Strategic Buyer – IT Hardware – Stafford, TX

Stafford, Texas
KARL STORZ Endoscopy – America
Company: KARL STORZ North America (KSNA)

Job Code: 13539

Pay Grade: US-B16

Salary Range: $75,700 – 135,250

Description

KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG based in Tuttlingen, Germany, is a family-owned, global company committed to benefiting humanity by advancing medical technology through innovation and education.

For more than 75 years, KARL STORZ has been dedicated to earning its international reputation as a leader that designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets all its products with an emphasis on visionary design, precision craftsmanship, and clinical effectiveness.

This role will be situated at our Stafford, TX office. NOT remote.

Job Purpose and Core Tasks:

The KSNA Strategic Buyer – IT Hardware 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 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.

The KSNA Strategic Buyer – IT Hardware 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 position requires an enthusiastic individual, who takes ownership and understands the global organizations’ need to act quickly and decisively. Solid stakeholder management, communication, and negotiation skills are required to establish clear priorities and manage multiple demands in a virtual, international environment.

• 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

Minimum Knowledge, Education, and Skill Requirements:

Required:

Education:

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

Knowledge and Skills:

• Strong SAP, and Microsoft Office tool skills
• 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 work to a strict deadline

Preferred

Education:

• 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

Knowledge and Skills:

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

Essential Function:

• Must be able to maintain productive working relationships and treat fellow employees with respect.
• Has contact with Other departments and vendors
• Physical requirement/Demands: manual dexterity for computer and electronic work
• Mental requirements/Emotional Demands: Ability to adapt and demonstrate flexibility in managing changing priorities and work situations
• Interpersonal and communication skills: Multicultural, cross-functional communication; problem-solving; financial & business acumen

Core Requirements:

Financial/Budgetary: Responsible for up to $5M costs and $20M revenue

Safety: Adhere to KARL STORZ Safety protocols

Quality: Adhere to KARL STORZ Quality Management System

Supervision: Does not supervise others

Travel: Up to 20% travel

Pay Transparency

The salary range and/or hourly pay rate listed is a good faith determination of potential base compensation that may be offered to a successful applicant for this position at the time of this job posting and may be modified in the future . click apply for full job details