Junior Sourcing Manager

About the role

Responsibilities

• Identify, evaluate, and onboard reliable manufacturing vendors across CNC machining, sheet metal, 3D printing, castings, forgings, and injection moulding tooling.
• Assess vendor capabilities against technical specifications, quality standards, material requirements, production volumes, and delivery timelines.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with external suppliers and job shops.
• Support supplier selection by comparing technical capabilities, quotations, pricing, and lead times.
• Prepare and distribute Requests for Quotations (RFQs) to external manufacturing suppliers.
• Review and compare supplier quotations based on technical and commercial requirements.
• Negotiate pricing, payment terms, and lead times to achieve customer target prices and cost-reduction objectives.
• Coordinate with suppliers to resolve quotation queries and clarify manufacturing requirements.
• Prepare price break-ups where required to support sourcing and commercial decisions.
• Read and interpret engineering drawings, blueprints, GD&T requirements, technical specifications, and 3D CAD models.
• Communicate manufacturing requirements accurately to external vendors.
• Apply knowledge of CNC machining and manufacturing processes to assess supplier feasibility.
• Work with suppliers to clarify technical requirements and address manufacturing-related questions.
• Monitor vendor production schedules and order progress to ensure committed delivery timelines are met.
• Proactively identify and resolve production bottlenecks, material delays, and supplier capacity constraints.
• Follow up with suppliers to maintain delivery commitments and address potential delays.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders and vendors to resolve order-related issues.
• Coordinate with the internal Quality Control team and suppliers to resolve defects, non-conformances, and deviations from engineering drawings.
• Support investigations into quality issues and follow up on corrective actions.
• Monitor supplier performance against on-time delivery and quality rejection metrics.
• Help ensure outsourced components meet agreed technical specifications and quality requirements.
• Conduct market research to understand raw material prices, tooling costs, shipping costs, machining cycle times, and industry benchmarks.
• Develop should-cost estimates to assess the competitiveness of supplier quotations.
• Analyse manufacturing cost drivers to identify potential savings.
• Apply knowledge of manufacturing processes to support effective sourcing and costing decisions.
• Identify opportunities to improve machining cycle times through effective fixture and tooling methods.
• Maintain accurate supplier performance metrics, purchase orders, pricing databases, and sourcing documentation in the ERP system.
• Ensure vendor information and commercial records are up to date.
• Track supplier pricing, delivery performance, and quality trends to support sourcing decisions.
• Maintain organised and accurate records to support procurement activities.