Senior Buyer (Japanese Speaker)

Overall Job Purpose

This role delivers day-to-day purchasing operations to all business divisions across the globe, through established efficient and user-friendly purchasing processes and systems that provide spend transparency and help control costs. We deliver purchasing services through the Purchasing Service Centers from requisition to purchase order based on state of the art e-purchasing tools including both user support (e.g. first level support, management of e-purchasing catalog), processing non-catalog requisitions and second level support for issue solving and master data management.

Scope & Portfolio

• Overall manages buying activities with responsibility depending on country/region scope.
• Organise and execute the purchase to pay process ensuring compliance with global, regional and local procedures and policies.
• Explore and capture internal demand; handle non-catalog requests.
• Actively drive the use of procurement catalog.
• Build good relationships with suppliers and internal customers.
• Oversee and/or use the support of the purchasing support roles.
• Team coordination and independent technical control of the assigned group as well as interdisciplinary coordination, control and quality assurance of the professional task completion.
• Extended scope for decision-making within the given framework.

Support role:

• Provide administrative support to operational buying activities.
• Assist day-to-day activities within the purchasing organisation.
• Provide GET 1st level support, consulting and training; interface to 2nd level support.

Key Tasks

• Execute and ensure procurement processes applying sourcing/purchasing/corporate/Business Partner policies.
• Collect and maintain data and/or ensure data quality maintenance and reporting on rates, catalog, supplier data/performance, purchase order admin.
• Drive (execute) tactical purchasing process (non-catalog requisitions) and ensure day-to-day/admin support (request and analyze competitive bids (3 bids and 1 buy), select suppliers, quality, delivery terms, specs for goods/services).
• Ensure clarification of outstanding receipt of order confirmation, invoices, delivery dates, rejection/change of purchase orders.
• Catalog contracts negotiation with suppliers.
• Support preparation and monitoring of tenders, negotiations and supplier management.
• Analyze and evaluate supplier bids, tenders, proposals, or quotations; negotiate prices and delivery conditions; and commit to purchases (within established limits of authority) with terms that are in the organization’s best interest.
• Follow-up the status of purchase orders with vendors to ensure timely delivery; and communicate status of orders with internal customers.
• Interpret inventory requests, production schedules, purchase requisitions, orders, and other documents to coordinate purchasing activities with the organization’s current and anticipated demand for goods and materials.
• Generate required reporting, analyze reports and identify catalog improvements.

Stakeholders

• Maintain good relationships with suppliers and internal customers in scope.
• Provide advice and support to internal customers with specs for required low value goods/services (without a framework contract) in close cooperation with sourcing.
• Provide feedback to sourcing in respect of suppliers performance.
• Contribute to the successful cooperation between region/country and sourcing community.
• Explain facts, policies and practices related to job area.
• Support and interact primarily with colleagues of own sub-function.
• Develop a network of contacts to build up relationships and strengthen the organizational, product and market knowledge.

Qualifications & Key Requirements

Education Level

• Completed apprenticeship and/or relevant university degree and/or equivalent experience.

Experience Level

• Minimum 3-4 years of relevant experience in purchasing or procurement functions and especially in P2P operational would be advantageous.
• Proficiency in English & Japanese – reading, writing & speaking.
• Solid working experience with purchasing practices and buying procedures.
• Demonstrates solid knowledge of risk types and factors in procurement, as well as mitigation options.
• Assesses supplier risk and defines mitigation actions, using standard templates, with limited complexity.
• Advise colleagues and business partners on the applicable laws, rules and regulations including the consequences of business decisions on compliance.
• Working experience with Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (especially SAP and Oracle environment).
• e-purchasing experience.
• Experience in working with MS Office suite (Office, Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Working experience in building/mobilizing reports in MS Excel (using Pivots, Macro, Vlookup).
• Knowledge of working with VBA and Macro to automate reports & PowerBI would be advantageous.
• Great communication style and analytical skills.