New Program (NPI) Buyer - 12 month FTC in City of Westminster

As a New Program Buyer at Safran Electrical & Power you will manage and coordinate new programs and projects for Safran, whilst building positive relationships with vendors and suppliers, securing the best quality programs in the aerospace industry. You will manage and align core commodity strategies, greatly contributing to supplier selection and the development of future product roadmaps to ensure high quality output for ongoing and future programs. You will work closely with the engineering team to ensure design evolutions and developments correspond with manufacturing lead times.

Responsibilities

• Manage and facilitate all sourcing activity, aligning core commodity strategies with supplier selection.
• Coordinate and manage new programs at the site, building robust and solid relationships with high quality vendors and suppliers.
• Ensure design evolutions synchronise from initial concept through to new product introduction phases.
• Work with Supplier Account Manager and Commodity Manager to negotiate prices, terms, conditions and agreements.
• Follow a robust design-to-cost methodology, challenging design requirements to ensure they correspond with program and product roadmaps.
• Escalate, when appropriate, any significant issues that require management intervention or awareness.
• Work with suppliers to resolve any issues impacting performance, such as quality discrepancies.
• Coordinate with the purchasing teams and vendors to enable robust and efficient supply chains.
• Report and present program reviews to various stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of purchasing/sourcing experience within a manufacturing environment.
• Technical background with ability to understand engineering drawings and requirements; engineering degree a plus.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional sourcing projects, manage supplier performance, and drive cost reduction initiatives.
• Demonstrated project management knowledge or experience, including budget tracking, risk management, and milestone reporting.
• Strong commercial awareness and negotiation skills, with a track record of supplier engagement and contract management.
• Comfortable making autonomous decisions related to supply, cost, and terms without supervision.
• Experience working in low-volume, high-complexity environments is highly preferable.
• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills, able to work across engineering, design, and manufacturing functions.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills, with attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Ability to think strategically, contribute to the development of purchasing strategies, and align sourcing decisions with long-term program and business objectives.
• Proficient in MRP systems (SAP) and Microsoft Office tools (Excel, PowerPoint); experience with BOM and planning parameters is a plus.
• High motivation to learn and perform in a prototype-driven environment to a high-pace manufacturing ramp-up.
• Excellent written and speaking English proficiency (certification or SHL test required).
• Demonstrates versatility in working across different cultures and time zones.

Travel

Approximately 15% travel, mostly within the UK and EU for supplier visits and cross-site collaboration.

Benefits

• 8% bonus
• Excellent pension scheme
• 33 days holiday
• Dental coverage
• BUPA health insurance
• EV scheme
• Workplace nursery scheme
• Midday finish on Fridays
• Enhanced family-friendly policies
• Wellbeing programme
• Employee assistance programme (including health and finance)
• Onsite subsidised canteen