Tactical Buyer - Procurement Desk in Birmingham

Graduate calibre, solutions driven Tactical Buyer required by UK market leader, to head up a brand new procurement buying desk focused on transactional, operational spend.

Salary c£35-45000 including car allowance plus bonus & benefits. Birmingham. Commutable from Birmingham, Solihull, Shirley, Sutton Coldfield, Lichfield, Coventry, Leicester, Derby, Rugby, Stratford on Avon, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Alcester, Redditch, Bromsgrove, Worcester, Stourbridge, Kidderminster, Lichfield, Tamworth, Northampton.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Tactical Buyer to manage a relatively new procurement buying desk. You will work alongside a central shared service procurement function focusing on tactical and currently non-compliant operational spend within our client’s national, divisional business units and multi-site manufacturing operations. This will include direct sourcing, indirect sourcing and procurement delivery as part of the overall procurement strategy.

As Tactical Procurement Buyer you will be focused on tactical and transactional sourcing activity in relation to operational spend, both direct materials and indirect services, not covered by strategic category management teams. This is a fast-paced, highly responsive and internal customer/stakeholder focused role which will also allow you to take the lead on sourcing direct and indirect spend categories, negotiating and deal making. You will also support category strategy development, delivering projects to translate these strategies into validated cost savings.

You will be a high energy person who enjoys lots of variety when it comes to tactical and transactional buying but also enjoys being highly efficient and process driven when it comes to the administration relating to raising and actioning purchase orders in line with SAP procurement to pay/P2P systems. You will be a confident person, who thrives on solving problems and delivering excellent tactical buying solutions for your stakeholder group within manufacturing operations and engineering.

You will also be an excellent relationship builder, with a strong capability in terms of stakeholder engagement within operational teams advising, managing, constructively challenging and delivering on best value spend options for a range of indirect and direct spend areas. A strong and confident personality you will be familiar with presenting at senior executive level and also to operational and functional heads based within manufacturing (or retail or logistics) and processing facilities.

The Role:

• Lead the delivery of tactical buying activity for operational planned spend opportunities within defined operational spend levels.
• Manage transactional buying desk activities and support wider strategic category management including raising purchase orders in line with SAP P2P.
• Deliver additional value to operational buying on orders £30k plus – interpreting and meeting operational requirements/specifications, demand and delivery of solutions.
• Support local category sourcing that continuously improves suppliers’ and contractors’ compliance with Safety, Health & Environment and Corporate & Social Responsibility standards.
• Work closely with category managers and business units to establish and deliver procurement requirements, strategic benefits and compliance to existing procurement contracts.
• Ensure products and services are purchased in the most cost- and time-efficient manner, delivering ‘agile’ solutions to implement and ensure purchasing best practices.
• Evaluate, re-tender, renegotiate or extend contracts and suppliers in order to facilitate tactical and strategic sourcing with relevant stakeholders.
• Engage with operational teams to review pipeline and track regional and national opportunities.
• Deliver additional value to operational buying activities - supporting operational requirements/specifications, demand and delivery of solutions.
• Identify suppliers and supplier engagement in buying activities.
• Conduct quotation analysis and recommendations, considering suitability/reliability of suppliers to meet operational requirements.
• Monitor and challenge non-compliant buying activities.
• Report on compliance, procurement and operational KPIs.
• Utilise eProcurement solutions, including eAuctions.

The Ideal Person:

• Ideally University degree educated.
• Part or Fully Qualified CIPS or willing to study.
• Career track record gained within large multinational procurement/buying environment.
• Experience as a Tactical Buyer or Senior Buyer with experience in transactional buying.
• Experience of operational and tactical buying and procurement.
• Experience of SAP or similar ERP systems for procurement.
• Experienced in managing the purchase order process in line with SAP P2P processes.
• Numerate and analytical with excellent attention to detail, able to work well as part of a team and autonomously.
• Enthusiastic and “can do” personality.
• Ambitious and driven to succeed and progress career within blue chip multinational procurement environment.
• Confident and excellent relationship builder with a track record of stakeholder engagement.
• Very good persuasion, influencing and negotiating skills.

This is a great career development opportunity for a graduate calibre procurement buyer to head up a high profile and brand-new procurement buying desk and to deliver savings in a fast-paced dynamic, supportive environment.