Job Description
Job Description
About the Role
The senior Buyer is not just responsible for purchasing materials — they are a strategic partner to Sales, Product Management, and Operations. This role ensures that procurement decisions directly support business growth, customer commitments, and product innovation.
We’re looking for a best-in-class purchasing professional — someone who is disciplined, collaborative, data-driven, and solutions-focused. This Buyer will take ownership of supplier relationships, ensure operational continuity, and act as a bridge between procurement and the rest of the business.
This position requires a minimum of seven to ten years experience in a similar role.
Key Responsibilities
Collaboration & Stakeholder Partnership
- Collaborate with Sales, Product Management & Supply Chain to ensure material availability for product launches, custom orders, and growth initiatives.
- Partner with Sales to understand customer commitments and align supplier capacity accordingly.
- Act as the procurement voice in cross-functional meetings — balancing supplier capability, cost, and lead times with business goals.
Supplier Management & Sourcing
- Develop and maintain a world-class supplier network — evaluating partners on cost, quality, delivery, responsiveness, and innovation.
- Assist in negotiating contracts and enforce supplier accountability for price, service, and performance.
- Proactively identify alternative sources and ensure supply chain resilience.
Purchasing Execution
- Manage the full PO lifecycle in SAP with precision and discipline.
- Respond to MRP exceptions and production shifts with speed and accuracy.
- Ensure all purchasing data is clean, accurate, and audit-ready.
Inventory & Production Support
- Monitor inventory health to support both customer service levels and working capital targets.
- Understand production lines, BOM dependencies, and raw material criticality — anticipating and resolving risks after they impact output.
- Support Operations by preventing stockouts, line-downs, and excess inventory alike.
Supplier Performance & Risk Control
- Develop supplier scorecards with metrics on delivery, quality, responsiveness, and cost competitiveness.
- Run quarterly business reviews with strategic suppliers.
- Drive corrective actions (SCAR/8D) and escalate chronic underperformance.
Continuous Improvement
- Lead cost savings and value engineering initiatives that improve margin without compromising quality or service.
- Standardize processes, shorten purchasing cycle times, and enforce data discipline.
- Benchmark KINA purchasing practices against industry leaders to ensure we operate as “best in class.”
Key Competencies & Skills
- Attention to detail
- Results-oriented
- Strong communication skills
- Exceptional collaboration and relationship management (internal & external)
- Strong negotiation and supplier management
- Analytical, data-driven decision-making
- Clear and persuasive communicator
- Organizational discipline with strong follow-through
- Proficiency in SAP (MM module), Excel, and Microsoft Office Suite
- Resilience under pressure, ability to manage competing priorities
Expectations
- Reasonable knowledge of the production process, i.e. what raw materials are required for what production lines & any intricacies involved
- Communicate upwards where expectations will not be met
- Data driven approach to buying, i.e. our actions must match what the data suggests
- Work with Finance to proactively deal with invoicing variances
- Thrive on collaboration — partnering daily with Sales, Product Management, Finance, and Operations.
- Understand that procurement is about supporting business growth, not just pushing purchase orders.
- Are customer-obsessed — ensuring suppliers deliver so Sales can keep promises to customers.
- Are comfortable challenging suppliers and stakeholders when something doesn’t add up.
- Bring initiative and urgency to every task — proactively fixing problems, not waiting for direction.
- Take ownership for supplier accountability, PO accuracy, and clean data
Performance Metrics
- PO Accuracy/Cleanliness: Ensuring all purchase orders are updated regularly, closed out etc
- Inventory Turnover Ratio: Measures how efficiently purchased goods move through inventory
- Excess/Obsolete Inventory Value: Cost of unused or outdated materials