Capital Buyer

job purpose:
We are seeking a proactive and detail-oriented Base Capital Buyer to own capital expenditure administration, procurement operations, vendor relationships, and financial controls across our 4 manufacturing sites. This role is critical to ensuring cost-effective investments, operational efficiency, compliance, and governance across all base capital projects.

responsibilities

• Vendor Management
• Partner with internal strategic sourcing team
• To build and maintain strong relationships with suppliers. .
• Lead contract negotiations, onboarding, and periodic reviews of suppliers in close engagement with legal team.
• Develop and execute network-wide capital sourcing and pricing strategies that maximize leverage, and ensure market competitive pricing across all sites.
• Evaluate vendor performance based on quality, reliability, and compliance.
• Hold suppliers accountable to fairlife's high standards.
• Capital Expenditure Administration
• Assist Plant Base Capital Engineering team in managing the End to End of Purchase Order (PO) lifecycle capital projects from early vendor engagements building relationships, ideation, PO creation, execution, and project close out.
• Partner with engineering, production, accounting and finance teams to help enable business cases for plant capital projects.
• Controls & Compliance
• Enforce internal controls for capital expenditure and procurement processes as directed by fairlife accounting and finance internal guidelines & policies
• Ensure compliance with documentation requirements, corporate policies, and audit standards.
• Conduct periodic risk assessments and implement corrective actions to mitigate financial and operational risks.
• Procurement Management
• End to End PO Life Cycle Management, ensuring vendor adherence to procurement negotiated category pricing and terms
• Oversee procurement and negotiation annual plant Capital spend.
• Parter with engineering and strategic procurement teams to develop sourcing strategies that ensure quality, cost-efficiency, and timely delivery and execution of engineering projects.
• Collaborate with quality, safety, environmental, and production teams to align acceptable standards across those functions.

skills/qualifications required:

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain, Engineering, Finance, or related field.
• 3-5 years of experience in procurement, supply chain, capital expenditure management, or similar within a manufacturing environment.
• Excellent negotiation, communication, and analytical skills.
• Experience with capital projects in dairy or beverage plants (e.g., pasteurization, bottling, refrigeration), preferred.
• Strategic thinker with a hands-on approach and a passion for operational excellence, preferred.

position location: Chicago/Webster/Coopersville

reports to: Sr Director, Plant Capital Engineering

travel requirements: 25 % or less

exempt/nonexempt: Exempt