Buyer/Planner, Remote 

Location: Remote: Colombia, Costa Rica, or Mexico

We are looking for an experienced Planner/Buyer to support our U.S.-based manufacturing operations from Colombia, Costa Rica, or Mexico.

This role combines purchasing and material planning with responsibility for supplier coordination, shortages, material availability, and inbound logistics. The Buyer/Planner works remotely with suppliers and site-based teams to help ensure materials are available when production needs them. 

What You'll Do

• Review customer demand, forecasts, inventory, and MRP recommendations to determine material requirements.
• Develop and maintain material plans for assigned products.
• Issue and manage purchase orders with approved suppliers.
• Confirm supplier commitments for price, quantity, and delivery.
• Monitor material availability and proactively resolve shortages.
• Follow up on past-due purchase orders and supplier delivery issues.
• Coordinate and expedite inbound shipments as needed.
• Evaluate routine shipping timing, transportation options, and freight costs.
• Maintain accurate purchasing and planning information in the ERP/MRP system.
• Support work-order and production-planning activities as assigned.
• Support engineering changes, substitutions, new products, and material phase-in/phase-out activity.
• Identify material, supply, and delivery risks early and coordinate corrective actions.
• Communicate clearly with suppliers and U.S.-based teams.
• Participate in supply, shortage, backlog, and operational reviews.
• Support improvements to purchasing, planning, master-data, and supplier-management processes.

These responsibilities reflect the purchasing, material-planning, logistics, shortage-management, and ERP/MRP scope of the formal Buyer/Planner job description. 

What We're Looking For

Required

• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Relevant experience in purchasing, production planning, materials, supply chain, manufacturing, or a similar role.
• Experience working with ERP/MRP systems in a manufacturing or supply-chain environment.
• Working knowledge of purchasing, material planning, inventory, and supplier management.
• Ability to interpret bills of material, lead times, planning signals, and supplier commitments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Effective English communication skills for working with suppliers and U.S.-based and global colleagues.
• Ability to work independently and coordinate priorities across a distributed team.
• Ability to maintain sufficient working-hour overlap with the U.S. manufacturing location.

The position explicitly requires effective English communication, distributed-team coordination, ERP/MRP knowledge, independent follow-through, and sufficient working-hour overlap with the production location. 

Highly Preferred

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain, operations, business, analytics, engineering, or a related field.
• Hands-on familiarity with NetSuite ERP/MRP functionality.
• Project management skills, including the ability to coordinate activities, owners, priorities, and follow-up across multiple teams.
• Experience in manufacturing material planning or Buyer/Planner roles.
• Experience managing shortages and supplier delivery issues.
• Experience supporting new product introductions or engineering changes.
• Experience coordinating inbound logistics or freight.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills.
• ASCM/APICS CPIM or CSCP, ISM CPSM, or similar certification.

Compensation

Actual compensation will be determined based on relevant experience, skills, qualifications, and alignment with the requirements of the position.

Colombia base salary range: COP 55,000,000 to COP 75,000,000 annually. 

Costa Rica base salary range: CRC 10,500,000 to CRC 15,000,000 annually. 

Mexico base salary range: MXN 270,000 to MXN 420,000 annually. 

Why This Role Matters

The Buyer/Planner connects material requirements, purchasing, suppliers, inbound delivery, and production needs. The role is particularly suited to someone comfortable using ERP/MRP data to identify problems early and coordinate solutions across locations.