Commodity Manager I (Indirect sourcing) | First Solar | Perrysburg, OH, United States

Basic Job Functions:

Facilitate procurement for global, cross-functional teams for resulting in procurement decisions delivering the highest quality, reliability, and value to meet First Solar requirements.  Develop strong business relationships and strategic alliances to support First Solar’s growth plan.

Education/Experience:

• BS/BBA degree plus 2 years of experience in a related business field
• Understanding of operational purchasing processes, concepts, and negotiations
• Familiarity with RFI, RFQ and RFPs
• Manufacturing experience in a fast-paced environment is preferred.
• Must be a detail-oriented self-starter that can develop and execute strategic plans, timelines, and negotiations.

Required Skills/Competencies:

• Decision Making:
  • Evaluate the overall goals of the organization and establish strategies to accomplish.
  • Support existing contract management as well as new supplier contracts
  • Select, evaluate, and develop objectives in areas of travel, quality, cost, flexibility, and service with guidance.
  • Execute prioritized tasks consistent with achieving overall supply management organizational goals.
  • Implement sourcing decisions based on guidance and team consensus to weighted scorecard.
• Problem Solving:
  • Assess, define, and resolve supply chain and procurement issues, with appropriate urgency.
  • Apply root cause analysis and derive corrective actions and assess adequacy of the analyses and plans proposed by suppliers.
  • Review appropriate competitive cost benchmarks, financial analysis, and risk management techniques to solve issues.
  • Ability to influence peers and internal customers to achieve mutually beneficial solutions.
• Project Management:
  • Understands and demonstrates basic project management skills.
  • Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects at the same time, and to meet deadlines.
  • Effectively manage relationships and peer deliverables to successful project completion
• Interaction:
  • Must be a confident and effective communicator, including oral, written and presentation preparation.
  • Interaction requires the ability to gain cooperation of others, communicating commercial information concerning specific projects or schedules.
  • Routine interaction with managers, directors or VP levels of suppliers managed.
  • Builds deep industry relationships and category subject matter expertise.
• Negotiation:
  • Performs market and cost analysis
  • Issues RFIs/RFQs/RFPs
  • Develops negotiation plan with some supervision
  • Conducts negotiation within approved negotiation parameters and authority
  • Documents commercial terms and drafts contract agreements and amendments
  • Collaborates with legal to ensure contract terms are acceptable
  • Utilize formal benchmarking methods to determine best in class processes and drive improvement

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