Senior Buyer

Senior Buyer 

The George Mason University Purchasing Office is seeking a talented Senior Buyer to perform complicated and highly technical procurement activities for a wide variety of goods and services. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment.

Responsibilities: 

The Senior Buyer shall ensure that purchases are made in accordance with the Code of Virginia, university policy and purchasing best practices. Essential duties include:

• Manage procurement cycle for the purchase of the most complex goods and services;
• Receive and review requisitions, specifications, and scopes of work; and assimilate into detailed needs statements and bidding documents;
• Analyze bids and proposals, work with evaluation committees to determine the best value, and award contracts;
• Develop, champion, and ensure implementation of strategic sourcing principles that will optimize total cost of ownership for assigned spend category;
• Develop contract negotiation strategies, and serve as the lead in driving contract negotiations to achieve stated goals and objectives;
• Utilize rate control terms within agreements to maintain pricing in alignment with market through contract life cycle;
• Work collaboratively with business stakeholders to analyze, monitor, and manage internal demand for related goods and services within assigned spend category;
• Assist in developing and executing category management strategies to include risk assessments; overall market, industry and supply base analysis; and category and vendor segmentation.

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree, or an equivalent combination of skills and experience; 
• At least two years of full-time purchasing experience; 
• Recent experience leading the request for proposal (RFP) process for complex goods and services, with a dollar value frequently in excess of $200,000;
• Ability to manage complex, highly technical contract negotiations with minimal assistance;
• A proven track record in understanding the key negotiation, leverage, and deal points for each commodity category;
• A high level of attention to detail with excellent organizational skills and the ability to handle multiple procurement efforts, projects, and solicitations at the same time.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• A nationally recognized certification in the field of procurement; 
• A certification in contract management; 
• Prior experience in a higher education or government purchasing environment 

Special Instructions to Applicants: 

For full consideration, applicants must apply for position number 03049z at https://jobs.gmu.edu/; complete and submit the online application; and upload a cover letter, resume, a list of three professional references with contact information.

George Mason University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, committed to promoting inclusion and equity in its community. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or veteran status, or any characteristic protected by law.