Program Purchasing Manager

Description

The Program Purchasing Manager is responsible for driving procurement excellence across new product development projects, ensuring cross-functional alignment, timely material availability, cost optimization, and performance tracking. Acting as a strategic interface between Purchasing, R&D, and Project Management, this role supports the full product lifecycle from concept to phase-out.

The Program Purchasing Manager reports to VP Purchasing

Requirements

• Responsible for leading, coordinating, and reporting all Purchasing activities for new product development
• Act as the main Purchasing interface within the project team, ensuring clear communication and alignment across functions
• Define BOMs for new projects in alignment with R&D, ensuring consistency with product specifications and company Purchasing strategies
• Actively participate in project team meetings, contributing to decision-making by balancing cost targets, time-to-market, and other project drivers
• Work closely with Commodity Managers, Project Leaders and Product Managers to align R&D activities with commodity strategies
• Attend regular project meetings, ensuring Purchasing inputs and recommendations are properly represented
• Review and clarify all project requirements, ensuring alignment with final application specifications
• Lead NPI sourcing activities and material preparation, ensuring project timelines are met
• Support early demand shaping and visibility with suppliers during NPI to ensure capacity readiness
• Ensure all required inputs for accurate cost estimation are provided by PM/R&D (e.g. specifications, BOM, target cost, volumes)
• Perform BOM cost analysis during development and support project status reporting
• Set cost targets for the Commodity team, ensuring project cost objectives are achieved
• Define and track key KPIs (cost vs target, sourcing timing, supplier readiness, etc.) for projects
• Manage and coordinate the Purchasing impact of engineering changes during development but also in the MP stage
• Continuously drive sourcing and cost-saving initiatives
• Support COGS ownership, cost optimization, and RTC activities throughout the full product lifecycle, including mass production cost management
• Oversee cost estimation, forecasting, and reporting, coordinating with the Program Purchasing Manager team
• Maintain procurement tools and dashboards, and drive digitalization and automation/AI initiatives