Purchasing Assistant

A successful and market-leading client of ours is looking to appoint a Purchasing Administrator to undertake a variety of tasks within a busy team. You will ideally have experience of negotiating with suppliers/customers over the phone and face to face as well as general administration and have an adaptable nature with the willingness to learn new skills.

This would suit an ambitious, independent individual who has some experience of working within a purchasing team, or someone who wants to build a career in buying/purchasing. In addition to some purchasing knowledge/experience you must have excellent communication, admin, relationship building skills as well as technical competence with MS Office. SQL experience would be a distinct advantage.

The role reports to the Purchasing Manager and while it is only a small team, the business sees this role as an opportunity for the right candidate to progress into a bigger more varied role in the future.

The Client: A well-established yet growing market leader, they are one of the most well-known businesses in their sector and have a fantastic reputation for continued growth and development of their staff and a genuine "credit where credit’s due" attitude.

Job Scope: Assisting the Purchasing Manager with all round purchasing support as well as prompt and accurate administrative work, ensuring that the process runs smoothly from start to finish. The role has a lot of variety, and the successful candidate will need be able to cope with dealing with a number of different tasks simultaneously while maintaining a very focussed, clear and straightforward work methodology.

You would need to build strong, long-term relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, feeding back to the business with pertinent insights and information. There will be very occasional travel so you must hold a full driving licence and own a car.

The role could grow in scope over time and would suit someone who is prepared to work hard for rewards in the future or simply someone who wants to have a solid, stable role.

Key Responsibilities:

• Order book management
• Merchandising and associated admin
• Supplier liaison, keeping in touch to ensure deliveries are on time
• Maintain up to date supplier information on the system
• Oversee Purchase order controls
• Constantly striving to reduce company expenditure
• Logging all customer communication
• Developing strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders alike
• Ad hoc duties as required

Experience and personal attributes required:

• A common-sense approach to all tasks
• Good level of computer literacy (particularly Excel)
• Adaptable nature
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Excellent communications skills
• Previous experience of working in a Purchasing environment would be desirable
• Flexibility and ability to work under pressure