Category Lead

Procurement Category Manager

BUYER I, BUYER II, BUYER III, BUYER IV

The Procurement Category Lead is responsible for defining plans, processes, methods, and tools for ensuring supply chain management the life of all Government assets for the assigned category. Additionally, the Procurement Category Lead is responsible for activities associated with researching and executing cost effective purchases. Support the Government's purchase process and coordinating the delivery of purchases; and managing, tracking, and auditing new and existing orders.

Procurement Category Lead will have full responsibility of a buying desk for their specified category within the Purchasing Department. The individual shall ensure the review purchase requisitions for clarity, compliance, detail, completeness, and obtain additional information considered necessary. The individual will actively manage the procurement process from order placement through receipt of products and subsequent payment of invoices. The Procurement Category Lead will actively manage supplier performance through consistent communication to ensure proper adherence to purchase order terms and conditions;

and participate in the invoice approval process to ensure that supplier invoices are in accordance with purchase order terms and conditions, and resolve issues as necessary. Transactions at this level will be variable from routine to the more complex and involve higher dollar negotiations and greater levels of risk with moderate to heavy volume.

• Quoting and negotiating (when applicable) and issuing purchase orders up to authorized limits for raw materials, parts, subassemblies, finished goods, MRO materials, equipment, tooling, supplies and/or services from suppliers via purchase requisitions or MRP messages.
• Complex Market Research;
  Supplier Sourcing;
  Complex Financial Analysis;
  Supplier Assessments;
  Interpret drawings/specifications/SOW.
• Working as a supervisor, managing and providing guidance and oversite to team members following up with requestors and end users regarding purchase order due dates and status when inquiries are made.
• Following traffic and logistics guidelines and minimizing the use of expedited shipping services where/when possible.
• Skillfully balancing the price, delivery, quality, service and value tradeoffs and rationalizing the supply base on the given buying desk.
• Following all supply chain policies, procedures, guidelines and instructions including those regarding the procurement of materials and particularly the ability to keep confidential information regarding all purchasing or commodity strategies confidential (and in some cases, within the supply chain function exclusively).
• Running and maintaining the buying desk's purchase requisition or MRP open order, expedite, de-expedite, and past due reports.
• Working in cooperation with material planning, production planning and logistics to reduce part inventory, obsolete and slow moving materials and handle schedule changes.
• Striving to increase understanding of the services, material and manufacturing processes associated with the assigned buying desk.
• Providing assistance to related departments when applicable to the assigned buying desk (e.g., supplier invoice discrepancies with Accounting, non-conforming material and supplier root cause and corrective actions with Quality, etc.).
• Representing the supplier inside Austal.
• Maintaining close communication with supplier account and customer service personnel, and management levels if necessary, so as to minimize risk due to supplier capacity issues, plant shutdowns, and other day to day disruptions that may affect Austal and/or open purchase orders.
• Conducting supplier site audits and investigations.
• Creating and tracking supplier metrics and advising suppliers of their performance.
• Creating and tracking Buyer metrics for those in their supervisory organization.
• Maintaining professional relationships with suppliers on the assigned buying desk even in difficult times.
• Knowing when to lift issues to, or ask for help from, the next level of management in the Supply Chain function.
• Gathering information to evaluate the financial stability, technical capability, process control, capacity and continuous improvement techniques of suppliers on the assigned buying desk when required.
• Conducting business in accordance with Austal policies, procedures and business ethics guidelines.
• Providing input to, and…