, delivering cost savings, strong supplier performance and supporting new product development and business growth.

• Proven experience in strategic sourcing, procurement or supplier development within a manufacturing environment.
• Strong practical knowledge of plastics or polymer manufacturing and the commercial implications of different processing methods.
• Experience negotiating with suppliers and delivering measurable cost, quality or performance improvements.
  The ability to assess manufacturing capability, challenge supplier quotations and work effectively with technical stakeholders.
• A structured, analytical and commercially minded approach to decision-making.
• Comfortable travelling to supplier sites in the UK and internationally.
• Strong IT skills, including Microsoft Office and Excel.
• A practical, solutions-focused approach and a genuine interest in turning concepts into manufacturable products.
• Injection moulding, rotational moulding, extrusion, blow moulding or thermoforming.
• Tooling procurement, mould costings, material selection or polymer component development.
• Supplier selection, new product introduction and manufacturing process optimisation.
• Experience working with UK and international manufacturing supply chains.

You don’t need to have held this exact job title. We’re interested in people who can demonstrate the right combination of technical plastics expertise, sourcing capability and commercial judgement. If you combine technical understanding of plastics manufacturing with strong commercial sourcing skills, we’d like to hear from you.

Here’s what you can look forward to when you join us:

• We’re proud to be recognised as one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work for three consecutive years) – and we work hard…