WHO ARE WE?

The Toro Company is a homegrown, Minnesota-based company that has been in business since 1914. We pride ourselves on providing world-class equipment to help maintain the environment that we love, while putting an emphasis on giving back to the communities that surround us. From residential lawns and gardens, to venues such as St Andrews Links and Target Field, we are a company with a global footprint and a passion for helping people beautify whatever landscape they may be in. With 100 years of operation under our belt and an average employee tenure of 15 years, come find out what makes The Toro Company the best place in the Twin Cities to build a career.
The Sourcing Specialist II position is an essential role in the sourcing department. The Sourcing Specialist II’s major responsibilities are reducing costs, cultivating strategic supplier relationships, improving quality and delivery metrics, and supporting continuous improvement projects. The Sourcing Specialist II also ensures collaboration across the supply partners and category team to help the Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) achieve its goals of Operational Excellence and Sustainability. This role blends tactical and strategic capabilities within the global sourcing department and significantly impacts the day-to-day operations of The Toro Company (TTC). This role is highly engaging and can also provide opportunities to explore future career paths within our dynamic Sourcing Department.

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

In order to grow and build a successful career with The Toro Company, you will be responsible for:

• Take a proactive approach to enhancing the supplier relationship through excellent communication to ensure the supplier has alignment with ISC’s goals.
• Support development and implementation of supply agreements, Long Term Agreements (LTA), and collaborative partnerships.
• Execute category team’s cost reduction strategy through supplier negotiations and partnership with cross functional teams. Complete and/or review total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis and provide guidance to category team and leadership.
• Provide input to, understand, and support the category specific strategy. Understand how category strategy connects to ISC strategy and build understanding of how other categories fit into ISC strategy.
• Support Category Manager in cost negotiations and contract implementation with strategic suppliers.
• Provide input to and support the Category Manager in long term cost control strategies to fit specific strategic supplier partnerships and commodities.
• Manage purchase requisition queue and ensure purchase orders are placed with suppliers offering fair pricing, outstanding quality, and excellent service.
• Research and identify new suppliers that align with Toro values and determine the best possible supplier for a part based on the supplier classification criteria set by category team.
• Support supplier transitions. Participate in supplier exit process standardization and continuous improvement projects.
• Supports multiple areas of the parts procurement process within TTC’s MRP/ERP system.
• Champion the TTC’s Escalation process and requests from TTC’s manufacturing plants on supplier deliveries and escalations as required.
• Assist in supplier transitions. Participate in supplier exit process standardization and continuous improvement projects.
• Consistently manage deviation from specification (DFS) requests from suppliers. Assist supplier quality engineer when needed. Attend and participate in supplier quality review meetings/calls.
• Resolve invoice discrepancies and authorize payment on invoice holds as appropriate.
• Ensure engineering change notices (ECN’s) are completed timely.
• Lead and support various intradepartmental process improvement projects including lean activities, productivity improvements, lead time maintenance and others as assigned.
• Demonstrate business knowledge and ability to learn more than one category.
• Ability to troubleshoot routine issues that arise in moderately complex situations that may not be routine in nature.
• Demonstrate the ability to train and offer expert guidance to team members.
• All other tasks and projects as assigned.

Working Conditions:

• Typical office environment as it pertains to lighting, temperature, and noise level when in administrative / operations offices.
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and mouse, and to handle other computer components.
• Able to travel both domestically and internationally, approximately >10%.

To be considered for this role, an individual should meet the following minimal requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree preferred in Supply Chain Management, Operations or Engineering 2+ years of professional experience desired.
• Sourcing experience or relevant education normally gained by completing degree in supply chain or operations related field preferred
• Ability to obtain a Supply Chain Management certification valued. (Helping a supplier get set up)
• Highly Self-motivated, ability to work under pressure, manage and prioritize multiple objectives concurrently, attend to details, and meet deadlines in a dynamic environment.
• Proven ability to analyze situations and accurately take effective actions.
• Proficient skills in Microsoft Suite, MRP/ERP, Ariba and SAP®
• Ability to maintain and lead during rapidly changing situations, remaining focused on the relevant objective.
• Work independently as well as within a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Understanding of manufacturing processes, cost drivers, and market dynamics for assigned commodities