Director of Procurement Operations, NA Aerospace

Howmet Aerospace•Torrance, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Procurement Operations, NA Aerospace oversees the execution, compliance, and optimization of end-to-end purchasing activities across NA Aerospace regional locations. This role bridges corporate procurement strategy with regional site execution, driving process automation, supply continuity, and cost-control discipline. The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader focused on operational excellence, data-driven performance management, and building robust regional and local vendor partnerships.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Engineering, and/or a highly relevant analytical field.
Minimum 10 years of broad supply chain or multi-site purchasing experience
Minimum 4 years of experience leading a team with direct reports
High proficiency navigating enterprise ERP software ecosystems alongside modern e-procurement platforms.
Exceptional financial acumen, advanced multi-party commercial negotiation skills, and a clear history of workflow optimization.
Ability to travel up to 35% to various regional sites and vendor facilities locally and/or domestically

Nice To Haves

Master of Business Administration (MBA) or an advanced degree in Supply Chain Architecture.
Industry-recognized designations such as CPSM (Certified Professional in Supply Management) or CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional).

Responsibilities

Align local purchasing strategy and day to day tactical management with corporate standard operating procedures and global category strategies.
Drive performance in key areas: Cost savings, Inflation mitigation and management, on time delivery performance, inventory optimization, supplier payment terms, and supplier risk mitigation.
Provide frontline support to local procurement teams for order forecasting, sourcing bottlenecks, and critical vendor disputes.
Manage business continuity by executing regional risk-mitigation plans against single sourced-supplier issues and market shortages.
Standardize inventory management techniques across multiple facilities to maximize accuracy and drastically reduce localized waste.
Aligns with Central Category Management Team to ensure the BU Procurement organization fully supports the development, the implementation, the execution and utilization of the global and regional category management strategies, tactics and contracts.
Own regional P2P compliance (Procure-to-Pay), monitoring internal control frameworks to guarantee continuous audit readiness.
Optimize digital workflows inside centralized systems like Oracle, QAD, or Power BI to streamline purchase order cycles.
Synthesize spend analytics into localized dashboards, keeping executive leadership informed via early alerts on upcoming contract renewals.
Deploy unified training programs to elevate core procurement competencies and technical systems adoption among site business partners.
Direct major negotiations with regional, high-risk, or multi-site third-party suppliers to maximize overall value.
Enforce supplier scorecarding by hosting consistent business reviews focused on tracking lead times, fulfillment, quality, and cost.
Maintain cross-functional partnerships across Operations, Finance, Legal, and IT departments
Steers target agreement process between BU Plants and BU Plant leads
Manage and mentor a high-performing regional team of procurement managers, buying professionals, and sourcing specialists.
Instill accountability metrics through clearly defined, measurable operational key performance indicators (KPIs) at each site