Senior Strategic Buyer, IT Hardware

KARL STORZ – US is currently recruiting for a Senior Strategic Buyer – IT Hardware.  This role is an integral member of the Global Supply Chain team committed to the success of the North America (NA) IT Hardware Category. The position will work with Global IT as a dedicated and experienced category buyer to align with global initiatives, execute and implement effective sourcing strategies for tablets, IoT devices, personal computers, network and security equipment, autonomy hardware, IT facility needs, servers, blades, cabling, network connectivity, network infrastructure, and peripherals from the initial identification of needs through delivery. The Sr. Strategic Buyer will act as a trusted business value enabler for stakeholders, understanding and determining business requirements for North American lines of businesses aligned with global material group strategy.

This person will collaborate with global counterparts, business partners, corporate legal, accounting, finance, regulatory, compliance, and security to define and execute the global sourcing strategies and supplier management. 

This is a hybrid role and will be required to work onsite in our Stafford, TX office 3-4 days per week. 

Responsibilities

• Procure all NA hardware needs across multiple KARL STORZ entities.
• Establish and globally align category sourcing strategy, lead cross-functional initiatives for implementation, negotiate with suppliers, and execute contracts to optimize competitive positions.
• Foster relationships with category suppliers, with a principal objective of achieving the optimal solution and cost of ownership.
• Evaluate suppliers based on price, quality, selection, service, support, availability, reliability, production and distribution capabilities, the supplier's reputation, history, and fit with KARL STORZ's business objectives.
• Manage category suppliers to proactively identify and execute opportunities for cost reduction on product, service, delivery, and payment terms. Support process improvements that enhance profitability across all KARL STORZ organizations.
• Partner with North America Asset Manager to establish North America IT processes, performance benchmarks, and business continuity strategy for hardware including pricing portfolio, order portal, and electronic waste (eWaste).
• Act as market intelligence provider; anticipate strategic opportunities keeping key stakeholders informed.
• Drive Supplier Relationship Management activities to mitigate risk, work with Global Supplier Quality to benchmark performance.
• Negotiation and implementation of supplier agreements/contracts by working with cross-functional stakeholders and suppliers to reach an agreement on contract terms and conditions.
• Drive and deliver end-to-end sourcing projects including complex contractual and pricing models.
• Identify, achieve, and report on savings and value targets for sourcing activities.
• Purchase the highest quality merchandise at the lowest possible landed cost and in correct amounts, solicit bid proposals via RFQs/RFIs, and review requisitions for goods.
• Draft, negotiate, administer, and execute contracts, NDAs, and Framework Agreements with external partners.
• Evaluate and monitor contract performance to ensure compliance with contractual obligations and to determine the need for changes.
• Material requirement planning is critical to this position and to KARL STORZ. Short- and long-term planning, calculating months of inventory on hand, and updating based on business feedback.
• Generate reports, analyze data, and take action on a recurring basis to mitigate backorder, monitor inventory levels, stock analysis, PO reports, and inventory turns.
• Monitor hardware and hardware accessories across the organization for optimal cost-effectiveness, including the elimination of application or department redundancy.
• Develop an overall cost reduction plan, managing category performance versus corporate savings goals and financial models.
• Actively seek ways to streamline business processes, finding growth or change opportunities within the supply base.
• Monitor shipments to ensure that goods are received on time, mitigate shipment non-conformances and resolve problems related to undelivered goods.
• Confer cross-functionally to discuss defective or unacceptable goods or services and determine corrective action. Process and complete transactions to address non-conformance material (NCR).
• Work closely with North American Accounts Payable departments to research and resolve invoice issues.
• Work with vendors and KARL STORZ teams to identify and support EOL/EOS strategies including but not limited to last-time buys.
• Closely align with the Global IT Operational Excellence, Global Cyber Security, Supplier Quality Engineering, Strategic Buyers, and other team members to ensure continuance in communication and hand-offs.
• Support all supplier quality and audit needs.
• Implement supplier management programs including metrics, performance goals, and improvement initiatives.
• Maintain supplier scorecards to measure performance against agreed-upon key performance indicators.
• Analyze annual performance metrics and sourcing trends against commitments on a quarterly basis.
• Deliver business improvements and category plans and savings through planning and execution of sourcing, supplier, risk, product management, and continuous improvement activities.
• Execute business improvements through the optimization of commercial, design, and process levers that minimize the Total Cost of Ownership.
• Collaborate with IT stakeholders and other procurement teams to deliver brilliant outcomes.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field such as Finance, Business, Accounting or IT.  Equivalent combination of education and experience is accepted.
• 5 years of experience in IT hardware category, particularly around supplier capabilities, commercial models, product lifecycles, contract development.
• 5 years of experience in negotiations, developing and executing strategies.

• Strong SAP, and Microsoft Office skills; working knowledge with ServiceNow.
• Strong analytical skills to distill, synthesize, and draw conclusions from large amounts of data.
• Experience managing projects and working with cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage complex, strategic, and commercial requirements between KARL STORZ entities and suppliers.
• Expert communication, stakeholder management, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively on your own and as part of multi-disciplined teams.
• Ability to achieve strict deadlines.
• Ability to travel up to 20%.

Preferences

• Master’s Degree in a relevant field such as Finance, Business, or Accounting.
• 8 years of experience in IT hardware category, particularly around supplier capabilities, commercial models, product lifecycles, contract development.
• 8 years as buyer/planner, in supplier management.
• Expert Excel skills.

• Working knowledge of ticketing platform: ServiceNow.
• Designing forms and spreadsheets, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Change management agent.

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