Senior Sourcing Specialist

Responsibilities

Plan your sourcing. You take the bill of materials and build a sourcing plan for each commodity. You weigh criticality, lead time and single or dual source options.
Find the right suppliers. You run market scans, requests for information and requests for quote. Then you shortlist the suppliers worth a closer look.
Judge capability together. You work with R&D, Production, Finance and Compliance to build one clear view of what each supplier can do.
Negotiate the deal. You agree pricing, volume tiers, tooling and payment terms. You also set up the NDAs, supply agreements and long-term agreements that back them.
Set suppliers up properly. You onboard new suppliers and keep vendor data, price breaks and lead times current in our ERP system.
Lead supplier qualification. You coordinate our tiered qualification process, including quality agreements and first-article inspections.
Audit on site and remotely. You check suppliers for quality management, traceability and compliance. You also screen them against trade compliance requirements.
Keep builds moving. You place and expedite orders for prototype, validation, pilot and pre-series builds. You track supplier performance on delivery, price and quality.
Bring costs down. You work with suppliers on cost reduction, using should-cost and landed-cost models.
Grow our supplier base. You qualify suppliers for additional production sites and regions, reusing existing qualification records.
Make it repeatable. You document sourcing processes, templates and playbooks, so the purchasing team can take over mature suppliers.

Requirements

• You have 6+ years in sourcing, purchasing or new product introduction for hardware products, across a variety of product types, complexities and technologies.
• You can read technical drawings and specifications, and you work closely with engineers.
• You’re willing to travel regularly, including international trips of several days.
• You’ve audited suppliers hands-on or worked within a quality management system such as ISO 9001.
• You have working knowledge of trade compliance rules.
• You’ve used an ERP system for purchasing and vendor data.
• You have a qualification in engineering, supply chain, business or a related field.
• You communicate excellently in English and build good working relationships with colleagues and suppliers.

Plus

Experience in aerospace, drones or other safety-critical products
Experience sourcing custom electromechanical parts such as plastic parts, motors, batteries and avionics
Experience qualifying suppliers for production in more than one region
Experience with supplier scorecards and performance reporting