Eleven Recruiting is searching for a Procurement Specialist for a well-established precision metal fabrication company in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. The company delivers CNC laser cutting, forming, welding, and fabrication services to customers across the Southeast US, operating fully in-house across cutting, machining, and fabrication. With a team of 40+ employees, many with decades of industry experience, the company serves a diverse customer base across automotive & motorsports, industrial equipment, architecture & construction, consumer products, and OEM & contract manufacturing.
Responsibilities:
Take ownership of implementing the Purchasing module within the company's existing JobBoss ERP system the module has never been activated, so this person will drive the rollout with no internal precedent or training resource to lean on.
Get hands-on with existing raw material stock physically walking the yard/storage area, identifying and organizing materials (steel, stainless, aluminum, etc.), and reconciling what's on hand before it can be entered into the system. This is an active, floor-based part of the role, not a desk job.
Lead negotiations with suppliers and vendors to secure cost-effective agreements for carbon steel, aluminum, stainless, copper & brass, and specialty alloys.
Identify and source vendors outside the current supplier base to find more cost-effective materials and reduce spend.
Process and analyze purchase orders and quote requests, ensuring materials meet technical and delivery requirements.
Monitor supplier performance on-time delivery, quality, and responsiveness and address underperformance directly.
Partner with the Quality Manager to build and maintain an Approved Supplier List and material qualification process as the company's quality system comes online.
Manage inventory levels and material planning to support a low-volume, high-mix production environment across cutting, forming, welding, and machining.
Build a rollout and scaling plan for procurement and inventory processes as headcount grows.
Work cross-functionally with production, engineering, and quality to align procurement with day-to-day shop needs.
Qualifications:
Required
58+ years of procurement or supply chain experience, ideally including strategic sourcing.
Working knowledge of metals able to distinguish and source carbon steel, cold-rolled steel, stainless, aluminum, copper & brass, and specialty alloys.
Demonstrated experience implementing or standing up a module/function within an ERP or inventory management system (JobBoss experience not required).
Experience negotiating supplier contracts and managing vendor relationships in a manufacturing environment.
Comfortable operating with little existing infrastructure building processes and systems rather than maintaining ones already in place.
Willing and able to be hands-on/floor-based physically handling and organizing raw material stock, not solely office-based.
Strong analytical skills; comfortable working in Excel and evaluating supplier and vendor data.
Clear communicator able to work across production, engineering, and leadership.
Preferred
Experience in a precision metal fabrication, machining, or welded-manufacturing environment.
Experience drafting or managing formal long-term supplier agreements (LTAs) not an immediate need, but valuable as the business scales toward certification.
Familiarity with ISO 9001 or AS9100 quality systems, including how supplier quality clauses (Q-clauses) flow down on purchase orders.
APICS or ISM certification.
Experience building a procurement function inside a company going through rapid headcount growth.