Manages intake, PO accuracy, acknowledgements, follow-up, receiving​/invoice issues, and PO

The Senior Buyer at Hernon Manufacturing is responsible for senior-level purchasing execution, supplier follow-through, approved sourcing support, supplier catalog discipline, and procurement data-master accuracy across both the Adhesives/Raw Materials division and the Equipment/Dispensing Systems division. The role supports the full purchase order lifecycle, including request validation, PO creation, supplier acknowledgement, confirmation follow-up, expediting, receiving support, invoice issue resolution, and timely closure of open items.

This position strengthens procurement capacity by maintaining PO discipline, improving supplier commitment visibility, supporting production continuity, reducing avoidable follow-up loops, maintaining accurate SAP/ERP and approved-system data, and helping ensure that item, vendor, category, pricing, lead-time, and supplier catalog information are complete and usable for purchasing decisions.

The Senior Buyer is a senior individual contributor reporting to the Procurement Manager. The role supports the Procurement Manager by identifying procurement risks, escalating issues early, recommending practical improvements, supporting approved digital and AI-enabled process improvements, and helping standardize procurement work so routine requests, PO follow-up activities, sourcing needs, item master/data-master requests, category management activities, supplier catalog maintenance, cross-reference item reviews, and alternative vendor development become cleaner, faster, and easier to measure.

• Sustain the full PO cycle from complete request through PO closure, with strong discipline around due dates, supplier confirmations, late lines, hot parts, documentation, receiving/invoice issues, and unresolved exceptions.
• Support both Hernon business divisions while maintaining visibility of division-specific priorities, open PO aging, project needs, production impact, and customer-impacting material risks.
• Reduce avoidable rework by improving request completeness, quote documentation, cost-center/GL accuracy, approval discipline, supplier commitments, and use of approved forms, dashboards, SAP, Smartsheet, and standard templates.
• Support Procurement Manager-approved priorities related to cost savings, supplier reliability, documentation compliance, lead-time accuracy, supplier risk reduction, reporting, automation, and responsible AI use.
• Support approved new part-number and item master/data-master requests for raw materials, components, consumables, equipment items, and other purchasing needs, ensuring required SAP fields and supporting documentation are complete before creation or update.
• Support category management in SAP and approved systems by helping maintain item categories, commodity groups, supplier/category assignments, preferred vendor data, manufacturer references, UoM, lead times, MOQ, pricing notes, warehouse/division assignments, and purchasing notes.
• Create, maintain, and improve supplier catalogs using approved item codes, supplier part numbers, manufacturer references, pricing, lead times, MOQ, pack size, country of origin, documentation requirements, payment/freight terms, and price-validity information.
• Perform sourcing support for assigned needs, including supplier searches, RFQs, quote comparisons, cross-reference/offset item research, equivalent item discovery, alternative vendor identification, and escalation of quality, regulatory, formula, customer-approval, or supplier-performance risks before supplier or item changes are used.

• Purchase Order Lifecycle Execution
• Validate purchase requests for required information, including vendor, item/service description, quantity, UoM, requested date, quote/price, cost center/GL, approval, ship-to, warehouse/division, and quality/documentation needs.
• Create and update accurate POs in SAP or approved workflows with correct vendor, item code, description, pricing, terms, due date, and supporting documentation.
• Track supplier acknowledgements, confirmations, promised dates, late POs, hot parts, service/non-inventory POs, receiving issues, invoice discrepancies, and unresolved exceptions.
• Review assigned open POs and escalated urgent materials with the PO number, item, supplier, needed date, impact, risk level, and recommended action.
• Return or pause incomplete requests when required information or approvals are missing, clearly communicating what is needed to proceed.
• Supplier Follow-Up, Quotes, and Commercial Support
• Build professional supplier relationships while maintaining Hernon standards for price, quality, delivery, responsiveness, documentation, and compliance.
• Request, compare, and document quotes with assumptions, lead times, freight/payment terms, MOQ, price validity, country of origin when required, and supplier commitments.
• Negotiate pricing, freight, lead times, payment terms, volume opportunities, and service expectations within assigned authority; route contracts,…