{"id":2900585,"url":"https://alion.io/job/nssco-purchasing-specialist","title":"Purchasing Specialist","company":{"id":4422380,"name":"Nssco","domain":"nssco.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/nssco","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Dayforce","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-23T05:54:15Z"}},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"junior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Houston, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":39000,"max_usd":82000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":2427},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Microsoft Office","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-08T06:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-23T19:32:51Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":45,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":45},"description":"Purchasing Specialist\nNorth Shore Steel is seeking a driven and commercially minded Purchasing Specialist to join our team. This role plays an important part in ensuring our operations have the right materials, at the right time, at the right cost, while helping the business navigate a dynamic steel and supply market.\nThe Purchasing Specialist will support the sourcing and procurement of both direct steel materials and indirect MRO supplies, working closely with suppliers and internal operations to balance material availability, inventory investment, cost, and service.\nThis is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys combining market intelligence, supplier relationships, negotiation, analytics, and operational decision-making. The successful candidate will develop a strong understanding of steel commodities, including plate, sheet, hot rolled coil (HRC), and structural products, and use that knowledge to support purchasing decisions that directly impact operational performance and company profitability.\nWhat You’ll Do\nManage purchasing activities for assigned steel commodities and MRO categories, from identifying requirements and sourcing suppliers through negotiation and purchase execution.\nBuild and maintain productive relationships with steel mills, service centers, distributors, and MRO suppliers to support competitive pricing, quality, availability, and service.\nMonitor steel market conditions, including plate, sheet, HRC, scrap, freight, mill lead times, and import activity, and translate market movement into actionable purchasing insights.\nPartner with sales, production, maintenance, warehouse, logistics, and operations teams to anticipate material requirements and maintain appropriate inventory levels.\nAnalyze purchasing history, inventory position, supplier performance, business demand, and market trends to support sourcing and inventory decisions.\nIdentify opportunities to reduce cost, improve supplier terms, optimize inventory, and strengthen procurement processes.\nSupport supplier negotiations involving pricing, rebates, freight, payment terms, lead times, availability, and service expectations.\nEvaluate supplier performance and help resolve delivery delays, shortages, quality concerns, invoice discrepancies, and other supply-related issues.\nMaintain accurate purchasing, pricing, supplier, contract, and inventory information within company ERP systems.\nCollaborate with Quality, Finance, Receiving, Logistics, Production, and other Purchasing team members to ensure procurement activities support broader company objectives.\nSupport inventory reconciliation and optimization initiatives while maintaining appropriate material availability for the business.\nEnsure purchasing activities and documentation comply with company policies and applicable industry and regulatory requirements.\nWhat We’re Looking For\nWe are looking for someone who is analytical, curious, organized, and commercially aware. You should be comfortable working with data while also building relationships and communicating across multiple areas of the business.\nQualifications\n0–3 years of experience in purchasing, procurement, inventory management, supply chain, steel distribution, manufacturing, or a related field.\nAssociate’s or bachelor’s degree preferred.\nExposure to steel, metals, manufacturing, industrial distribution, or commodity purchasing is strongly preferred.\nStrong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to evaluate pricing, inventory, market information, and supplier performance.\nStrong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to develop effective supplier and internal business relationships.\nStrong organizational skills and attention to detail.\nAbility to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced operational environment.\nDemonstrated ability to take ownership of projects and follow initiatives through completion.\nProficiency with Microsoft Office, particularly Excel; experience working within an ERP or purchasing system is preferred.\nInterest in developing deeper knowledge of steel commodities, sourcing strategy, supplier negotiations, and inventory management.\nWhy This Role Matters\nPurchasing at North Shore Steel goes beyond issuing purchase orders. The team helps determine what we buy, when we buy it, who we buy it from, and how those decisions affect inventory, operations, customer service, and profitability.\nFor someone looking to build a career in strategic purchasing within the steel industry, this position provides meaningful exposure to commodity markets, supplier negotiations, inventory strategy, operational decision-making, and the commercial side of the business.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4697,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T06:08:49Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":15,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.55,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":44,"expected_fill_days":20,"reasons":["conf:0","win:tail","crowd:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-10-23T05:54:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/nssco-purchasing-specialist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/nssco-purchasing-specialist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-23T23:10:44Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":6402,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-24T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4422380},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4422380"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fnssco-purchasing-specialist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fnssco-purchasing-specialist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fnssco-purchasing-specialist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/nssco-purchasing-specialist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fnssco-purchasing-specialist"}]}