Director of Purchasing

Director of Purchasing - Confidential Search

Retained by Hart Executive Recruiting

Hart Executive Recruiting has been retained on a confidential search for a Director of Purchasing with a well-established, privately held specialty construction and field-services organization. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role for someone who has built, centralized, scaled, or materially improved a purchasing function in a decentralized operating environment.

The company supports project-driven field operations across multiple locations. Purchasing has historically been highly responsive to the field, but processes, controls, supplier strategies, reporting, and responsibilities have evolved differently across the organization. The new Director will preserve that responsiveness while creating a more disciplined, scalable purchasing model.

The Opportunity

This is not a role to inherit a mature procurement organization and simply maintain it. The Director will assess the current state, define what purchasing should own, and build a practical 12-24 month roadmap across more than $20M in annual managed spend, with the opportunity to influence additional decentralized purchasing activity as the function matures.

What You Will Lead

• Assess the purchasing organization, processes, systems, supplier base, controls, and spend visibility; establish clear ownership, decision rights, and accountability across locations.
• Build and execute a purchasing roadmap focused on process standardization, forecasting, spend analytics, supplier leverage, cost improvement, and scalable governance - without slowing field execution.
• Lead strategic sourcing, supplier negotiations, contracts, preferred-supplier programs, and supplier-performance management across equipment-related parts and services, field and safety supplies, consumables, rentals, tooling, and other operational categories.
• Develop meaningful KPIs and reporting around spend, savings, supplier performance, service levels, compliance, and purchasing effectiveness; improve ERP and procurement-technology utilization.
• Lead and develop a geographically distributed purchasing and inventory organization, while partnering closely with operations, maintenance, project, and field leaders.

What We Are Looking For

• 7-10 years of progressive purchasing, procurement, or supply-chain leadership experience, with demonstrated success building, centralizing, scaling, or materially improving a function.
• Experience in a multi-site, multi-region, or decentralized operating environment. Construction, specialty contracting, industrial services, equipment-intensive operations, manufacturing, or distribution experience is strongly preferred.
• Strong strategic sourcing, supplier negotiation, contracting, cost-management, forecasting, and spend-analytics capability.
• Proven people leadership, including team development, performance management, organizational design, and the ability to influence field and operational leaders through change.
• Bachelor's degree required; Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline preferred. ERP and procurement-technology experience required.

Location & Travel

The role may be based from one of several company operating locations in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, or Southeast. Regular on-site presence is expected, with approximately 25-35% travel.

Why Consider It

The appeal is the mandate: executive support, meaningful spend, a field-driven operating environment, and the opportunity to build the next version of the purchasing function rather than inherit someone else's finished system. The right leader will have real latitude to improve how the organization buys, manages suppliers, develops talent, and supports continued growth.