Purchasing Lead

About the Job

As a Purchasing Lead at a startup, you’ll be creating, maintaining & continuously improving, and ensuring compliance to company purchasing & planning processes & systems.  You’ll initially be a one-person shop, with the ability to grow your team as the company expands in the future.  You’ll take ownership of the entire scope of Purchasing (including both buying and planning), collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless support across the company with cost effective, high quality, on-time parts & services.

Job Location

Onsite in San Diego, California

Job Responsibilities

• Create, maintain & continuously improve company purchasing & planning processes.  Ensure proper training and compliance to same with cross-functional partners.
• Identify and work with diverse stakeholders (internal & external) to define demands, create a supply and demand plan that ensures cost effective purchasing & uninterrupted supply, and execute against same.
• Manage all daily procurement & planning operations for direct and indirect spend (raw materials, services, R&D, etc. – essentially every dollar leaving the company that isn’t payroll needs to be under direct and/or system level management – all within the scope of this role).
• Configure and maintain/continuously improve NetSuite Procurement Module(s) in collaboration with finance and cross-functional partners.
• Represent purchasing for all cross-functional needs, including cross-functional process development & execution.
• Manage raw material phase-ins/phase-outs with suppliers and internal stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Finance to monitor and explain purchase price variances, support accurate budgeting, and forecast future cost trends.
• Submit and manage all Purchase Orders for direct and indirect materials & services.
• Maintain any NetSuite data fields required to support Purchasing and Planning.
• As our team and goals grow, your responsibilities may adapt to meet changing needs or new opportunities.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Purchasing, in roles of progressive responsibility. 
• Ability to build and run a Purchasing/Planning function from scratch, including development (with cross-functional partners) of all applicable processes & systems.
• Demonstrated proficiency with ERP and Quality Management systems.
• Strong analytical and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to identify opportunities, gather and structure relevant data, distill complex issues into simple messages / proposed courses of action, and effectively communicate across the organization to drive action. 
• Strong direct & indirect leadership skills. 
• Strong bias to action. 
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills.
• Experience with ISO and GMP requirements.
• Ability and drive to operate with minimal supervision.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Supply Chain, Engineering, or related field.

Desired Qualifications

• APICS, CPIM, ISM, and/or PMP certifications (or equivalents).
• Experience with ISO-13485.
• Experience building a department and associated systems/processes from scratch, in a startup environment.
• Strong leadership and management experience managing teams of Buyers and Planners (3+ years in a management role preferred).  Track record of creating high performance teams. 

Compensation

The base salary range for this role is $120,000–$140,000 depending on experience, skills, and qualifications. In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for discretionary bonuses and/or equity grants subject to board approval and company policy.