Buyer Team Lead

The Procurement Buyer Team Lead is responsible for leading day-to-day purchasing activities in support of geothermal power plant Operations & Maintenance (O&M). This role combines hands‑on buying, team leadership, and process discipline to ensure materials and services are procured safely, compliantly, on time, and at optimal total cost. The Team Lead serves as the primary interface between Procurement, Plant Maintenance, Engineering, Supply Chain/Logistics, and key suppliers, and is an escalation point for urgent plant needs, forced outages, and complex procurement issues.

Beyond day-to-day execution, this role is expected to actively demonstrate strong commercial leadership and ownership. The Buyer Team Lead will proactively identify gaps in procurement coverage, including decentralized or non‑standard purchasing activities performed outside the Procurement function, and initiate actions to bring such spend under appropriate commercial, governance, and compliance controls. The role requires leadership maturity, sound commercial judgment, and the ability to influence stakeholders beyond formal reporting lines.

• Lead, coach, and prioritize work for a team of Buyers supporting multiple geothermal plants, balance workload across routine demand, outages, and capital maintenance projects.
• Serve as escalation point for urgent plant needs, forced outages, and procurement issues; coordinate solutions with Plant teams, Supply Chain/Logistics, Strategic Sourcing, and the Procurement Manager.
• Provide onboarding, SOP guidance, and ongoing training for Buyers; reinforce standard work, internal controls, and best practices.
• Support performance management through KPI tracking, cycle‑time/throughput monitoring, and regular coaching/feedback.
• Execute and oversee procurement of MRO materials, critical rotating equipment/spares, and specialty geothermal services (wellfield, turbines, heat exchangers, brine systems, electrical and I&C), including contracted maintenance and outage services.
• Convert requisitions into compliant, accurate Purchase Orders in SAP (S/4
  
  HANA), ensuring correct pricing, scope, delivery terms, account assignment, and required documentation.
• Partner with Plant Managers, Maintenance Planners/Schedulers, Reliability Engineers, and Operations to validate requisition quality (scope, urgency, and correct material/service classification) and improve front‑end planning inputs.
• Track procurement cycle time and separate procurement lead‑time drivers from planning/maintenance delays; remove constraints and improve schedule adherence.
• Support outage planning and quarterly/long‑range maintenance look‑aheads by surfacing long‑lead material/service risks and executing sourcing and expediting plans.
• Ensure buying aligns with approved vendor lists, MSAs, negotiated pricing, and sourcing strategies; prepare and issue RFQs, support competitive bids, and document supplier evaluations as required.
• Coordinate with Strategic Sourcing on new vendor onboarding, sole/limited‑source justifications, OEM relationships, and long‑lead equipment.
• Enforce compliance with insurance and contractor requirements, PO‑before‑work policies, and audit/internal control standards; ensure complete and accurate procurement file documentation.
• Provide commercial leadership for complex or non‑standard procurement matters, including pricing models, contract terms, and total cost of ownership considerations while ensuring cost savings are in focus.
• Lead commercial problem‑solving efforts for procurement activities historically managed outside Procurement.
• Identify and address decentralized or maverick spend in partnership with Operations and Maintenance leadership.
• Drive SAP and process discipline (material/service coding, clear PO notes, confirmations, delivery tracking, and timely receiving/GR) to reduce rework and ensure audit‑ready documentation.
• Identify process gaps, rework drivers, and automation opportunities; support data accuracy for reporting, audits, cost tracking, and supplier performance management.

• Other duties and projects as assigned by management
• Participate in cross‑functional readiness reviews…