Purchasing Operations Specialist

Work Location Type: Hybrid

As a leading industrial distributor with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom, We Keep The World Working® by serving more than 4.5 million customers worldwide with products delivered through innovative technology and deep customer relationships. With 2023 sales of $16.5 billion, we're dedicated to providing value for customers, fostering an engaging culture for team members and driving strong financial results.

Our welcoming workplace enables you to learn, grow and make a difference by keeping businesses running and their people safe. We're looking for passionate people to join our team as we continue leading the industry over our next 100 years.

PRIMARY FUNCTION

The Purchasing Operations Specialist is responsible for all assigned duties including, but not limited to, maintaining and updating current expected ship dates, receipt corrections/adjustments, managing requirements documents, and large order processing and follow-up for all assigned vendors.

They provide credible and useful information to enable multiple cross-functional teams impacted by Past Due Purchase Orders, GRIR issues, and Large Orders to deliver a better service promise.

The Purchasing Operations Specialist is the key contact for vendors and their assigned Category Purchasing Manager (CPM), Supplier Performance Analyst (SPA), DC inbound teams, Accounts Payable, and Product Manager (PM).

The Purchasing Operations Specialist will work on all assigned vendor issues, including past due line follow-up, DC receipts, and proactively address potential past due POs to help vendors resolve short-term (transactional) issues in a timely manner.

MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Purchasing Operations - Key Responsibilities

• Manage Purchase Orders, inbound receipts, requirements documents, and large orders as assigned.
• Perform PO Maintenance (SAP): maintain updates to PO lines for assigned vendors and those distributed to other team members.
• Identify problematic PO lines that have exceeded the requested ship date and determine the appropriate course of action.
• Ensure back-up coverage is properly coordinated during vacation periods.

• Contact suppliers to determine the causes of delays, update information by revising data in SAP for visibility to other users, and maintain records of all communications within the PO.
• Report any long-term or systemic issues identified to the appropriate teams.
• Update discontinued and pricing database spreadsheets with newly identified SKUs for communication to Supplier Performance Analysts (SPAs) and Product Manager (PM) teams.

• Partner with Distribution Center (DC) and Accounts Payable (AP) teams to resolve inbound receipt issues quickly and provide actionable insights that support long-term solutions.
• Maintain tracking of assigned team throughput, workload, and performance of each vendor or DC by Expeditor.

• Review and approve requirements that do not meet specified criteria.

• Collaborate with Customer Service to add value in large order processing, helping avoid availability issues and reduce handling and shipping costs by enabling direct-to-customer shipments when possible.
• Identify process improvement opportunities and promote best practice behaviors within Customer Service teams.

• BS/BA or equivalent experience preferred.
• Ability to foster, manage and leverage relationships at varying levels internally & externally.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills that foster collaboration with team, business partners and cross-functional teams.
• Systemic thinking and problem solving. Ability to influence decisions with teams without direct management responsibility.
• Demonstrated ability to multitask, quickly learn and become competent in, and effectively apply new skills.
• Proficient in Excel, Access and/or other database and reporting tools.
• Exposure to business disciplines outside of Purchasing is desirable.
• Exposure to SAP desirable.