Director of Strategic Purchasing & Supply Chain

Sonepar; Maryland; On-site; USD 150,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Excellent benefits

Career growth opportunities

Employee assistance program

Job summary

Capital Electric, part of the Sonepar group, is seeking an senior procurement leader in Maryland to drive enterprise procurement strategy and supplier management across major product categories. You will lead negotiations, improve inventory and working capital, and build a high-performing team.

The role requires a track record of strategic supplier relationships, experience in electrical distribution, and strong ERP/Excel proficiency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Finance, Operations, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in procurement, purchasing, sourcing, category management, inventory management, or supply chain.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience leading managers or professional procurement teams.
• Demonstrated success leading strategic supplier relationships, negotiations, category strategies, and procurement improvement initiatives.
• Strong knowledge of inventory management, working capital, purchasing operations, supplier performance, and commercial decision-making.
• Experience in electrical distribution, wholesale distribution, industrial distribution, manufacturing, or a related industry preferred.
• Proficiency with ERP, purchasing, reporting, and business intelligence tools; advanced Microsoft Excel capability preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute an enterprise procurement strategy aligned with profitable growth, customer service, margin, inventory, and working capital objectives.
• Establish annual priorities, operating plans, performance targets, and a clear governance cadence for the procurement organization.
• Lead procurement transformation, process standardization, and adoption of enabling systems, analytics, and continuous improvement practices.
• Provide market intelligence and procurement recommendations to executive leadership to support business planning and investment decisions.
• Own the strategic supplier management framework across major product categories and ensure vendor strategies align with company priorities.
• Lead high-impact negotiations involving cost, rebates, terms, lead times, stocking programs, service expectations, and other commercial agreements.
• Establish supplier scorecards, business reviews, escalation paths, and corrective action plans to improve performance and accountability.
• Drive vendor rationalization, product line reviews, sourcing alternatives, and supplier development opportunities.
• Partner with Inventory Management, Operations, and Sales to establish inventory investment and replenishment strategies that balance availability, turns, and risk.
• Monitor excess, slow-moving, obsolete, reserve, and non-returnable inventory and sponsor recovery, transfer, return, and disposition plans.
• Improve forecasting inputs, purchasing parameters, stock-and-flow strategies, and network inventory deployment.
• Drive accountability for inventory productivity and the financial impact of procurement decisions.
• Oversee daily purchasing operations and ensure timely, accurate, and consistent execution across the business.
• Develop and maintain procurement policies, approval standards, supplier requirements, and operating procedures.
• Create consistent purchasing and category-management practices while preserving appropriate flexibility for regional, customer, and product needs.
• Identify and mitigate supplier, commodity, market, and supply continuity risks through practical contingency planning.
• Lead, coach, and develop procurement managers, category leaders, buyers, specialists, and analysts.
• Establish clear roles, decision rights, objectives, performance expectations, and development plans.
• Build succession plans and strengthen technical, commercial, analytical, and leadership capability across the team.
• Promote a culture of ownership, collaboration, responsiveness, professionalism, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Sales and branch leadership to support customer commitments, strategic opportunities, large projects, and market growth.
• Collaborate with Operations and distribution centers to align purchasing, inventory deployment, logistics, and service priorities.
• Work with Finance to improve visibility to inventory investment, supplier rebates, cost changes, savings, margin impact, and working capital.
• Communicate priorities, risks, decisions, and results clearly to stakeholders across the organization.
• Develop actionable procurement dashboards, scorecards, and executive reporting.
• Use spend, sales, margin, inventory, supplier, customer demand, lead-time, and market data to drive decisions.
• Establish corrective action plans when performance is below target and track execution through completion.

Skills

Strategic procurement

Negotiation

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Finance, Operations, or related field

Tools

ERP systems

Microsoft Excel

Job description

Capital Electric, part of the Sonepar group, is seeking an senior procurement leader in Maryland to drive enterprise procurement strategy and supplier management across major product categories. You will lead negotiations, improve inventory and working capital, and build a high-performing team.

The role requires a track record of strategic supplier relationships, experience in electrical distribution, and strong ERP/Excel proficiency.