Senior Purchasing Specialist

Founded in 1866, San Jose Water Company is an investor owned water company headquartered in Silicon Valley. With a service area of 140 square miles, it is one of the largest and most technically sophisticated urban water system in the United States. We serve over 1 million people with high quality, life sustaining water, with an emphasis on exceptional customer service.

We are actively seeking talented, driven and highly-productive applicants for the position of Senior Purchasing Specialist to join our dynamic team. We offer a challenging and rewarding work environment along with a competitive salary and an excellent benefits package.

The Senior Procurement Specialist provides advanced operational and analytical support to the Strategic Sourcing Manager, enabling effective execution of sourcing strategies and policies across multiple categories. This role focuses on process coordination, supplier communication, data analysis, and contract administration and compliance to procurement policies and procedures. The role also supports ongoing category management for assigned categories, including categories previously competitively sourced, under the direction of the Strategic Sourcing Manager.

Key Responsibilities

Sourcing Process Support

• Prepare and distribute RFx documentation (RFI, RFQ, RFP) on behalf of the Strategic Sourcing Manager, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and alignment with sourcing strategy.
• Coordinate RFx timelines, supplier communications, bid submissions, and Q&A processes.
• Consolidate supplier responses and develop comparative bid analyses, cost breakdowns, and recommendation-ready summaries.
• Provide analytical and execution support for strategic sourcing programs. Manage timelines, deliverables, and stakeholder communication.
• Track key contract terms, expirations, and compliance requirements.

Category Management Support

• Research Manage assigned categories and supplier relationships, including categories previously competitively sourced, as directed by the Strategic Sourcing Manager.
• Monitor category spend, demand trends, contract utilization, supplier performance, compliance, and realized savings or other negotiated benefits.
• Maintain category profiles and supporting plans that document stakeholders, business requirements, supplier and contract information, renewal dates, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Coordinate post-award category activities, including implementation, stakeholder communication, issue resolution, demand consolidation, contract renewals or extensions, and preparation for future competitive solicitations.
• Identify and analyze opportunities for cost savings, standardization, specification rationalization, supplier consolidation, risk reduction, and process improvement; develop recommendations for review by the Strategic Sourcing Manager.

Supplier Coordination & Administration

• Serve as the primary point of contact for day‑to‑day supplier inquiries, onboarding tasks, and documentation requests.
• Support KPI development and vendor scorecards.

• Ensure appropriate team members receive and act on business requests, including new vendor and purchase order submissions.
• Collaborate with Finance, Accounting, Legal, Risk, Accounts Payable, and Operations teams to resolve procurement‑related issues and ensure compliance with internal controls.

 Process Improvement & Systems Optimization

• Identify, participate and implement in procurement process improvements
• Drive adoption of procurement tools (ERP, e-sourcing platforms, P2P systems)
• Develop reports and dashboards to improve visibility and decision-making

Audit, Capitalization & Cross‑Functional Support

Other Responsibilities

• Maintain accurate records and reporting to support spend visibility and compliance.
• Perform other duties or special projects assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and/or 5+ years of relevant professional experience in procurement, purchasing, or a related field.
• Experience working with ERP systems and procurement software (e.g., SAP, Oracle).
• Intermediate Excel skills required (VLOOKUP, IF Statements, Pivot Tables & Pivot Charts, Data Validation, Conditional Formatting, Basic dashboard creation)
• Working knowledge of procurement principles, bidding processes, and inventory management.
• Familiarity with accounts payable processes, invoice matching, and receiving.
• Experience supporting audits, compliance activities, or regulated business environments preferred.
• Experience supporting category management activities, including spend analysis, supplier performance, contract utilization, savings tracking, and renewal or rebid planning, preferred.
• Strong stakeholder and vendor engagement skills.
• Excellent communication, organization, analytical, and problem‑solving abilities.

EEO Statement
Our company provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics.