Buyer, Supply Chain​/Logistics

Join ICOMAT – Revolutionising the Future of Lightweight Manufacturing!iCOMAT is an advanced manufacturing company that invented Rapid Tow Shearing (RTS) - the only proven technology for producing defect-free curved-fiber composite parts at industrial scale. We deliver the lightest structures possible for aerospace, automotive, defense, and space, at a rate and cost efficiency that far exceeds existing composite production processes.

We build and operate automated factories for composite materials, delivering components to Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs. The business has three main divisions: development of automated production machines, development of software design and production tools, and operation of the factory. We work with 25+ customers and completed the largest ever Series A in composites manufacturing to fuel a significant scale-up, with growth plans that will see the business multiply in size over the next two to three years and expand operations into the UK, Europe and the US.The

business has currently more than 130,000 sqm of production capacity with manufacturing facilities in the UK (Gloucester and Swindon) and the US (Dayton, Ohio); a Hardware R&D Centre in Bristol, UK; and a Software R&D Centre in Athens, Greece.

The role

As Buyer you own everything we buy and everyone we buy it from. Raw material, consumables, tooling, subcontract operations and capital items across Gloucester and Swindon. You turn demand into purchase orders, you hold suppliers to the dates they gave us, and you own the commercial relationship behind every part we do not make ourselves.

This role is one half of a pair. The Production Planner tells you what is needed and when. You make sure it is there, at the right price, with the right paperwork, on the right date. The split is deliberate. At our scale buying and planning are each a full time job, and neither gets the attention it deserves when one person does both.

You and the Planner run one set of numbers across the two sites, with no tolerance for one site optimising at the other's expense.

The line between the two roles is simple. You own the supplier: selection, price, terms, contract and performance. The Planner owns the schedule and the movement, including when material and subcontract parts are called off, when they arrive, and how they flow through the two sites. You agree the deal, they call it off.

Material lead time is the single biggest risk to our delivery commitments today. Some of what we buy runs to twenty six weeks. You are the person who knows those numbers, defends them at contract review, and makes sure we stop quoting dates the supply chain cannot support.

What will you be doing? Purchasing execution
• Convert MRP demand into purchase orders in SYSPRO, accurately and on time.
• Own the open purchase order book commercially. Where a supplier will not hold the date the Planner needs, you are the one who goes back to them: renegotiate, find an alternative source, or escalate.
• Raise one purchase order per material requirement for the business. Cost lands where the material is issued, not split across sites at the point of order.
• Make sure non MRP items carry the correct requisition and sign off before a PO is raised.
• Keep PO numbering, part numbers and GL coding clean at entry. A wrong code at the front end becomes a wrong number in the P&L.
• Resolve invoice, price and receipt queries with Finance so the AP process runs clean. Implementing and owning key process indicators Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) & Days of Inventory Outstanding (DIO)
Supplier management and sourcing
• Own the supplier base end to end: identification, approval, onboarding, performance and, where needed, replacement.
• Negotiate price, lead time, minimum order…