Lead Commodity Manager

As a member of the Front End Strategic Sourcing team, you will play a key role in shaping procurement and sourcing strategies for direct materials that support advanced wafer manufacturing operations. This position focuses on driving supply continuity, fostering strong supplier partnerships, and leading continuous improvement initiatives that enhance operational efficiency and business performance.

The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and demonstrates the agility to adapt to changing business needs. Success in this role requires a high level of initiative, a results-driven mindset, and a passion for solving complex challenges. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, contribute to strategic projects, and identify innovative opportunities to streamline processes and strengthen supply chain performance.

• Strategic direction and driving cost reduction initiatives: Developing and maintaining key vendor relationships will be required to get an understanding of who can provide the most competitive rates while still ensuring top quality, service and overall supply. This candidate will need to have strong data extraction and analytic skills to review information, determine trends, and identify opportunities. This along with the vendor knowledge gained, will help them develop and set strategic cost saving initiatives and goals. Great communication and presentation skills will be required to present, justify, and get overall buy-in and acceptance from key stakeholders and management on the new strategic initiatives.
• Driving spend reduction initiatives: The candidate will be required to participate in cross functional project teams tasked with reducing overall spend through alternate product qualifications or reduced overall consumption. This requires someone willing to use their drive, initiative, and good time management skills to help take ownership in project schedules and commitments. It is vital that this candidate be able to gain respect, establish credibility, and help facilitate cross functional success.
• Commodity Management: - A good candidate will be able to provide Operations, Equipment, and Process Engineers with detailed summaries of consumption trends of assigned commodities. The candidate will then be expected to collaborate with these groups to mutually build future consumption forecasts using historical data and upcoming manufacturing demand. The candidate will be expected to then accurately set inventory control parameters within the Company’s Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system (Peoplesoft), to automate the planning, ordering, and delivery of assigned commodities. Long term sustainability will be expected of any processes improvements to ensure we move towards more automation and an overall reduction to unnecessary tactical involvement.
• Establish and maintain key strategic vendor relationships: - The Direct and Indirect Material Buyer will be responsible to build relationships with all strategic vendors to maintain sustained cost reductions, negotiate favorable payment terms, ensure overall vendor supply, and improve responsiveness by reducing lead times. Buyers are expected to be the first point of contact with vendors on all communications including; providing vendors with demand/consumption forecasts, escalating poor supply or quality, facilitating product qualifications, and discussing SPM’s (Supplier Performance Metrics)
• New Contracts Negotiation: The Direct and Indirect Material Buyer will oversee all new contract negotiations to ensure they conform the Company’s policies and guidelines set by the Company’s Legal Group. A good candidate will be able to understand contract terminology, negotiate the most favorable terms for the Company, and ensure all negotiations are completed in a timely manner
• Minimize cost incurred on expensed materials and/or services: The candidate will utilize Salesforce.com (SFDC) to generate and/or approve Purchase Requisitions (PRs), assist in the gathering quotes, negotiate the best overall price, and determine final vendor selection for the Company. The information in SFDC will then be transferred to Peoplesoft to create Purchase Orders (POs). This will be an ongoing process of gathering information, negotiating, transferring data, dispatching/sending POs, and confirming orders with vendors.

Requirements:

• Minimum 5-10 years related experience in a purchasing. Experience in a manufacturing environment is a plus
• Bachelors Degree in Business, Engineering, or Equivalent
• Professional Certifications desirable (CPM, CMRP, APCIS)
• Knowledge of contract law and governing regulations
• Knowledge of Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel – Data analysis, pivot tables, and v-lookups are a must
• Strong analytical skills and ability to identify trends
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills
• Ability to work independently but still demonstrate success in cross-functional coordination
• Good organizational skills