R&D Purchasing Manager

About Digidesign

Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc., is the world's leading manufacturer of digital audio production systems and the winner of the 2001 Technical GrammyR Award and 2003 Academy AwardR of Merit (OscarR statuette) for the design, development, and implementation of the Pro Tools digital audio workstation. Recently selected by a major business journal as "One of the Best Companies to Work For in the Bay Area," Digidesign provides the professional music, film, video, multimedia, and radio broadcast industries with tools for digital recording, MIDI sequencing, editing, signal processing, and surround mixing. M-Audio, a leading provider of digital audio and MIDI solutions for electronic musicians and audio professionals, is a business unit of Digidesign. For more information, visit www.digidesign.com.

Job Description:

Oversees all facets of New Product Purchasing. Sets goals and objectives. Recruits, coaches and develops talent. Develops and manages budgets. Strives for continuous improvement of processes, systems, and procedures and ensures that department policies, systems and procedures are SOX compliant.

Analyzes new product projects and timetables and organizes manpower/resources for appropriate support. Establishes, monitors and responds to critical path milestones to ensure that NPI timetables stay on track. Helps define, develop and achieve COGs to within target ranges. Helps select/qualify world-wide suppliers. Negotiates contracts for best possible pricing. Supports speed to market objectives. Provides ongoing status of costs and schedule to Engineers, Program Managers and other interested parties.

Coordinates the procurement of long lead materials and tooling to support proto, preproduction and early production builds. Works with Material Control to ensure that proto builds and master scheduling proceed according to schedule. Tracks shortages and manages NPI inventory to meet schedules. Helps craft/profile BOMs and ensures that parts are coded properly in SAP and doc control databases.

Keeps abreast of worldwide sourcing and market conditions/trends (cost and availability). Reports on market conditions relative to price and availability. Manages new product inventories. Establishes and maintains effective relations with suppliers. Collaborates with Production Purchasing and Manufacturing Engineering on sourcing and supplier management strategies. Ensures that new sourcing strategies are in sync with Digidesign's overall strategic sourcing direction. Coordinates a smooth hand-off of new products/parts to the Production Purchasing.

This position requires strong procurement, project management and business skills. Also, strong judgment, communications, teamwork and the ability to multi task on a wide variety of activities in self-directed fashion.
REQUIREMENTS
Essential Job Requirements:

Bachelor's Degree in Business or Engineering. Relevant electronics (high tech) purchasing experience. 5-10 years previous supervisory/management experience.

Knowledge of a wide range of high-tech commodities (IC’s, interconnect, electro-mechanical, PCB’s, sheet metal, plastics, etc.) from both domestic and international sources.

Experience Required:

Turnkey (CEM and ODM) buying experience (domestic and international).

Strong business/financial acumen. Strong analytical, problem solving, negotiation and contracting skills. Ability to make sound judgments in a fast paced environment

Strong communication skills. Capable of communicating status to all levels of the organization.

Strong knowledge of the inner workings of MRP (SAP). Proficient in Excel, Word, PowerPoint.

Team player. Customer oriented. Strong multi-tasking abilities.

Working Conditions:

Fast paced, multi-tasking business environment. Interaction with many departments. Occasional domestic and international travel to supplier sites.