Buyer II or III, Product Development

Position: Buyer II or III, New Product Development - The Toro Company
** Buyer II:
** Bachelor's Degree plus more than two (3) years related experience.
** Buyer III:
** Bachelor's Degree plus more than four (5) years related experience.
* This role will be based at the Bloomington, MN Toro's International Corporate Headquarters.  Fully remote is not available at this time.
* The current team works 3-days on campus, with optional 2-days remote.
* Typical office environment as it pertains to lighting, temperature, and noise level when in administrative/operations offices.
* This position will work closely with key channel partners and must collaborate among a wide variety of internal teams including marketing, retail and sales channels, business segments and more.
* Travel 10%, domestic and international, an related expense reporting duties.
* Communicate and work with existing Company production and non-production supplier base and internal development teams from prototype phase through production launch to ensure material supply well aligned to support development, pilot, and launch builds.
* Create, follow up, and maintain purchase orders throughout the development cycle, while expediting with suppliers to address any gaps in supply.
* Support and lead material readiness reviews with project teams and site materials teams and escalate to project-based NPD Sourcing Managers or company-wide Commodity Managers as needed to assure successful material alignment.
* Identify and maintain up-to-date knowledge of approved supplier capabilities, technologies and processes in order to assist in the matching of appropriate suppliers for new parts originating from product development teams.
* Partner with NPD Sourcing Managers and Commodity Managers on production award decisions and negotiation.
* Participate in the prototype “buy” process for fabricated components with NPD sourcing, advanced manufacturing, and engineering internal customer base.
* Research new technologies, materials, and suppliers that can be incorporated into Toro’s new product development model and serve as an internal resource, communicating findings to project teams.
* Consider and address potential design for manufacturability during the prototype request process, communicating to respective internal customer.
* Negotiate with suppliers and internal customers to provide the best options with the best lead times, cost, and other applicable variables.
* Serve as a “liaison” between the Company and its non-production supplier base.
* Serve as an active product development team member in phases 1-5 of Toro’s Phase Gate processes to ensure cross-functional objectives of new product development (NPD).
* Work with CTRI team to secure components and services for “one off” R&D (research and development) units.
* Participate in new product/part design reviews and coordinate the election and participation of applicable suppliers for prototype components/services.
* Support NPD sourcing teams at other Toro locations, as needed.
* Provide pricing and analysis with product development teams to support project budgets.
* Work with internal fabrication systems, Product Development Lab (PDL), to support justification of capital improvements/asset acquisition.
* Participate with advanced manufacturing engineers (AME’s) and product designers in identifying new outsourcing opportunities as part of the make vs buy decision for “non-production” components.
* Participate in pre-production procurement of key components as asked.
* Initiate the “non-production” approval process, as needed.
* Support Toro test and industrial design and marketing internal customers with procurement of components for testing needs, show units and voice of customer(VOC) units.
* Support supplier visits and lunch-n-learns as requested.
* Support “non-production” prototype components.
* Develop and maintain prototype quoting strategies and performance metrics.
* Bachelor’s degree required, preferred in Supply Chain Management, Operations or Engineering.
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills to effectively and diplomatically interact with and meet customer needs (internal and external).
* Highly self-motivated, ability to work under pressure, manage and…