Senior Buyer

**Job Title**:Senior Buyer
**Department**:Purchasing
**Reporting to**:Purchasing Manager
**Scope**:Clarke Energy Ltd
**Location**:Knowsley with UK travel possibly required
**Job Purpose**:To meet the purchasing requirements of Clarke Energy, ensuring best value for the company by selecting the right product on the basis of price, quality and supplier reliability.
**Majority of time spent**:Helping to Manage the purchasing cycle from requisition through to the authorisation of invoices for payment.

**Responsibilities**:

- Being an advocate and Champion for the Purchasing department. Helping the PM to promote the professional qualities of the department within the organisation and helping to build relationships, improve perceptions and always remain a positive member of the purchasing team.
- Helping the PM with more strategic tasks, tenders and purchasing analysis, such as Category Management, Pareto analysis and Vendor Management
- Assist in the Management and creation of supplier contracts, terms and conditions to ensure we follow required legal terms, conditions and cost/service components are in place to meet the business requirements
- Attend, monitor and show more of a purchasing presence by attending Handover and Lessons learned meetings - updating and issuing overspend notifications as and when required
- Monitor and champion the Purchasing team to feedback into the performance database and raise supplier/internal concerns through CID’s.

Manage the purchasing cycle in accordance with agreed procedures and quality standards, including:

- issuing of tenders and raising enquiries.
- placing and monitoring the progress of orders.
- identifying and dealing with issues as they arise, liaising with internal customers and the Purchasing Manager as appropriate.
- managing goods receiving orders when appropriate.
- approving invoices and facilitating payment

Supplier Management
- Develop and maintain proactive and competitive relationships with suppliers.
- Monitor supplier performance and help management via supplier meetings and feedback

Manage CIS status of approved suppliers

Computerised systems
- Use and maintain NAVISON in real time to monitor the progress of orders and jobs.
- Ensure that current supplier performance data is logged into the Continual Improvement System.

General
- Helping to Manage Purchasing team if and when required

Maintain and build professional knowledge, sharing information as appropriate.

Adhere to Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality management policies and procedures as appropriate to work being undertaken.

**Technical/Professional Knowledge and Skills**
- 5+ experience as Buyer, with negotiating, tender writing experience
- Full understanding of the procurement cycle.
- Good IT skills - proficiency in Excel and Word.
- Good knowledge of computerised stock control systems.
- Knowledge of accounting processes and systems
- Awareness of financial analysis techniques
- Knowledge and understanding of the skills and techniques of negotiation

This requires the job holder to demonstrate that they are:

- a role model for reliability, integrity and professionalism.
- committed to building positive team relationships and attitudes.
- strongly customer focused
- flexible and willing to help the team achieve targets
- well organised in managing own and team workload.
- committed to quality and continuous improvement.
- willing to be fully accountable for their own and teams performance and actions.
- willing to challenge when behaviours that do not support the Clarke Energy Way.
- actively focused on self-improvement.

In addition, it is particularly important to the success of this role that the job holder can demonstrate the following:

- Commercial acumen.
- Negotiation skills.
- Confidence
- Ability to communicate effectively at all levels, internally/externally and across all mediums.
- Good relationship building skills.
- Effectiveness under pressure
- Proactive approach
- thinks beyond the task and doesn’t remain transactional

**Essential**:

- A level standard of education.
- Experience of working in a busy office environment.
- Good IT skills
- experience of working with Excel.

**Desirable**
- CIPS qualification or a willingness to work towards.
- Experience of working with ordering, stock control and accounting systems
- Awareness of financial analysis techniques.