Operational Project Buyer

Are you ready to shape the future of sustainable industries? Join GEA and become part of a global team that’s driving innovation, excellence, and impact across the food, beverage, and process sectors. GEA is one of the leading suppliers for the food and beverage processing industry and for a wide range of other process industries. Around 18,000 employees in over 60 countries contribute significantly to GEA’s success: join them! We offer interesting and challenging tasks, a positive working environment in international teams, and opportunities for personal development and growth in a global company.

Responsibilities / Tasks

• Processes purchase orders and follows expediting process
• Clarifies issues with suppliers
• Communicates with suppliers regarding demand, volume and delivery times, reduction of transaction cost, etc.
• Executes purchasing processes following guiding principles from category management
• Supports Finance with invoice verification
• Follows processes, guidelines and procurement policies
• Ensures cost, availability, innovation, and quality within the sourcing plan creation and execution
• Price lists management
• Coordinates, manages and controls materials shipments
• Suppliers management to fulfill on time delivery KPI
• Analyse and proactive use of Materials Requirements Program (MRP) and other systems to determine raw materials/items needs for production/spare parts
• AI implementation across procurement processes Focus in New Project
• Works closely R&D , Strategic buyers, Operational buyer and quality dept
• Manages RFQs, awarding decisions in line with category strategy
• Executes supplier selection along strategy, requirements, supplier base development, and identification of new suppliers
• Monitors and communicates planning of procurement activities related to projects
• Commit to meeting the project cost targets
• Bill of Material costing
• Sourcing Responsible for project sourcing activities
• Responsible for operative sourcing to support production and/or service
• Run scouting process in line with the projects target and according to Strategic Buyers Strategies
• Purchase Requisition, Purchasing & Order processing
• Responsible for processing purchase requisitions, purchase orders & following-up on order confirmations (with expediting if needed)
• Clarifies issues with requestors and suppliers
• Provides feedback to Strategic buyer/Category manager when spotting requisitions going outside of suitable framework agreements
• Acts as 1st point of contact with vendors for daily operations
• Invoice Processing & manage Master data
• Support solving invoice mismatches that couldn‘t be processed by Finance/Accenture
• May maintain local raw material or vendor master data
• Project related interactions
• For projects this person supports, acts as 1st Procurement point of contact for stakeholders in project management, engineering, project planning, controlling (and other project relevant roles)
• Ensures that qualitative and quantitative inputs from the Project team are captured in the different stages of the project
• Requests sourcing support for the relevant scope of supply from Strategic Buyers and/or Category managers (direct & indirect)
• Is early involved in project Sales phase discussions, and recurrently involved in later phases
• Based on involvement, is responsible for sharing progress information from Procurement view (weekly project call, monthly steerCo, stage gate reviews...)
• If needed partners with Logistics representative support the project (e.g. Transport manager) to track risks, costs and lead times related to transport/import/export/receipt of goods
• Key knowledge area: Several competences from ERP system & P2P processes, to sourcing, to project mgt

Your Profile / Qualifications

• Experience in operational procurement roles
• Essential ability to work in team, even in a stressful environment
• Good knowledge of ERP system (SAP preferred)
• Work experience in complex organizations (welcome)
• Cost and data analysis
• AI tools implementation (welcome)
• Exposure to manufacturing/service operations
• Fluent English and Italian
• Financial and Business understanding
• Analytical skills
• Ability to work in matrix organization
• Problem solving skills
• Takes ownership of the work, successes and failures
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• MS Office good knowledge
• Knowledge of shipping , customs clearance and logistic process (welcome)
• Availability to short business trip

The position falls under the Italian National Collective Labour Agreement (CCNL) for the Metalworking Industry, with job classification and level to be defined based on the candidate’s experience and skills. The indicative gross annual salary range for this role is between €30,000 and €36,000, depending on experience, technical expertise, level of autonomy, and market alignment. The overall compensation package may also include variable components and additional company benefits, which will be discussed during the selection process. GEA is proudly certified as a Top Employer, confirming our commitment to employee well-being, development, and empowerment.

GEA is one of the largest suppliers of process technology for the food industry and a wide range of other industries. The international technology group focuses on process technology and components for sophisticated production processes in various end-user markets.