Purchasing Supervisor

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

Job Description

As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, you’ll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every single day to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We provide our global teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while helping to take science a step beyond by developing solutions for some of the world’s toughest challenges, like protecting the environment, making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.

Purpose of the Role

The Purchasing Supervisor is responsible for leading the Purchasing team to ensure material availability in line with business priorities, customer demand, and manufacturing requirements. The role combines people leadership with operational excellence, driving supplier performance, continuous improvement, and cross-functional collaboration while supporting strategic supply chain initiatives and business transformation.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & People Development

• Lead, coach, and develop the Purchasing team to achieve operational excellence and high employee engagement.
• Set clear objectives, conduct regular performance reviews, and support individual development, career planning, succession planning, and critical skills development.
• Build a strong, flexible, and customer-focused team capable of responding to changing business priorities and supporting sustainable growth.
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning in line with Thermo Fisher's 4i Values.
• Promote open communication, teamwork, and effective collaboration across all organizational levels.

Procurement & Supplier Management

• Oversee purchasing activities to ensure timely material availability while balancing customer requirements, inventory targets, and manufacturing capacity.
• Support the team in managing supplier performance, delivery reliability, and risk mitigation.
• Lead supplier escalation processes and ensure effective resolution of supply issues through close collaboration with suppliers and internal stakeholders.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key suppliers to support long-term business objectives.

Business Operations & Cross-functional Collaboration

• Ensure alignment between Purchasing, Planning, Operations, Quality, Engineering, Export, and other business functions.
• Support customer demand fulfillment with a strong focus on on-time delivery, product completeness, and service excellence.
• Maintain high data quality and governance within ERP and other operational systems.
• Monitor departmental KPIs, analyze performance trends, and implement corrective actions where needed.

Projects & Continuous Improvement

• Lead or actively participate in strategic supply chain initiatives such as transfers, new product introductions (NPI), end-of-life management, supplier transitions, and process standardization.
• Drive the Practical Process Improvement (PPI) Business System in daily operations and promote a continuous improvement culture.
• Identify opportunities to optimize inventory, supplier performance, procurement processes, and operational efficiency.
• Support implementation of new tools, digital solutions, and supply chain innovations.

Compliance & Governance

• Ensure compliance with IMS requirements, regulatory, quality, environmental, and safety standards.
• Ensure purchasing activities comply with internal procedures and company policies.
• Support inventory accuracy through stocktaking activities and proper master data management.

Requirements

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Proven experience in Purchasing, Supply Chain, or Logistics within a manufacturing environment.
• Previous experience leading or coordinating a team is preferred.
• Experience participating in cross-functional projects such as transfers, NPI, supplier transitions, or process improvement initiatives.
• Good knowledge of ERP systems and Microsoft Office applications.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong leadership and coaching skills with the ability to develop high-performing teams.
• Excellent communication skills in English (written and spoken).
• Strong customer orientation with a business-focused mindset.
• Analytical thinking and ability to make data-driven decisions.
• Ability to prioritize multiple activities in a dynamic business environment.
• Strong stakeholder management and collaboration skills within a matrix organization.
• Continuous improvement mindset with experience applying Lean, PPI, or similar methodologies.

Personal Attributes

• Proactive, resilient, and solution-oriented.
• Strong ownership and accountability for business results.
• Ability to anticipate risks and drive timely actions.
• Flexible and adaptable in a changing environment.
• High level of integrity and professionalism.
• Commitment to Thermo Fisher's 4i Values (Integrity, Intensity, Innovation, and Involvement).