Job Description

Posting number: 09031

Department: Procurement and Contracting

Job classification: Buyer

Posting type: Open & Promotional

Categories: Purchasing

Summary

This specialized position is responsible for the procurement of commodities and services for the City in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations. Performs duties with a degree of independence while working under the direction of the Procurement Manager and/or the guidance of Senior Buyers.

Examples of duties

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Consults with department personnel on procurement needs and advises of the best methods for purchasing goods and services.
2. Seeks continuous improvement in efficiency and reduction of procurement costs through the use of procurement analysis, industry-specific techniques, and procurement best practices.
3. Processes purchase requisitions and issues purchase orders in compliance with the City’s procurement policies and procedures.
4. Assists in the preparation of technical specifications and scopes of work (including related research and value analyses) and prepares solicitation documents.
5. Prepares informal and competitively sealed requests for quotations, invitations to bid, requests for proposals, invitations to negotiate, and requests for qualifications and manages assigned solicitations from project inception through bid award. Escalates more complex solicitations as needed.
6. Conducts pre-bid meetings, bid openings, and other procurement related meetings in accordance with Florida’s Sunshine Act.
7. Coordinate and supervise activities of evaluation committees.
8. Recommend highest ranked or lowest responsive and responsible bidders/proposers on solicitations.
9. Identify and notify potential sources. Research market sources and suppliers to locate and ensure most cost effective and competitive pricing for the purchase of supplies and services.
10. Confer with consultants, contractors, and suppliers in order to acquaint them with the City’s procurement policies and procedures and to obtain information regarding required products and services.
11. Facilitate negotiations between City departments and consultants/contractors regarding specifications, scopes of work, prices, terms, and conditions.
12. Maintain the integrity of the public procurement process in all activities.
13. Analyze current procurement activities and recommend improvements through more efficient procurement methods, e-procurement, quantity discounts, standardization, value analysis or cooperative purchasing.
14. Engage in procurement planning activities with client departments. Routinely meet and communicate with client departments in order to identify and provide high quality service to meet client service delivery requirements on a timely basis. Provide accurate, complete, and up-to-date information in a courteous, efficient, and timely manner.
15. Effectively communicate purchasing policies and procedures to all personnel and interpret said policies and procedures as necessary.
16. Maintain individual workload statistics.
17. Prepare and maintain accurate records and documentation on all solicitations, responses, purchases, contracts, correspondence, and related follow-up.
18. Attends trade shows and purchasing related seminars/training courses.
19. Perform any other related duties as required or assigned.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty mentioned satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• High School Diploma or GED required.
• Bachelor’s Degree in business Administration, Marketing, Economics, or related area.
• Must have a minimum of two (2) years of professional purchasing experience, preferably in a public environment, where awards are made through a competitive bid process.
• Equivalent combination of training, education, and experience may be acceptable.

REQUIRED CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• Must possess and maintain a valid Florida Operators Driver’s License with an acceptable driving record.

PREFERRED CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• Certified Public Purchasing Buyer certification preferred, but not required.
• NIGP-CPP certification preferred, but not required.

Supplemental information

RESPONSIBILITY FOR FUNDS, PROPERTY and EQUIPMENT

None.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

Directly supervises 0 subordinate supervisor(s) who supervise(s) a total of employee(s). Supervises 0 non-supervisory employee(s).

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Ability to read, analyze, and understand the most complex documents. Ability to respond effectively to the most sensitive inquiries or complaints. Ability to effectively communicate information and respond to questions in person-to-person and small group situations with customers, clients, general public and other employees of the organization. Ability to read, analyze, and understand common and technical journals, reports, and documents; Ability to respond to complex or difficult inquiries or complaints from customers, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS

Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to prepare and interpret bar graphs.

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems. Ability to deal with nonverbal, logical or scientific symbolism such as formulas, scientific equations, and graphs. Ability to deal with a variety of abstract and concrete variables.

SUPERVISION RECEIVED

Under direction where a definite objective is set up and the employee plans and arranges own work, referring only unusual cases to supervisor.

PLANNING

Considerable responsibility with regard to general assignments in planning time, method, manner, and/or sequence of performance of own work; may also occasionally assist in the planning of work assignments performed by others within a limited area of operation.

DECISION MAKING

Performs work operations which permit frequent opportunity for decision-making of major importance which would have considerable effect on the organization's projects and organization's clientele.

MENTAL DEMAND

Intense mental demand. Operations requiring sustained directed thinking to analyze, solve, or plan highly variable, administrative, professional, or technical tasks involving complex problems or mechanisms.

ANALYTICAL ABILITY/PROBLEM SOLVING

Moderately directed. Activities covered by wide-ranging policies and courses of action and generally directed as to execution and review. High order of analytical, interpretative, and/or constructive thinking in varied situations.

USE OF MACHINES, EQUIPMENT AND/OR COMPUTERS

Regular use of complex machines and equipment; specialized or advanced software programs.

ACCURACY

Probable errors would normally not be detected in succeeding operations and may have serious effects in relationships with patrons and/or with the operations of other segments of the organization. Frequent possibilities of error would exist at all times, since the above-mentioned areas are inherent in the job.

PUBLIC CONTACT

Extensive contacts with various diversified sectors of the public environment; wherein, the contacts are of major importance and failure to exercise proper judgment can lead to substantial losses to the organization.

EMPLOYEE CONTACT

Contacts with other departments or offices and also frequently with individuals in middle level positions; consulting on problems which necessitate judgment and tact in presentation to obtain cooperation or approval of action to be taken.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

The following physical activities described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions and expectations.

While performing the functions of this job, the employee is continuously required to sit; regularly required to talk or hear; frequently required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with hands and arms, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and color vision.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

There are no harmful environmental conditions that are present for this position.

The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet.

This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, duties, requirements, efforts, or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change (e.g., emergencies, changes in personnel, workload, rush jobs, or technological developments).