Procurement Planner (Direct Procurement)

The Role 

The Procurement Planner for GTI is responsible for purchasing, vendor management & research, contract negotiation and the day-to-day purchasing operations.  You will develop operating plans to ensure GTI has the resources to support current forecasted business and projected growth to respond to current and emerging markets.  

This is a hybrid position requiring 2 days in office between our Chicago HQ office (River North) and our Rolling Meadows office. 

Responsibilities 

• Collaborate and communicate effectively with Procurement, Innovation, Brand, Project Team, Supply Chain, Ops Sites, and other HQ cross functional teams  

• Balance multiple tasks while improving the efficiency of our Procurement team, managing competing priorities effectively  

• Purchase Order creation in the ERP system, shipment tracking, delivery coordination, and payment confirmation, overall vendor management  

• Develops a business relationship with functional stakeholders and solicits feedback on sourcing and vendor performance, share and discuss supply base opportunities, and identify new and changed needs. 

• Supports the development of cross-functional teams by identifying internal customers and stakeholders for inclusion; interfaces with internal customers to understand requirements and resolves issues; involves key stakeholders in sourcing development and execution; informs Sr. Director of Procurement of conflicts between stakeholder requirements and sourcing strategy. 

• Sets the standards for conducting internal and external research on supply market and competitive activities within assigned spend categories to ensure the highest levels of insight is generated; under-takes or ensures the identification of supply market economics and trends; ensures the identification of qualified supply base, maintains market information on suppliers and drives optimization of the supply base. 

• Oversees the management of on-going vendor relationships and supplier performance across their portfolio; ensures regular supplier meetings take place and implements improvement strategies with suppliers. 

• Execute purchasing for assigned categories. 

• Monitor status of open purchase orders to ensure on-time delivery of all materials, including timely resolution, communication, and mitigation of future potential problems 

• Work with internal team members to achieve optimal inventory levels for assigned categories based on forecast, demand variation and material lead times.  

• Coordinate material flows throughout product/BOM changes, obsolescence, and the introduction of new suppliers and/or materials due to new product development  

• Be a shared resource among the procurement team when support is needed 

• Continue to work with leadership on maintaining and managing diverse vendor management database  

Qualifications  

• 2+ years’ experience in manufacturing or CPG procurement operations 

• Highly motivated, self-directed, innovative, and able to work independently or among teams with keen judgement, common sense and resourcefulness. 

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint & Outlook) 

• Adapts and thrives in a demanding, start-up, fast-paced environment. 

• Superior communication and interpersonal skills (verbal, non-verbal, written), with the ability to build relationships at all levels, both internally and externally. 

• Possesses a high level of critical thinking. 

• Consistently operates with an elevated level of professionalism and integrity, including dealing with confidential information 

Additional Requirements 

• Must pass any and all required background checks  


• Must be and remain compliant with all legal or company regulations for working in the industry  


• Must be a minimum of 21 years of age 

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