Capital Equipment Procurement Lead
Client: Grassroots Manufacturing Plant
Location: Remote until plant is built then relocating to Huntsville, Al
Benefits: Health, Vision, Dental, 401K, Paid Time Off
Position overview
The Equipment Leader buys the owner-furnished capital equipment for Project Huntsville greenfield cGMP active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) campus in Huntsville, Alabama. The role owns each equipment package from RFQ through purchase order, fabrication, delivery and turnover, and executes all of it in SAP and SAP Ariba.
Capital Project Procurement works daily with engineering, project controls, quality, commissioning/qualification/validation (CQV) and construction, with the project's design and EPCM partners, and with 's Owner's Representative. The role is also responsible for the agitated filter dryer (AFD) and process super skid packages. is the only party authorized to commit to equipment suppliers on this project, so this role is the commercial point of contact for every equipment vendor.
The first priority is the long-lead program: power transformers, medium-voltage switchgear and cable, agitated filter dryers (AFDs), process skids and structural steel, where lead times of one to three years drive the site schedule.
Key responsibilities
Equipment sourcing and buying
- Lead owner-direct procurement of long-lead process, utility and electrical equipment, including power and liquid-filled transformers, 5 kV to 38 kV switchgear, medium-voltage cable, AFDs, reactors, centrifuges, process super skids and structural steel.
- Build and own the long-lead order-by schedule (order-by date = required-at-site date − lead time − float), flag packages at risk and escalate before float is consumed.
- Prepare RFQ and bid packages with engineering, build and prequalify bidder lists, and issue every event through SAP Ariba Sourcing.
- Run the commercial bid analysis (CBA), coordinate the technical bid evaluation (TBE) with engineering, and write the Recommendation to Award.
- Negotiate price, payment milestones, warranties, liquidated damages, delivery commitments and vendor field-service rates.
- Apply existing master agreements, volume pricing and replication pricing, and benchmark every award against prior projects.
- Prepare sole-source justifications where competitive bidding is not possible.
- Issue purchase orders on terms and manage PO revisions, change orders and claims through closeout.
Expediting, quality and logistics
- Track each order through approval drawings, design qualification (DQ), sub-vendor buyout, start of fabrication, FAT/inspection, delivery and vendor turnover packages (VTOPs).
- Coordinate factory and site acceptance tests (FAT/SAT) and shop inspections with engineering, quality and CQV.
- Make sure vendor documentation (drawings, manuals, material certifications, spare-parts lists) supports IQ/OQ and turnover to operations.
- Oversee expediting, shipping, receiving, laydown and storage with construction and site logistics.
Budget, controls and reporting
- Track commitments and spend against the equipment budget, forecast cost to complete and report variances to project leadership.
- Maintain the equipment list and procurement log as the project's single source of truth.
- Publish weekly and monthly status reports with these metrics: packages to be issued, packages issued, POs issued, POs closed, PO growth and required-at-site (RAS) date delta.
Team and stakeholders
- Lead, mentor and assign work to buyers, expediters and procurement coordinators as the equipment team grows.
- Serve as the single commercial contact for equipment vendors and keep every vendor interaction within ethics and procurement policy.
Basic requirements
- Education: Bachelor's degree in supply chain, engineering, business or a related field. Equivalent experience will be considered.
- Equipment buying: 10+ years buying engineered capital equipment, including at least 3 years on capital projects
- Order size: Has placed and managed individual equipment orders of $1 million or more, from RFQ through delivery.
- Long-lead equipment: Proven record managing long-lead process, utility or electrical equipment with lead times over 12 months.
- SAP: 5+ years of hands-on SAP purchasing (MM): PO creation and change, milestone billing plans, goods receipt, invoice resolution and PO closeout.
- SAP Ariba: 3+ years of hands-on SAP Ariba Sourcing and Contracts: has personally built and awarded competitive sourcing events and managed contract workspaces.
- Regulated industry: Experience on a greenfield or major expansion project in pharmaceutical, biotech, life sciences, oil and gas or another highly regulated manufacturing setting.
- cGMP: Working knowledge of vendor documentation needed for equipment qualification and validation.
- EPC/EPCM: Experience working alongside EPC or EPCM firms and multidisciplinary engineering teams.
- Tools: Advanced Excel (pivot tables, lookups, schedule and commitment logs).