Plant Buyer-Winston Salem

Clarios•Winston-Salem, NC

About The Position

The Plant Buyer serves as the primary Procurement partner for an assigned group of manufacturing plants. The role builds relationships with plant leaders and stakeholders, understands operational priorities and supplier needs, and translates them into Procurement solutions that improve cost, supplier performance, operational efficiency, and continuity of supply. The Plant Buyer connects local plant requirements with broader Procurement strategies and cross-plant opportunities, acting as a trusted, solutions-oriented advisor to the plants. The role analyzes supplier spend and partners with Plant Finance to identify savings, cost avoidance, benchmarking, consolidation, and sourcing opportunities. It maintains a prioritized pipeline of initiatives, leverages corporate agreements and cross-plant synergies, monitors supplier performance and risks, and supports supplier selection, sourcing decisions, agreements, and effective Procurement and purchase-to-pay practices. The position works with Legal to negotiate and finalize supplier agreements.

Requirements

Strong negotiation, analytical, commercial, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to manage competing priorities across multiple manufacturing locations.
Strong Excel skills, Power BI, and RFQ Tools required.
Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
Ability to balance cost objectives with operational requirements and supply continuity.
Curious and willing to learn plant operations, Procurement processes, sourcing, and supplier management.
Comfortable engaging with different functions and levels of the organization.
Collaborative, hands-on, and solutions-oriented mindset.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Procurement, Business, Engineering, Finance, or a related field preferred.
Experience in Procurement, sourcing, manufacturing, supply chain, or plant operations preferred.
Lean techniques and facilitation experience, including A3, VSM, and Kaizen.

Responsibilities

Build strong relationships with leadership and stakeholders across assigned plants.
Maintain regular engagement and appropriate plant presence to understand operational priorities, challenges, and supplier pain points.
Influence sourcing decisions using market intelligence, supplier insights, category expertise, and total-cost-of-ownership analyses.
Serve as a responsive, solutions-oriented Procurement partner focused on removing barriers and enabling plant operations.
Build credibility through listening, responsiveness, follow-through, and delivery of results.
Analyze supplier spend to identify savings, cost avoidance, benchmarking, consolidation, and sourcing opportunities.
Partner with Plant Finance to understand spend trends, price increases, and opportunities.
Maintain a prioritized pipeline of Procurement initiatives across supported plants.
Leverage corporate agreements and cross-plant synergies to optimize spend and reduce complexity.
Identify quick wins while developing sustainable sourcing strategies.
Monitor critical supplier performance and drive corrective actions as needed.
Proactively identify supplier and supply risks and develop mitigation plans.
Bring solutions and recommended actions, not simply identify problems.
Support effective supplier selection, new supplier requests, purchase-order practices, and sourcing decisions.
Increase spend under contract and improve Procurement and P2P compliance.
Identify opportunities to consolidate suppliers and standardize requirements across plants.
Simplify Procurement processes where possible while maintaining appropriate controls.
Ensure Procurement enables plant operations rather than becoming a bottleneck.
Negotiate and finalize legal agreements with suppliers in conjunction with the Legal department.