ROLE OVERVIEW
The Director of Procurement and Cost Analysis will lead the procurement and purchasing activities within the Operations team, ensuring alignment with company goals. This role is responsible for acquiring LKI products in the most cost-effective manner while collaborating with manufacturing partners to ensure timely order fulfillment. Success in this role requires expertise in cost analysis, budgeting, and maintaining strong vendor relationships. Key responsibilities include developing and implementing purchasing policies, managing the purchasing budget, and overseeing both domestic and international component purchases. The Director will also collaborate with Finance to forecast costs and ancillary charges, negotiate contracts, resolve pricing discrepancies, and monitor inventory levels to optimize production timelines. Advanced Excel skills, experience with seasonal consumer goods purchasing, and familiarity with NetSuite ERP are preferred.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Participates in the implementation and support of operations activities including, but not limited to:
PROCUREMENT
- Align the department with the overall strategic direction of the company.
- Proactive approach to ensure the continual evolvement of the department
- Purchase price analysis
- Forecast additional ancillary charges per factory and season based upon current orders.
- ERP entry and maintenance for operations planning information.
- Create and maintain purchase contracts in ERP system.
PURCHASING
- Developing and implementing purchasing policies and procedures along with Finance
- Managing the purchasing budget (COST)
- Developing and maintaining relationships with vendors and suppliers
- Manage domestic components from quoting to purchasing.
- Participate in Forecasting to effectively determine purchase quantities to fulfill customer orders on time based on current lead times. Organize and lead biweekly buy meetings.
- Issue Material Authorizations and then breakout POs to factories for said purchases. Log purchases on PO tracking list to ensure visibility for planning.
- Manage component inventory to ensure arrival on time to support production (ICs/Domestic).
- Oversee breakout POs for factories and adjust material authorizations accordingly to reflect breakout POs.
- Manages PO tracking list – logs purchases and direct import POs by factory, by item.
- Process debit notes and tooling POs within 24 hours of receipt to support on-time payment processing.
- Track China Inventory and liability.
- Review and resolve invoice discrepancies.
- Work with Sales and Marketing teams to create sample list and purchase accordingly to support needs.
FACTORY RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (purchasing)
- Manage and maintain China Factory relationships.
- Establish contacts/relationships with the factory.
- Responsible for all aspects of the supplier relationship, ranging from cost negotiations, negotiating chargebacks and conducting year-end business reviews with suppliers.
ASSISTS
- Maintain an electronic file of all new mold/tooling, print rollers/film charges etc. issued by our factory suppliers to Little Kids.
- Communicate with forwarder any assist(s) and keep an electronic file of any issued assist(s) for potential customs review.
COSTING
- Assist with costing, review, negotiation and notify team of cost changes on existing items as received from factories.
- Create and maintain annual purchase analysis reports by factory to aid in factory negotiations/performance review.
GROSS MARGIN ANALYSIS
- Create and maintain the process of identifying necessary expenses and forwarding them to the appropriate financial party.
CHARGEBACKS
- Manage and oversee supplier chargeback process. Determine appropriate chargebacks and next steps with China Operations Team, Retail Operations, Finance, QC and additional internal stakeholders as needed.
- Negotiate chargebacks with suppliers and spearhead the process thru to credit issuance and the recoupment of chargeback funds.
QUALIFICATIONS
- 8 years of experience in international operations, planning, purchasing or similar
- 5 years of experience in procurement
- 5 years of experience in inventory analysis
- 5 years of experience in analytical, forecasting, purchasing and negotiation
- Advanced knowledge of excel. Ability to use spreadsheets, graphing, formulas, calculations, and manipulate data
LKI values a diverse workforce and is an equal opportunity employer.
