hypersonica-prod - Senior Buyer
Requirements
• An experienced buyer, senior buyer, procurement lead, or sourcing professional from aerospace, defence, automotive, motorsport, advanced manufacturing, or another complex hardware environment. • Proven at owning procurement end to end rather than operating within one narrow stage of an established process. • Experienced buying technically complex, low-volume, high-value, or mission-critical components and services. • Comfortable working from incomplete BOMs, evolving designs, and urgent engineering requirements without losing commercial or configuration control. • Strong at supplier identification, RFQs, commercial analysis, negotiation, contracting, purchase-order management, and expediting. • Able to distinguish between a supplier that quotes well and one that can actually deliver conforming hardware on time. • Experienced working closely with engineering and manufacturing teams and able to understand drawings, specifications, tolerances, materials, and manufacturing processes sufficiently to make sound sourcing decisions. • Commercially sharp but operationally minded. You understand that the best procurement outcome is hardware arriving on time, to specification, at an acceptable cost. • Confident challenging suppliers, engineers, and internal stakeholders when requirements, lead times, or decisions are putting delivery at risk. • Experienced in supplier qualification, onboarding, risk assessment, and performance management. • Familiar with aerospace or defence quality expectations such as AS9100, traceability, first article inspection, configuration control, and supplier nonconformance management. • Comfortable building processes and supplier structures from zero rather than inheriting a mature category strategy or approved supplier base. • Hands-on, fast-moving, and highly organised, with the judgement to prioritise the few items that genuinely determine programme velocity. • Able to operate independently and make decisions with imperfect information while escalating material risks early. • Experience purchasing for missile systems, propulsion, flight hardware, composites, electronics, special processes, or energetic-material environments would be advantageous but is not essential. • Motivated by building a procurement function where supplier performance directly determines whether hardware ships, tests, and flies on schedule. • ## Security and Eligibility Requirement • Due to the nature of the work with the UK MoD, applicants must be a British Citizen, or a dual national holding British citizenship, and eligible for UK Security Clearance and, where required, Developed Vetting.
Responsibilities
• Build and own Hypersonica’s UK procurement capability from zero, covering direct materials, complex components, tooling, equipment, services, and production requirements. • Take end-to-end ownership of the buying process, from demand definition and supplier identification through quotation, negotiation, purchase order placement, expediting, delivery, and supplier performance. • Work closely with engineering, manufacturing, quality, programme, and finance teams to convert incomplete or evolving technical requirements into executable procurement plans. • Secure long-lead, flight-critical, and schedule-critical items before they become programme constraints. • Develop sourcing strategies for complex aerospace and defence hardware, including machined components, composites, electronics, sensors, actuators, propulsion-related hardware, specialist materials, tooling, and test equipment. • Identify, assess, qualify, and onboard suppliers capable of meeting Hypersonica’s technical, quality, security, cost, and schedule requirements. • Build strong supplier relationships while remaining commercially demanding on price, lead time, quality, responsiveness, and delivery performance. • Lead RFQ and tender activity, structure commercial comparisons, negotiate terms, and make clear supplier recommendations based on total programme value rather than unit price alone. • Own purchase-order accuracy, commercial terms, delivery schedules, change control, and supporting documentation. • Run active expediting and supplier recovery activity, escalating early and driving action when delivery or quality performance threatens the programme. • Partner with supplier quality and engineering teams to resolve technical issues, nonconformances, substitutions, and manufacturing constraints. • Support make-versus-buy decisions and help define which capabilities should be retained internally versus placed with external suppliers. • Build procurement processes, approval routes, supplier records, dashboards, and controls that are robust enough for defence hardware but light enough to support rapid execution. • Establish clear reporting on commitments, lead times, supplier risk, cost exposure, late deliveries, and material availability. • Support the implementation of SAP procurement processes, ensuring purchase orders, supplier data, approvals, receipts, and spend information are accurate and usable. • Build category knowledge and a supplier base that can support progression from prototype builds into repeatable production. • Contribute to the future procurement organisation, helping define where additional buyers, category specialists, or supplier-development capability will be needed.
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