Purchasing Supervisor
Location: EllisDon Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Department: Purchasing
Reports To: Controller
Position Summary
The Purchasing Supervisor is responsible for the compliant sourcing, purchasing, expediting, coordinating, and overseeing procurement activities for materials, equipment, tools, rentals, and consumables required to support construction operations. As the leader of the purchasing team, this role provides day-to-day direction, guidance, and support to purchasing team, ensuring purchasing activities are completed accurately, efficiently, and in alignment with project and organizational needs. This role ensures project teams receive the right products and services at the right time, at the best overall price, while maintaining quality, compliance, supplier performance, and team accountability standards.
Key Responsibilities
Purchasing
- Management, coaching, and development of one or more purchasers.
- Manage the full purchasing cycle, including requisition review, budget evaluation, supplier quote evaluation, supplier award, purchase order creation, order tracking, expediting, delivery coordination, and issue resolution.
- Execute high-volume purchasing activities across multiple construction entities with multiple active projects while maintaining accuracy, cost effectiveness, and responsiveness to changing project priorities.
- Review project requirements, schedules, budgets, and lead times to proactively identify procurement needs and reduce delays to field operations.
- Monitor market conditions, material availability, supplier capacity, and long-lead items to mitigate procurement and supply chain risks.
Buying Practices
- Analyze purchasing trends, project forecasts, and supplier options to identify opportunities for cost savings, volume discounts, supplier consolidation, standardization, and improved buying agreements.
- Evaluate alternate products, suppliers, and purchasing strategies that meet operational requirements while improving value and reducing supply disruption.
Supplier Management
- Build and maintain effective relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, rental providers, and service partners.
- Negotiate pricing, terms, delivery schedules, service agreements, rebates, and volume discounts to support project and organizational objectives.
- Evaluate supplier performance based on safety, quality, pricing, responsiveness, reliability, and overall service delivery.
- Resolve supplier performance issues, delivery challenges, product discrepancies, and documentation concerns in a timely and professional manner.
- Provide coaching, workload oversight, and performance support to direct reports to promote consistent supplier communication, accurate documentation, and timely issue resolution.
Project Support & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Collaborate with Project Managers, Superintendents, Estimators, Equipment Manager, Operations leaders, and Finance to align procurement activities with project schedules, budgets, and operational needs.
- Track purchasing commitments, price variances, inventory levels, material usage, and cost-saving opportunities to support project cost control and accurate reporting.
- Maintain accurate procurement records, purchase orders, quotations, supplier documentation, and cost coding to support reporting, audits, and compliance requirements.
- Collaborate with Accounts Payable to ensure purchase orders are accurately prepared, maintained, and updated to support timely and efficient downstream payment processing.
Reporting
- Develop, administer and issue various reports as requested (e.g. Buy-out, Compliance, Aging, etc.).
Qualifications
Education
- Diploma or degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Procurement, Logistics, Construction Management, Commerce, or a related discipline; an equivalent combination of education and relevant construction procurement experience may be considered.
Experience
- Minimum 5-8 years of purchasing experience, including 3-5 years within the construction industry.
- Previous supervisory experience will be considered an asset.
- Inventory management experience will be considered an asset.
- Experience will equipment shop pushing will be considered an asset.
- Explorer Eclipse experience will be considered an asset.
- Demonstrated experience supporting self-performing heavy civil and infrastructure projects.
- Proven ability to manage high-volume purchasing demands, multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and time-sensitive procurement requirements.
- Strong working knowledge of construction materials, equipment, rentals, consumables, supplier networks, and regional market conditions across Western Canada.
Knowledge, Skills & Competencies
- Strong negotiation, analytical, planning, communication, and problem-solving skills.
- Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to work independently and manage competing priorities in a fast-paced construction environment.
- Sound understanding of purchasing contracts, commercial terms, supplier agreements, procurement documentation, and ethical purchasing practices.
- Collaborative, service-focused approach with the ability to build strong relationships with internal teams and external suppliers.
- Demonstrated leadership capability, including the ability to set priorities, delegate work, coach team members, hold others accountable, and support a productive team environment.
