Buyer/Planner

Description: The Buyer/Planner is responsible for purchasing, tracking, and expediting materials, services, and equipment. This position involves working closely with both established and potential new suppliers, leading strategic sourcing initiatives to identify, qualify, and align suppliers with KT Pacer’s procurement strategy. Daily interaction with the manufacturing, engineering, and shipping/receiving teams ensures timely, accurate, and quality delivery of materials, services, and equipment.

Key Responsibilities and Essential Functions

·      Identifies, manages, escalates, and mitigates risks in the supply chain, such as delivery delays, quality issues, and cost fluctuations, to ensure operational goals are met and aligned with business strategy.

·      Drive dedicated efforts to identify and implement significant cost reduction opportunities through data-driven analysis, sourcing events, supplier rationalization and consolidation, bulk buy initiatives, payment term negotiation, and other supplier negotiation/resourcing initiatives.

·      Identify and develop strategic supplier partnerships to leverage buying power, foster mutually beneficial relationships, and optimize costs.

·      Stay informed about key industry trends and raw material fluctuations and provide actionable recommendations for strategic sourcing decisions to minimize cost impacts.

·      Generate and issue purchase orders to suppliers based on sales orders, production schedules, and demand forecasts to maintain inventory levels and prevent shortages.

·      Coordinate cross-functional supply chain activities, working closely with internal teams to ensure on-time fulfillment of customer requirements.

·      Obtain competitive quotes, evaluate value and reliability, and negotiate terms to secure the best pricing while meeting quality and delivery standards.

·      Assess and select suppliers based on capability, capacity, and alignment with KT Pacer’s standards. Visit supplier facilities to evaluate their ability to meet production requirements.

·      Monitor and assess supplier performance based on KPIs such as delivery time, quality, and cost. Initiate corrective actions when necessary to maintain supply chain efficiency.

·      Collaborate with internal teams to enforce inventory management policies and procedures, ensuring effective stock levels and minimizing excess or shortage.

Required Skills

• Customer focused.
• Able to conduct themselves appropriately and professionally
• Drive for continuous improvement.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to build strong relationships with customers, suppliers and co-workers.
• Detail-oriented.
• Mechanical aptitude and strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Self-motivated.
• Ability to multi-task and juggle multiple priorities with strict deadlines.
• Ability to analyze, identify & then follow up to resolve discrepancies.
• Ability to make sound decisions and seek buy-in from others.
• Strong work ethic with a positive attitude.
• Ability to decipher the immediacy of problems and determine an effective resolution for the issue.

Desired Qualifications and Experience Levels:

·      Associate’s degree or higher

·      5 years’ Experience in a Manufacturing Environment

·      Knowledge of inventory databases and shipping programs

·      Good customer service & communication skills

·      Strong analytic / problem solving skills

·      Must be able to pass background and drug screening