Buyer

About the Role

The Buyer is not just responsible for purchasing materials — they are a strategic partner to Sales, Product Management, and Operations. This role ensures that procurement decisions directly support business growth, customer commitments, and product innovation.

We’re looking for a best-in-class purchasing professional — someone who is disciplined, collaborative, data-driven, and solutions-focused. This Buyer will take ownership of supplier relationships, ensure operational continuity, and act as a bridge between procurement and the rest of the business.

This position requires a minimum of seven to ten years experience in a similar role.

Key Responsibilities

Collaboration & Stakeholder Partnership

• Collaborate with Sales, Product Management & Supply Chain to ensure material availability for product launches, custom orders, and growth initiatives.
• Partner with Sales to understand customer commitments and align supplier capacity accordingly.
• Act as the procurement voice in cross-functional meetings — balancing supplier capability, cost, and lead times with business goals.

Supplier Management & Sourcing

• Develop and maintain a world-class supplier network — evaluating partners on cost, quality, delivery, responsiveness, and innovation.
• Assist in negotiating contracts and enforce supplier accountability for price, service, and performance.
• Proactively identify alternative sources and ensure supply chain resilience.

Purchasing Execution

• Manage the full PO lifecycle in SAP with precision and discipline.
• Respond to MRP exceptions and production shifts with speed and accuracy.
• Ensure all purchasing data is clean, accurate, and audit-ready.

Inventory & Production Support

• Monitor inventory health to support both customer service levels and working capital targets.
• Understand production lines, BOM dependencies, and raw material criticality — anticipating and resolving risks after they impact output.
• Support Operations by preventing stockouts, line-downs, and excess inventory alike.

Supplier Performance & Risk Control

• Develop supplier scorecards with metrics on delivery, quality, responsiveness, and cost competitiveness.
• Run quarterly business reviews with strategic suppliers.
• Drive corrective actions (SCAR/8D) and escalate chronic underperformance.

Continuous Improvement

• Lead cost savings and value engineering initiatives that improve margin without compromising quality or service.
• Standardize processes, shorten purchasing cycle times, and enforce data discipline.
• Benchmark KINA purchasing practices against industry leaders to ensure we operate as “best in class.”

Key Competencies & Skills

• Attention to detail
• Results-oriented
• Strong communication skills
• Exceptional collaboration and relationship management (internal & external)
• Strong negotiation and supplier management
• Analytical, data-driven decision-making
• Clear and persuasive communicator
• Organizational discipline with strong follow-through
• Proficiency in SAP (MM module), Excel, and Microsoft Office Suite
• Resilience under pressure, ability to manage competing priorities

Expectations

• Reasonable knowledge of the production process, i.e. what raw materials are required for what production lines & any intricacies involved
• Communicate upwards where expectations will not be met
• Data driven approach to buying, i.e. our actions must match what the data suggests
• Work with Finance to proactively deal with invoicing variances
• Thrive on collaboration — partnering daily with Sales, Product Management, Finance, and Operations.
• Understand that procurement is about supporting business growth, not just pushing purchase orders.
• Are customer-obsessed — ensuring suppliers deliver so Sales can keep promises to customers.
• Are comfortable challenging suppliers and stakeholders when something doesn’t add up.
• Bring initiative and urgency to every task — proactively fixing problems, not waiting for direction.
• Take ownership for supplier accountability, PO accuracy, and clean data

Performance Metrics

• PO Accuracy/Cleanliness: Ensuring all purchase orders are updated regularly, closed out etc
• Inventory Turnover Ratio: Measures how efficiently purchased goods move through inventory
• Excess/Obsolete Inventory Value: Cost of unused or outdated materials