Buyer

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets to enable a secure and resilient future. With a focus on national security and economic resilience, we serve critical industries including defense, aerospace, and automotive—powering a high-technology future. Vulcan Elements is building a team of ambitious professionals committed to Mission Focus, Technical Excellence, and Transparency.

As a Buyer, you will be responsible for executing purchasing activities that support Vulcan Elements’ manufacturing operations and continued production ramp. You will manage the procure-to-pay lifecycle for direct materials, components, supplies, and other production requirements, working closely with Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, Finance, and Logistics.

Responsibilities

• Execute purchasing activities for direct materials, components, production supplies, and other manufacturing requirements in accordance with production plans and business needs.
• Create, issue, maintain, and close purchase orders (POs) while ensuring pricing, quantities, delivery dates, payment terms, and other commercial requirements are accurate.
• Proactively track open purchase orders and supplier commitments to ensure materials arrive on time and production requirements are met.
• Identify potential late deliveries, material shortages, and supply disruptions and escalate risks before they impact manufacturing operations.
• Lead and administer RFQs/RFPs, including preparing bid packages, soliciting supplier proposals, coordinating technical and commercial responses, and developing bid comparisons.
• Negotiate pricing, minimum order quantities, lead times, payment terms, freight arrangements, and other commercial conditions within established sourcing strategies.
• Work closely with Planning and Manufacturing to translate production requirements and MRP demand into purchasing actions.
• Coordinate with Engineering and Quality to ensure purchased materials meet drawings, specifications, quality requirements, and approved supplier requirements.
• Coordinate with Logistics and Operations to resolve shipping, receiving, customs, packaging, and delivery issues.
• Work with Finance and Accounts Payable to resolve invoice discrepancies, pricing differences, receiving issues, and payment holds.
• Support supplier corrective actions and recovery plans when delivery or performance issues arise.
• Identify opportunities for cost reduction, lead-time improvement, order consolidation, inventory optimization, and process improvement.
• Assist with supplier onboarding, documentation, compliance requirements, and maintenance of approved supplier information.
• Maintain organized procurement records, including quotations, purchase orders, supplier correspondence, contracts, and sourcing documentation.
• Responsibilities and tasks outlined are not exhaustive and may change as determined by the needs of the business

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Operations, Finance, or a related field preferred.
• 2+ years of experience in purchasing, procurement, supply chain, materials management, or a related role, preferably within a manufacturing environment.
• Experience purchasing direct materials, components, or production-related goods and services.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Excel or similar analytical tools, including the ability to organize and analyze purchasing and supplier data.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced manufacturing environment with changing priorities and aggressive production ramp schedules.
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities.