Associate Buyer

Job Summary/Overview

The Associate Buyer coordinates activities involved with procuring goods and services such as raw materials, equipment, tools, parts, supplies, and advertising for CMCO. This position is responsible for communicating with vendors on providing quality materials at competitive prices, delivered per our schedule and ensuring on time delivery to our customers.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Confers with vendors to obtain product or service information such as price, availability, and delivery schedule.
• Timely ordering of required materials.
• ERP system maintenance of parameters such as supplier lead times, etc.
• Estimates values according to knowledge of market price.
• Determines method of procurement such as direct purchase or bid.
• Prepares purchase orders or bid requests.
• Reviews bid proposals and negotiates contracts within budgetary limitations and scope of authority.
• Maintains procurement records such as items or services purchased costs, delivery, product quality or performance, and inventories.
• Discusses defective or unacceptable goods or services with inspection or quality control personnel, users, vendors, and others to determine source of trouble and take corrective action.
• Expedites delivery of goods to users
• Buying and negotiating.
• Performs other related duties as assigned 

Knowledge, Skills, Competencies, and Abilities

• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.  Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.  Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.
• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.
• Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference, and fundamentals of plane and solid geometry and trigonometry.  Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
• NAPM membership and CPM desired. Experience with Lean Manufacturing, PFEP, 6 Sigma, Kanban, etc. is also desired.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree from a four-year college or university; or minimum of three years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.