Regional Purchasing Manager

WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

Our client is growing hard in North America, organically and through acquisition, and the pace is not letting up. Indirect spend has grown with it, and the way it is currently managed no longer matches the size of the business.

Rather than run everything through one central function, they are putting senior category ownership into the region. This is a single role covering three plants, two in Alabama and one in Kentucky, reporting to the Purchasing Director for North America. One person, one strategy, the whole regional book.

You take on roughly $65M of indirect spend across the three sites excluding capital, with 2027 and 2029 already mapped as capital-intensive years. A live run-rate book with a major capital programme building behind it is not a combination that comes up often at this level.

THE SPEND YOU WILL OWN

• MRO — the primary focus, and where most of your time and value will sit in year one
• Tooling, facility services, packaging
• Logistics and transportation
• IT hardware and software
• Insurance, leasing, outsourcing providers
• Capital equipment, weighting significantly toward 2027 and 2029

WHAT YOU WILL ACTUALLY BE DOING

This is a hands-on seat. You are not reviewing other people's negotiations; you are in them.

• Leading negotiations directly with suppliers, from first conversation through to awarded contract
• Building the regional indirect strategy from something close to a blank sheet, then executing it
• Owning supplier relationships day to day: performance, terms, escalation, and where necessary, replacement
• Contract management end to end, including preparation of contract documents and awarding in line with corporate policy
• Market analysis, benchmarking and bid comparison to support award decisions
• Consolidating a fragmented supply base into fewer, stronger long-term partnerships
• Pulling the three plants onto common terms and suppliers where it makes sense, and identifying synergy potential across the wider group
• Owning total cost of ownership analysis and carrying the regional savings target
• Working with plant operations, engineering, maintenance and IT to forecast demand and plan ahead
• Working alongside the central group on indirect. Decisions are made locally, coordinated with central, not waiting on central

WHO THIS IS BUILT FOR

• 7 to 10 years in procurement with genuine indirect ownership, in automotive or broader manufacturing
• A strong negotiator. This is the core of the job and it will be tested at interview
• Solid contract management capability across varied and often messy indirect categories
• Drive above everything else. This business moves quickly and rewards people who chase a result down rather than escalating it
• On site every day and willing to move between the three plants as the work demands. This role does not work remotely and the client is clear about that

BACKGROUND AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain management, industrial engineering, business administration or a related field. Master's or MBA welcome but not required
• Confident in SAP or comparable ERP, plus e-sourcing tools
• Familiarity with automotive standards such as IATF 16949 and ISO 14001
• Awareness of sustainability and supplier diversity practices in the automotive supply chain
• CPSM, CIPS or Lean Six Sigma certification is an advantage rather than a requirement