Commodity Buyer - Marketing

Discovery Corporate Services – Group Procurement

Commodity Buyer

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About (Group Procurement)

Discovery conducts a centre-led Procurement department which has three strategic objectives, namely optimising cost efficiency, supplier partnering to create shared value and transformation through preferential procurement. These are underpinned by the principles of proper governance and good corporate citizenship.

Key Purpose

The main purpose of Commodity Buyer is to support the implementation of strategic and tactical sourcing strategies for various products and services that will drive the objectives of increased savings and inclusive procurement while adhering to governance and managing the objectives of internal business stakeholders. The buyer will lead and assist the team in managing the assigned portfolio and departmental objectives. An important aspect of this role is to optimize cost efficiencies, improve compliance, manage supplier performance and support Discovery’s business plans.

  Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

Strategic and Tactical

• Support the implementation of sourcing strategies based on existing and forecased spend.
• Assist with optimising marketing through spend analysis and optimisation with a total cost of ownership approach.
• Participate in cross-functional teams to ensure that Discovery is leveraging spend and driving best value.
• Support internal customers for the sourcing of tactical goods and services by following established and approved procurement policies and procedures in order to provide the lowest cost consistent with quality and service requirements while maintaining good supplier relations.
• Optimise procurement savings.
• Maintain effective working relationships with external customers and/or suppliers with a view to assess or improve the quality of procurement and purchasing practices.
• Work with cross functional team with the aim to increase contract coverage and process efficiency
• Assist with preparation of monthly reports for exco and recommend areas of improvement for the procurement division.

Administration

• Attend applicable forums and committees to review procurement requests for purchase orders.
• Request competitive quotes and proposals and ensure the implementation of the 3-quote system for tactical and transactional orders.
• Review planned orders and renewals, create requisitions for orders and assign these for approval, send the approved purchase orders to suppliers.
• Facilitate interactions with suppliers and internal business stakeholders on a daily basis to resolve transactional issues and gather critical information (open orders, account statements, invoices, tracking info, tax docs, etc.).
• Validate contract pricing for all purchase requests under procurement management (review of invoice listing reports) and track compliance.
• Ensure matching and receipting orders (where applicable) to ensure payments are made within the required payment terms.
• Create catalogues (where applicable) for service providers against which Discovery can purchase items (e.g. marketing merchandise and promotional items).

B-BBEE

• Engage with vendors that do not meet the minimum B-BBEE requirements and agree on plans to improve their B-BBEE levels in order to protect Discovery’s B-BBEE status.
• Scan the market to identify vendors that we could onboard to help us reach our B-BBEE targets and overcome potential shortfalls.
• Recommend B-BBEE vendors to take part in RFx processes.

Contract Management

• Work with internal marketing stakeholders to achieve 80% of addressable spend under contract management.
• Engage Cross Functional Teams and suppliers to finalise contract renewals prior to expiration.

Managed Spend under procurement

• Meet with marketing business to see how we can influence and increase spend under procurement management (S-UPM).
• Share and discuss the procurement policy and processes with internal marketing business stakeholders to increase understanding and compliance to the procurement policies and procedures.

Savings

• Implement category strategies established by the Category Management Team that will assist in reaching the required savings targets.
• Validate contract pricing for all purchase requests under procurement management (review of invoice listing reports) and track savings against contracted terms.
• Record savings achieved into the savings register for approval and signed off by the business and following up to ensure that these are finalised.
• Meet with vendors to see how we can reduce our overall cost and aimprove our Total cost of ownership (TCO).

Supplier Relationship Management

• Set up and attend Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR) with strategic suppliers and the Cross Funtional Teams to identify changes in the environment that could impact Discovery.

Reporting

• Assist with the development and generation of monthly, weekly and adhoc reports for the Procurement Management Team.

Personal Attributes and Skills

• Must be able to operate independently.
• Must be able to work under pressure.
• Able to perform multiple concurrent tasks and responsibilities and to deal with changing priorities while maintaining personal effectiveness.
• Good negotiation skills.
• Understanding of contract management and risk mitigation factors.
• Ability to communicate (orally and in writing) and be responsive to internal customer requirements.
• Decisive and deadline driven.
• Willing to challenge ideas and provide suggestions which are in the best interests of Discovery.
• Ability to work collaboratively with internal customers and the wider procurement team.
• Must exhibit sound interpersonal skills involving interfacing, coordinating and negotiating with internal customers and suppliers.

Education and Experience

• Tertiary qualification or working towards a qualification in Purchasing and/or Supply Chain Management, preferably CIPS.
• 1-3 years procurement experience at a Buyer level.
• Experience in implementing marketing sourcing strategies and engaging in tactical and transactional sourcing activities that deliver on cost, quality, and service objectives.

Employment Equity  

The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY   
                             
The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.