About this role
At Chain IQ, your ideas move fast. Chain IQ is a global AI-driven Procurement Service Partner, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, with operations across main centers and 16 offices worldwide. We provide tailored, end-to-end procurement solutions that enable transformation, drive scalability, and deliver substantial reductions in our clients' indirect spend. Our culture is built on innovation, entrepreneurship, ownership, and impact. Here, your voice matters - bold thinking is encouraged, and action follows ambition.
The P2P Procurement Buyer is responsible for managing day-to-day Procure-to-Pay (P2P) and operational buying activities for manufacturing requirements. The role ensures timely conversion of purchase requisitions into purchase orders, supplier coordination, delivery follow-up, price and commercial validation, and resolution of P2P issues while maintaining compliance with procurement policies and agreed SLAs. The Senior Buyer acts as a key interface between Manufacturing, Engineering, Planning, Procurement, Finance/AP, and Suppliers to ensure uninterrupted material and service availability.
Key Responsibilities
- 1. Purchase Requisition & PO Management Review and process purchase requisitions for direct materials, indirect materials, spare parts, consumables, MRO, tooling, and manufacturing services. Validate specifications, quantities, delivery dates, supplier details, prices, cost centers, and required approvals. Convert approved PRs into POs within agreed SLA timelines. Issue PO amendments for changes in price, quantity, delivery dates, or other commercial conditions. Monitor open, overdue, blocked, and incomplete purchase orders.
- 2. Supplier & Delivery Management Coordinate with suppliers for PO acknowledgements and committed delivery dates. Expedite critical materials and services to support production requirements. Follow up on delayed deliveries and proactively escalate supply risks. Coordinate with production planning, warehouse, quality, and requestors to resolve delivery issues. Maintain clear communication with suppliers regarding commercial and operational requirements.
- 3. P2P Issue Resolution Resolve PO, Goods Receipt, invoice, pricing, quantity, and payment-related exceptions. Support resolution of 2-way and 3-way matching discrepancies. Coordinate with Accounts Payable, requestors, buyers, and suppliers to clear blocked invoices. Investigate recurring P2P issues and support root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
- 4. Commercial Buying Obtain and evaluate supplier quotations for tactical and low-to-medium value requirements. Conduct basic commercial negotiations on price, lead time, freight, payment terms, MOQ, and other conditions. Prepare commercial comparisons and supplier recommendations. Ensure purchases are placed with approved and preferred suppliers wherever applicable. Identify opportunities for consolidation, cost avoidance, and process efficiency.
- 5. Manufacturing Support Prioritize urgent requirements affecting production continuity. Support procurement of MRO, spare parts, tooling, machinery-related services, consumables, packaging, and factory services. Work closely with Production Planning and Engineering to understand critical material requirements and lead times. Escalate potential shortages or supplier delays that could result in production stoppage.
- 6. Compliance & Governance Ensure compliance with procurement policies, delegation of authority, approval matrices, and P2P controls. Avoid retrospective POs and support reduction of non-PO spend. Ensure appropriate supporting documentation is maintained for audit purposes. Follow agreed procurement processes for preferred suppliers, contracts, competitive bidding, and exceptions.
- 7. Reporting & Continuous Improvement Monitor operational KPIs such as: PR-to-PO turnaround time PO acknowledgement rate On-time delivery Open/overdue PO ageing Blocked invoices PO compliance Contract/preferred supplier utilization Cost savings/cost avoidance Identify recurring process gaps and implement corrective actions.
Support process standardization, automation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Key Stakeholders Manufacturing / Production Production Planning Engineering and Maintenance Quality Warehouse / Logistics Strategic & Category Procurement Finance / Accounts Payable Internal Requestors Suppliers and Service Providers Required Experience 10-12 years of experience in Procurement, Purchasing, Operational Buying, or P2P, preferably within a manufacturing environment.
- Strong understanding of the PR-to-PO-to-GR-to-Invoice-to-Payment lifecycle.
- Experience handling manufacturing purchases, MRO, spare parts, consumables, tooling, and services.
- Practical experience in supplier follow-up, expediting, quotation analysis, and tactical negotiations.
- Experience resolving PO and invoice discrepancies.
- Skills & Competencies Manufacturing procurement and P2P knowledge Supplier management and expediting Commercial negotiation RFQ and quotation analysis ERP purchasing processes, preferably SAP or equivalent ERP Microsoft Excel and reporting capabilities Strong analytical and problem-solving skills Stakeholder management Ability to manage multiple urgent requirements Good written and verbal communication Ownership, accountability, and customer orientation Join a truly global team.
We offer a dynamic and international environment where high performance meets real purpose. We're proud to be Great Place to Work-certified and even prouder of the people who make that possible. Let’s shape the future of procurement - together. Chain IQ – Create. Lead. Make an impact. Information for agencies: Applications sent or uploaded by placement agencies or similar are not desired, will therefore not be considered and will be deleted.