Purchasing Director – Europe

Responsibilities • Establishment of strategic sourcing planning objectives and definition of requirements for goods, services, supplies, and equipment in cooperation with the Leadership Team • Coordination of Purchasing Managers to define, implement, and realize purchasing strategies and activities • Establishment and maintenance of measurable performance metrics for all levels of procurement activities • Responsibility for annual budget planning, including scheduling expenditures, analyzing variances, and initiating corrective actions • Provision of insight and expertise into assigned commodity markets • Leadership of product development commodity strategies in line with corporate initiatives • Driving of cost reductions through negotiations, leverage, rationalization, and process improvements • Negotiation and execution of purchase orders and vendor contracts • Development of an overall vendor base that creates and sustains competitive advantage • Establishment and maintenance of relationships with preferred and strategic suppliers • Promotion of "Unified Efforts" and creation of synergies throughout Exteriors globally • Collaboration across a large matrixed organization • Development and maintenance of a high-performance culture, achievement of functional KPIs, and improvement of customer service levels for internal and external customers • Identification and implementation of process improvements to increase efficiency and accuracy • Management and mentoring of a dynamic team of purchasing professionals • Liaison with counterparts in other functional areas Requirements • Graduate degree in Business Administration, Economic Sciences, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Purchasing; or comparable education • Several years of experience in Purchasing & Sourcing with extensive experience in the manufacturing industry, preferably in the automotive sector • Extensive, well established business-network in the automotive sector is an asset • Project management experience • Fluent business-level English is required; German language skills are a plus • Financial management and controlling skills • Computer literate (MS Office, SAP and AI skills) • Ability to coordinate and foster interdisciplinary teamwork