Job Description
This position is responsible for the procurement and management of assigned commodities within the Indirect Purchasing Department. Responsibilities may include, but not limited to: purchase order placement; issue resolution; preparing contracts; acting as the lead negotiator providing solutions to a wide range of issues; developing commercial strategies for product and/or service contracts; managing supplier relationships and performance metrics; communicating and mitigating risk that could impact Solar's ability to meet the business plan.
Nature and Scope
This position acts with a sense of urgency and is diligent in providing timely support to internal clients and external customers. This individual operates in compliance with corporate and Supply Chain policies and procedures. A Sr Procurement Specialist may manage relationships of some non-strategic suppliers, but will predominately oversee strategic or complex suppliers. There is an expectation to not only participate on but lead projects from conception to maturity that directly support organizational objectives.
The primary functions of the job include but are not limited to:
Supply Chain Management -
- Applies advanced Supply Chain knowledge to manage processes, establish policies, and develop value-adding strategies.
- Develops and maintains relationships with internal clients and lower-level supplier executives functioning as the Supply Chain and Solar ambassador.
- Monitors and manages ownership of risk from financial, business continuation, and compliance perspectives. Ensures procurement processes meets audit, regulatory, and legal standards.
- Leads teams, provides direction, and coaches less experienced staff members.
Contract Management -
- Leads agreements on complex, high value contracts, and resolves issues. Develops and implements solutions to improve contract compliance. Proactively identifies issues during and after contract completion and manages resolution.
- Develops standard written agreements for development requirements.
- Works closely with users defining supplier performance measurements and reporting frameworks.
- Manages the transition process when changing contracted suppliers.
Negotiation -
- Creates negotiation strategies based on thorough knowledge of business requirements.
- Communicates negotiation strategies and parameters to negotiating team and defines roles.
- Re-evaluates critical data and strategies if conditions change during the negotiation process.
- Able to ethically execute negotiation strategy for high criticality/complexity items displaying varied negotiation techniques to achieve best results.
- Coaches and leads multi-disciplinary negotiating teams employing appropriate techniques.
Supplier Management -
- Integral part of supplier selection process and managing the relationships of existing suppliers.
- Manages relationship of moderate to high complex suppliers.
- Provides mentorship in establishing continuous improvement plans to achieve mutual benefits.
- Coaches and leads Supply Chain personnel in building the appropriate relationships with suppliers.
Cost Management -
- Applies business strategies to daily activities, identifies market opportunities, gaps and trends.
- Understands, applies, and coaches others in building and analyzing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) models.
- Anticipates market opportunities, competitive responses, and develops counterstrategies & contingency plans.
Purchasing Execution -
- Resolves high complexity purchasing related grief issues with minimal assistance.
- Develops, recommends, and provides training & mentorship around purchasing processes, process changes, and tools.
- Executes risk mitigation strategies to avoid Supply Chain disruption.
- Validates data integrity, identifies data gaps, and updates & corrects system data.
- Provides training, mentorship, and communicates best practices across the Enterprise.
