Senior Procurement Associate at Mobius Motors

Overview: Designed, engineered and built in Kenya, Mobius Motors sells highly durable, highly affordable vehicles for Africa’s mass market. Versatile, rugged and durable, it is designed for African cities whilst still being extremely capable off-road.

We are seeking to hire an exceptional Senior Procurement Associate interested in a truly unique entrepreneurial opportunity to create impact on a global scale as part of our Supply Chain Team.

Responsibilities

The Supply Chain team ensures that Mobius Motors has a seamless delivery of the right capabilities at the right cost from the right source. This encompasses the following areas:

• Sourcing: Develop and implement short/medium and long-term sourcing strategies for global & local procurement of materials (right part, right cost, right time, right quality)
• Logistics: Optimised network for safe, efficient upstream and downstream transport of materials and finished goods
• Inventory: Effective, efficient handling, storage and movement of materials delivered when and only as needed

Every member of the Supply Chain team takes responsibility for supporting the business needs above, which may require expanding responsibilities as needed, additional learning, and tackling new professional challenges beyond what is reflected in this Job Description.

Functional Areas and Responsibilities

Sourcing

• Supplier Selection: Work closely with engineering and quality teams to identify, evaluate and select suppliers and contract manufacturers to support the R&D and production of cost-effective vehicle parts and sub-assemblies.
• Requests for Quotations (RFQs): Follow Mobius ethics & policies and ensure implementation of compliances for requests for quotations (RFQs).
• Contracting: Negotiate all commercial terms and conditions with suppliers for the procurement and delivery of parts, materials, tools, equipment and services.

Development

• Operations Support: Support engineering projects as well as production to establish a smooth and cost-effective supply chain transition from R&D to initial production to scaled production operations.
• Support the team in timely project execution.
• Supplier Relationship: Identify and manage key supplier relationships and activities, both strategic and tactical, for components and subsystems.
• Supervise & ensure achieving quality commitments.

Costing

• Cost Projections: Perform make-or-buy analysis supported by appropriately detailed cost projections.
• Cost Analysis: Deliver comprehensive cost analysis as a basis for price negotiations with suppliers.

Supplier Quality Management

• Quality Management: Support the Quality team to ensure procured product meets drawings, specifications, processes and requirements.
• Quality Assurance: Assist suppliers in quality assurance processes and procedures to facilitate continuous improvement of supplier and product performance.

Procurement

• Material Planning: Work cross-functionally to ensure accurate and effective material requirements planning.
• Supplier Performance: Monitor supplier performance on delivery, quality and cost.
• BOM Support: Manage and reduce bill of materials (BOM) cost by establishing alternative vendors and negotiating price and delivery schedules.
• Cost Management: Constantly work to improve the efficiency of the supply chain, reducing costs and increasing responsiveness to customers.
• Inventory Cycle Management: Work with all involved parties to ensure continuous operation of the production line, by managing material procurement and delivery to achieve maximum inventory turns.
• Stock Optimization: Optimize inventory level & inventory turnover ratio (ToR). Drive and follow up on activities to secure healthy stock ratio.
• Problem-solving: Foresee hurdles & bottle necks in getting supply for assignable & non-assignable causes.
• Plant Support: Take complete procurement ownership of all supplies for direct, indirect and general requirements in the plant.
• Process compliance: Ensure the local implementation and execution of Mobius sourcing processes and contributes to their improvement or adjustment.

Logistics

• Logistics Management: Identify logistics requirements and other operational needs that may significantly impact both the successful delivery of production and total cost of the product, including consolidation and shipment plan to reduce landed costs.
• Logistics Planning: Analyse delivery transportation modes, routing, consolidation opportunities, and other methodologies to create an optimal transportation solution within an integrated logistics network.
• Contracting: Evaluate and release long term & short-term logistics contracts.
• Process Efficiency: Management of timely release of POs, schedule, advance shipment notice (ASN), wireless service networks (WSN) and service providers’ team delivery performance on this.

Academic & Professional Qualifications

• Bachelor degree (minimum) in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Production Engineering, 3.4 GPA or higher from a top university worldwide
• Preferred: Post graduate diploma or master’s degree (or higher) in Supply Chain Management, Operations Research, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Business or similar
• 4+ years related experience in supply chain management, purchasing management, or international logistics
• Hands-on experience in automotive sourcing and development

Functional Knowledge & Skills

• Ability to read and interpret Engineering drawings 2D/or 3D digital mock-up data
• Strong negotiation and supplier management skills
• Competent in zero-based cost analysis on product cost, tooling/mould cost, plant & machine running cost (hour rates) across multiple materials & technologies
• Budgeting & cost control management
• End-to-end strategic vendor selection mapped with design requirements
• Exceptional analytical skills with regards to logistics analysis (product costs, lead-time, project and production scheduling)

General

• Excellent problem-solving ability in cross-functional and multi-cultural environment
• Ability to effectively communicate timelines and project progress with both internal and external management teams
• Effective supplier and materials management in time and mission-critical environments, including contingency planning and crisis management
• Strong technical writing ability; able to read and interpret mechanical/electrical/electronic drawings
• Proficiency in Excel, Project, Power Point, Word
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills to work effectively with others
• A start-up personality; entrepreneurial, ambitious, independent, systematic attention to detail, structured thinker, goal-oriented, flexible and able to deal well with setbacks
• Comfort with spending 30-40% of time travelling internationally, possibly on short notice