We are looking for a Buyer to support planning and procurement operations in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. This Long-term Contract position focuses on balancing material availability, inventory performance, and supplier coordination to keep operations running smoothly. The role uses forecasting data, planning systems, and cross-functional collaboration to improve service levels, address supply risk, and support efficient business growth.
Responsibilities:
- Build and refine demand plans by analyzing historical usage, business trends, customer signals, and available forecasting insights.
- Partner with sales, service, product, manufacturing, and other internal teams to align supply plans with changing demand requirements.
- Maintain material readiness for production and customer commitments by reviewing shortages, escalating constraints, and driving timely resolution plans.
- Execute purchasing activities for assigned materials and suppliers, including order placement, replenishment actions, and schedule coordination.
- Track supplier performance across delivery, lead time, capacity, and risk indicators, and support improvement efforts through structured follow-up.
- Manage inventory settings such as safety stock, reorder points, and planning parameters to balance service expectations with working capital goals.
- Review excess, aging, and slow-moving inventory and recommend actions that reduce waste and improve inventory health.
- Create and maintain dashboards, key performance measures, and automated reporting that strengthen planning visibility and decision-making.
- Keep material, supplier, and procurement records accurate in SAP and related systems while supporting engineering changes and lifecycle updates.
- Contribute to risk mitigation and continuity planning by identifying vulnerable supply areas, supporting alternate sourcing strategies, and helping prepare recovery actions for critical materials.
- Experience in buying, planning, supply chain, procurement, or a closely related operations role.
- Working knowledge of SAP for purchasing, planning, or material management activities.
- Ability to interpret demand patterns, inventory data, and supplier performance metrics to make sound business decisions.
- Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams to support production schedules and customer delivery needs.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to use reporting tools, dashboards, and system data to identify issues and opportunities.
- Understanding of inventory control methods, forecasting concepts, and replenishment planning practices.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining accuracy and follow-through.
- Familiarity with enterprise systems such as EHR platforms, McKesson, AHLTA, IBM AS/400, or Health Information Management environments is a plus.