What you’ll do:

The Buyer will manage the buying and planning of materials supporting the manufacturing team. This position involves extensive relationship management with assigned vendors and manufacturers in addition to internal operations, customer service, engineering, and new product program management.

Essential Functions:

• Supplier and Vendor Management: Negotiate pricing and terms to meet financial and delivery requirements. Negotiate pricing and complete SPIR documentation when suppliers announce price increases. Manage supplier transition efforts from sourcing changes. Hold vendors accountable and monitor outsourced tooling conditions to prevent supply chain impacts. Maintain and promote strong relationships with vendors, suppliers, finance, quality, engineering, sales, marketing, strategic sourcing, and other internal customers. Monitor and ensure vendor implementation of supply chain stocking agreements on a timely basis. Ensure new components go through a PPAP process and meet all requirements before production parts are ordered and received in the facility.

• Inventory Planning and Materials Management: Create monthly reports on stocking positions for steel products. Partner with divisional sourcing to identify inventory risks with Carbon Steel products using historical forecasting tools. Partner with suppliers to optimize stocking positions and create a lean inventory environment. Analyze forecasts to manage proper bin levels. Plan, coordinate, and monitor part supply to meet marketing forecasts. Learn and use Lean and Six Sigma tools to implement pull systems, Kanbans, consigned inventory, and vendor-managed inventory. Participate and lead efforts to achieve inventory reduction goals.

• Supply Chain Continuity: Identify potential supply gaps and work with engineering and production to prevent delivery disruptions. Work closely with engineering in sourcing unique and short-supply materials. Assist in resolving vendor material shortages, backlogs, quality issues, and delivery delays. Analyze and address vendor capacity constraints against forecasts and booked orders. Develop and execute action plans to eliminate or minimize supply base risks.

• Procurement Management: Prepare and process purchase orders using SAP. Maintain SAP with current material costs. Resolve invoice discrepancies with Financial Shared Services. Monitor PPV and identify economical, cost-effective component supply chain solutions. Support annual cost reduction, supplier consolidation, and inventory reduction projects. Manage the scrap metals program, including shipment verification, reporting, and continuous improvement opportunities.

• Continuous Improvement: Participate in root cause analysis to resolve inventory discrepancies. Participate and lead efforts to achieve on-time delivery and cost reduction goals. Establish and monitor metrics related to customer satisfaction, lead times, purchasing performance, and plant performance. Drive continuous improvement initiatives across purchasing, inventory, and supply chain processes.
  
  

Qualifications:

What will make you successful?
An ideal candidate combines a strong understanding of manufacturing operations with an analytical mindset, leveraging ERP systems and data to make informed purchasing decisions. You are proactive and detail-oriented, capable of managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment, while driving results with minimal supervision. Success in this role requires exceptional communication, strategic negotiation, and influencing stakeholders while navigating resistance and building alignment to drive results across cross-functional teams. Above all, you demonstrate a strong professional presence, high ethical standards, and a continuous improvement mindset focused on optimizing processes and enhancing operational performance. We are looking for candidates who are diverse in their backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences, and who can bring fresh and innovative ideas to our team.

Required (Basic) Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required from an accredited institution.
• Minimum two (2) years’ experience performing purchasing functions in a manufacturing environment
• Eaton will not consider applicants for employment immigration sponsorship or support for this position. This means that Eaton will not support any CPT, OPT, or STEM OPT plans, F-1 to H-1B, H-1B cap registration, O-1, E-3, TN status, I-485 job portability, etc.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a Supply Chain Management field from an accredited institution
• Experience with mechanical (metals) components
• SAP experience
• CPIM and/or APICS certification
• Lean manufacturing experience
• Data analytics experience including Power BI, Excel