Vendor Management Buyer

Overview:
**About RM Resources**

RM Resources is a multi-channel provider with an annual turnover of approximately £120m. It specialises in curriculum and educational resources for schools and nurseries, with a strong presence both in the UK and internationally. We are comprised of multiple brands with our leading identities being TTS and Consortium. Leading the UK educational resources industry in size, innovation and teaching expertise, we sell 59,000 products, of which 3,500 are our own designed products. As we move to be an increasingly digitally focused business, where over half of our UK orders being submitted online, we focus on our operational efficiency, progressing supplier and product rationalisation and expanding internationally to ensure our continued success in a highly competitive environment.

The role of the Procurement team is to identify and maximise commercial opportunities with our suppliers, ensuring product availability with an efficient and compliant supply chain, delivering a quality product offering. We work hard to develop our long standing supplier relationships, creating partnerships which enables us to meet and exceed our customer expectations.

**Responsibilities**:
**Job Role**

As Vendor Management Buyer you will report directly to the Purchasing Manager and be a key member within the department. You will be responsible for maintaining and improving supplier performance and negotiating best value and competitive terms from our UK and international suppliers within your categories.

You will work alongside your colleagues to maximise margin and quality, introducing and resourcing new products that are compliant to industry standard. Taking ownership for identifying cost and supplier reduction opportunities, you will use your procurement experience to realise savings without compromising on quality or delivery.

**Main Responsibilities**
- Responsible for taking the lead on performance and spend for your suppliers based both in the UK and internationally.
- Negotiation of annual catalogue pricing, rebates and promotional support as well as supplier contracts and supply chain agreements.
- Deliver cost reduction initiatives, delivering sustainable gross margin improvements through negotiation and resourcing of product.
- The categorisation and sign off of new products introduced to the business, ensuring quality assurance, product safety and certification.
- Sourcing of new suppliers both in the UK and overseas who can add to our product offering, ensuring conformance to quality standards and certification.
- Work with internal departments to identify opportunities for improvement and speedy resolution of issues.
- Analysing and identifying risk throughout the supply base, creating contingency plans to mitigate their impact and improve performance.

**Experience**:
**Knowledge, Skills and Experience**
- Strong Purchasing experience within a fast moving environment.
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to work closely and influence others.
- Confident use of Excel and Office as well as ERP systems.
- Experience of successfully managing multiple supplier accounts.
- Experience of working with suppliers both in the UK and globally.
- Capable of managing conflicting priorities and able to organise workload as required.
- Strong commercial and financial awareness.
- A completer finisher who is self-motivated, has excellent interpersonal skills and is accomplished at presenting to all levels.
- Working towards a CIPs qualification or degree equivalent.
- Knowledge and experience of operational processes and understanding of supply chain techniques.