Global Purchasing Manager (M/W)

Pure Chase; Toulouse; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential Aerospace Group in Toulouse seeks a Global Purchasing Manager to design and drive a global purchasing strategy across sites and programmes. You will coordinate local actions, secure subcontracting capacity, and reduce total cost of ownership while building resilient supply chains on a multinational scale.

You will stay close to shop floors, suppliers and customers, balancing uniform standards with local realities and evolving the function as the company grows.

Qualifications

• Experience in industrial purchasing, aerospace or related sectors.
• Experience in a mid-sized company or equivalent mindset.
• International experience across countries and sites.
• Fluent English and professional French required.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive a global purchasing strategy for the group.
• Coordinate local actions and secure subcontracting capacity.
• Reduce total cost of ownership and strengthen resilience.
• Stay connected to shop floor, sites, programmes and customers.
• Spend time on sites and with suppliers, not only in meetings.
• Align practices while respecting local realities where it creates value.
• Build simple, robust standards where they matter.
• Challenge make-or-buy decisions with cost, capacity and risk.
• Focus on TCO and long-term capability.
• Grow with the company as it expands.

Skills

Industrial purchasing

International experience

English fluency

French proficiency

Negotiation skills

Entrepreneurial mindset

Pragmatic builder

Job description

• N+1 CEO
• Pays France
• Code postal 31000

Most purchasing roles ask you to run a function. This one asks you to build it.

Our client, an international aerospace group, is growing fast (X0% on a yearly basis) across several countries and sites through the US, EMEA & APAC, and its purchasing organisation (30 buyers worldwide today) is still taking shape. As Global Purchasing Manager, you will design the global strategy, build the supplier ecosystem and make purchasing a true lever of growth and industrial resilience for the Group.

Few careers offer the chance to leave this kind of mark on a company. This is one of them, and we have been mandated to find the leader who will take it on.

About our client

Our client is an international, multi-site industrial group serving the aerospace sector, currently in a phase of strong growth. Its name will be shared with shortlisted candidates, in strict confidence.

What makes this context unique:

• Fast growth. New sites, new programmes and new products are on the horizon, and the supply base must keep pace.
  
• A mid-sized company spirit. Decisions are quick, teams are close, and pragmatism beats bureaucracy. The company is not a large corporation yet. It is shaping for it.
  
• Micro-series, extreme specifications. We produce small volumes of highly technical parts and equipment, where quality, traceability and know-how make the difference.
  
• Purchasing still to be structured. Processes are not yet mature. The job is to build them at multinational scale while keeping them light, useful and adapted to each site.
  

Your mission

You define and drive a global purchasing strategy on the Group's structuring topics. You coordinate local actions, secure subcontracting capacity, reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and strengthen industrial resilience. Above all, you stay deeply connected to the shop floor and to the needs of sites, programmes and customers.

How you will work:

• On the ground. You spend real time on the sites and with suppliers, not only in meetings.
  
• Coordination over uniformity. You align practices where it creates value and respect local realities where it does not.
  
• Standards where they matter. You build simple, robust standards only where they make a difference.
  
• Proactive on make-or-buy. You challenge and inform make-or-buy decisions with facts on cost, capacity and risk.
  
• TCO and resilience first. You look beyond unit price to total cost, supply security and long-term capability.
  
• Growing with the company. The role will evolve as the company grows, and so will you.
  

Your roadmap

Short term: map, secure, understand, earn trust

• Map the supply base, spend and critical suppliers across all sites.
• Professionalise the sourcing of new suppliers and develop the capabilities of existing ones.
• Identify which commodities to manage globally and which to keep local.
• For local commodities, build an international network of buyers by purchasing category.
• Set up the SIOP (Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning) for tooling produced externally across countries.
• Structure supplier panels and harmonise purchasing practices.
• Steer TCO and support industrialisation of new parts and programmes.
• Increase and scale industrial capacity through the supply base.
• Improve overall performance and structure multi-site customer offers.

Long term: build a global supplier ecosystem

• Make purchasing a platform and resilience lever for the Group.
• Anticipate the supplier network needed for new service sites, new products and new programmes.

Profil

Your background:

• Solid experience in industrial purchasing, ideally in low-volume, high-complexity environments such as aerospace, defence, space, energy, rail or precision engineering. High-volume automotive purchasing is not the right fit for this context.
  
• Experience in a mid-sized company, or the mindset of one is mandatory : you know how to build with limited resources and without heavy corporate machinery.
  
• An international track record, working across countries, cultures and multiple sites.
  
• Fluent English (B2 & above), professional French (B1 & above) are a both mandatory.
  

What makes you stand out:

• Technical. You read a drawing and a manufacturing file with ease, and you understand processes, tolerances and specifications.
  
• Credible on the production sites. Operators, engineers and suppliers respect your judgement.
  
• A strong negotiator who also knows how to listen.
  
• An entrepreneur who takes initiative and owns results.
  
• A builder who stays pragmatic. You structure what needs structuring, and nothing more.
  
• Ready to grow with the company, in scope and responsibility, as the company expands.
  

Why this role

• A blank page with real stakes. You will shape a global purchasing function from the ground up, in a demanding and exciting industry.
  
• Direct impact. Your decisions will be visible on sites, programmes and customer results, quickly.
  
• Freedom and proximity. You will work close to leadership, with room to propose, decide and act.
  
• A role that grows with you. As the Group expands, so will your scope and influence.
  

If you have ever wanted to build something lasting rather than maintain what already exists, this is the role you have been waiting for.