Position Description: The Purchasing Manager is responsible for leading and developing the purchasing team while ensuring the timely procurement of materials, services and supplies required to support production, customer delivery commitments, and business objectives. This position provides daily leadership, direction, and accountability for buyers ensuring purchasing activities are executed efficiently and aligned with organizational priorities.
The Purchasing Manager will serve as the primary escalation point for material shortages, supplier performance issues, and procurement-related challenges that could impact production schedules or customer commitments and/or company financial objectives. This role will work closely with Operations, Planning, Quality, Engineering, and Finance to proactively identify risks, drive corrective actions, and maintain continuity of supply.
The successful candidate will be a strong leader with a proven ability to manage teams, build supplier relationships, resolve complex issues, and drive continuous improvement within a fast-paced aerospace manufacturing environment.
Essential Responsibilities:- Lead, mentor, and develop the purchasing team, providing daily direction, coaching, and performance management.
- Establish priorities and workload distribution to ensure buyers are focused on the most critical business needs.
- Ensure accountability for purchase order placement, supplier follow-up, delivery commitments, and inventory objectives across the enterprise.
- Serve as the primary escalation point for supplier issues, late deliveries, quality concerns, capacity constraints, and material shortages.
- Coordinate cross-functional efforts to resolve supply chain disruptions and minimize impact to production and customer deliveries.
- Monitor key purchasing metrics including supplier on-time delivery, past due purchase orders, purchase price variance, inventory levels, and buyer performance.
- Develop and implement corrective action plans for recurring supplier and procurement-related issues.
- Partner with Operations and Planning teams to ensure material availability supports production schedules and customer demand.
- Drive supplier performance improvement initiatives and maintain strong supplier relationships.
- Participate in and/or lead supplier negotiations related to pricing, delivery, lead times, and contractual commitments.
- Ensure compliance with company purchasing policies, procedures, customer requirements, and regulatory standards.
- Lead inventory reduction and working capital improvement initiatives while maintaining customer service levels.
- Identify opportunities for process improvements, automation, and efficiency gains within the purchasing function.
- Support ERP system optimization and ensure accurate procurement-related data and reporting.
- Foster a culture of accountability, urgency, teamwork, and continuous improvement throughout the purchasing organization.
Qualifications:- Bachelor's Degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Operations Management, or a related field preferred.
- 5-10 years of purchasing, procurement, supply chain, or materials management experience in an aerospace or defense manufacturing environment.
- 3+ years of leadership experience managing buyers, planners, or supply chain professionals is preferred.
- APICS CPIM and/or CSCP is preferred.
- Strong understanding of purchasing principles, supplier management, inventory control, and material planning are required.
- Experience managing supplier performance and resolving complex supply chain issues, including engineering and quality related issues.
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams and drive accountability across the organization.
- Experience utilizing ERP systems in a manufacturing environment.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to make data-driven decisions.
- Experience negotiating pricing, lead times, and supplier agreements.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, including Excel.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize multiple competing demands.
- Aerospace manufacturing experience preferred.
Benefits: Enjet offers a comprehensive benefits package to full-time employees including paid time off, health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, paid holidays, a 401K retirement plan, disability insurance, and more.
