General Manager Purchasing

Client: A global electric-vehicle battery manufacture. Now operates lithium-ion battery plants across Japan, the UK, the US, France, China, and Spain, supplying major automotive OEMs.

The Purchasing GM will play a key leadership role within the Japan Purchasing organization. The position is responsible for strengthening commercial cost reduction, VA/VE activities, second-source development, supplier governance, supply continuity, compliance, and team capability.

Key Responsibilities

1. Purchasing Leadership

• Lead or support the management of the Japan Purchasing organization, including managers, buyers, and procurement support teams.

• Translate company and global purchasing strategies into executable plans for the Japan business.

• Establish annual objectives, KPIs, sourcing strategies, and cost-reduction roadmaps.

• Develop team capability through coaching, workload management, succession planning, and performance management.

• Represent Purchasing in cross-functional management meetings.

• Act as a key bridge between Japan management, overseas headquarters, regional teams, and suppliers.

2. Commercial Cost Reduction

• Develop and execute annual cost-reduction programs across direct materials, production equipment, logistics, energy, maintenance, and indirect categories.

• Lead commercial negotiations based on market benchmarks, cost breakdowns, commodity movements, productivity improvements, volume changes, and supplier profitability.

• Coordinate with global and regional purchasing teams to leverage consolidated volumes and cross-border sourcing opportunities.

3. VA/VE and Cross-Functional Cost Improvement

• Lead and promote Value Analysis/Value Engineering activities in cooperation with Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and suppliers.

• Identify opportunities related to material substitution, specification optimization, design simplification, process improvement, localization, and standardization.

• Evaluate cost, quality, performance, investment, timing, and supply-risk implications of proposed changes.

4. Second-Source Development and Supply Resilience

• Identify components and categories with excessive single-source dependency or supply-continuity risk.

• Develop and execute second-source and alternative-supplier strategies based on business criticality, technical requirements, capacity, cost, and geographic risk.

• Lead new-supplier identification, screening, commercial evaluation, negotiation, and nomination.

• Monitor the progress of second-source projects and remove cross-functional or supplier-related obstacles.

5. Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management

• Develop category and sourcing strategies based on spend analysis, supply-market intelligence, total cost of ownership, and business requirements.

• Lead competitive bidding, supplier evaluation, contract negotiation, and supplier selection.

• Establish a structured supplier-governance and performance-management framework.

6. Cash Flow and Working Capital

• Improve payment terms and other commercial conditions to support cash-flow and working-capital objectives.

• Work with Supply Chain and Finance to improve purchasing forecasts, inventory visibility, and slow-moving inventory management.

7. Purchasing Governance and Compliance

• Ensure compliance with purchasing policies, approval authorities, internal controls, and applicable laws and regulations.

• Strengthen purchase-order discipline and reduce non-PO transactions.

8. Cross-Cultural and Cross-Functional Coordination

• Coordinate effectively among Japan operations, overseas headquarters, regional purchasing organizations, shared-service teams, and global stakeholders.

• Communicate Japan-specific supplier conditions, business practices, and operational requirements clearly to overseas stakeholders.

9. Purchasing Process Improvement

• Drive standardization, digitalization, and continuous improvement across purchasing processes.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Finance, or a related discipline.

• Approximately 10 or more years of purchasing or procurement experience.

• Management experience as a department head, deputy department head, purchasing manager, category leader, or an equivalent position.

• Purchasing experience with an automotive OEM or Tier 1/Tier 2 automotive supplier.

• Proven track record in commercial cost reduction and supplier negotiations.

• Practical experience leading VA/VE activities with Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, and suppliers.

• Demonstrated experience in second-source development, supplier qualification, and localization.

• Strong knowledge of automotive purchasing processes, cost structures, quality requirements, and change-control procedures.

• Experience working with overseas headquarters, regional organizations, or global stakeholders.

• Ability to operate effectively in a multicultural and matrix-based organization.

• Working knowledge of ERP and purchasing systems; SAP experience is preferred.

• The ability to conduct complex supplier negotiations and prepare management-level documentation.

• Business-level English communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in batteries, electrified powertrains, electronic components, automotive materials, or production equipment.

• Experience working for both Japanese and international companies.

• Experience reporting to or collaborating with overseas headquarters.

• Experience managing multicultural, offshore, or shared-service teams.

• Familiarity with cost breakdown analysis, should-cost modelling, and commodity-index-based pricing.

• Knowledge of automotive quality systems, APQP, PPAP, 4M change control, and production-launch requirements.

• Professional procurement or supply-chain certification, such as CPSM, CIPS, or an equivalent qualification.