Senior Manager of Strategic Contracts

Senior Manager of Strategic Sourcing, Contracts & Logistics

Location: Roanoke, VA

Employment Type: Full-time, onsite

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Virginia Transformer is a privately held, organically growing manufacturer of custom power transformers. Every transformer we build is custom, every challenge is unique, and every team member helps power our success.

On the heels of achieving 3X growth, Virginia Transformer is hiring to do it again. We’re looking for leaders who can help us grow while keeping suppliers, materials, and production aligned. One team. One mission. One source.

Position Summary

Virginia Transformer is seeking a Senior Manager of Strategic Sourcing, Contracts & Logistics to manage sourcing and supplier execution for transformer materials, engineered components, purchased assemblies, and associated freight.

This role turns released bills of material, the order backlog, and shop schedules into practical purchasing, expediting, and logistics plans. The Senior Manager will lead a purchasing and logistics team or assigned commodity portfolio, prevent material-related production interruptions, manage landed cost, and coordinate oversized transformer deliveries with qualified transportation providers.

Key Responsibilities

Material Sourcing and Supplier Performance

• Manage sourcing and purchasing for assigned materials, including copper and aluminum conductors, grain-oriented electrical steel, insulation, transformer oil, fabricated tanks and parts, bushings, tap changers, radiators, and controls.
• Partner with Design Engineering and Quality to confirm specifications, drawings, approved sources, inspection requirements, and proposed substitutions before placing orders.
• Negotiate supplier pricing, lead times, delivery schedules, quality obligations, freight terms, and commercial protections within approved authority.
• Maintain supplier scorecards, lead delivery reviews, expedite late components, and follow up on corrective actions for recurring shortages or quality defects.
• Support supplier qualification and alternate-source development in coordination with Engineering and Quality.

Planning, Cost, and Inventory

• Convert released engineering bills of material and production milestones into procurement priorities and material-readiness plans by transformer order.
• Identify long-lead risks early, especially for bushings, tap changers, specialty steel, and customer-specific accessories; escalate shortages with recovery options.
• Review copper, aluminum, and electrical steel price variances, minimum order quantities, inventory exposure, and alternatives with Finance and Planning.
• Improve ERP purchase-order data, supplier acknowledgments, delivery dates, inventory visibility, and processes for engineering changes or excess materials.
• Maintain order-level shortage registers showing BOM release, purchase-order acknowledgment, supplier promise date, required shop date, risk, and recovery owner.
• Coordinate conductor and steel deliveries with winding and core schedules, and ensure long-lead accessories are available before final assembly and testing.
• Assess cancellation, restocking, and reuse exposure when engineering revisions affect materials already ordered.

Contracts and Transportation

• Administer assigned supplier agreements and ensure purchase orders reflect approved commercial terms and engineering requirements.
• Coordinate inbound shipments and interplant transfers with Warehouse, Receiving, and Manufacturing.
• Work with heavy-haul carriers and project managers to coordinate shipment weights and dimensions, routes, permits, lifting arrangements, insurance, and delivery schedules.
• Obtain and compare carrier proposals based on route feasibility, permits, bridge and axle restrictions, rail or port transfers, insurance, crane or rigging needs, and delivery milestones.
• Monitor inbound, interplant, and cross-border shipments; flag customs, duty, lead-time, or documentation gaps that could affect production or customer delivery.
• Track freight variances, damage claims, premium expediting, and carrier performance by project.

Commodity Cost and Supplier Agreements

• Track copper, aluminum, and electrical steel market movements and quantify cost changes against estimating assumptions, supplier price formulas, and open project budgets.
• Negotiate routine purchase terms within approved limits, including delivery schedules, quality remedies, documentation, inspection rights, freight responsibilities, and price-adjustment mechanisms.
• Develop recovery plans when critical components will miss required dates. Assess approved alternate suppliers, partial deliveries, or schedule resequencing.
• Coordinate technical qualifications and conditional source changes with Design Engineering and Quality. Proposed substitutions that could affect transformer performance require engineering approval.

Team Leadership and Expansion Readiness

• Establish purchase-order approval and supplier-acknowledgment checkpoints for drawings, quality provisions, receiving requirements, ship dates, and change controls.
• Review buyer workload, supplier-expediting follow-up, receiving discrepancies, and invoice mismatches; coach purchasers and logistics coordinators on resolving issues promptly.
• Prepare supplier capacity and lead-time readiness plans for increased transformer output or new plant material demand, coordinated with approved expansion schedules.
• Report supplier risk, material readiness, commodity variance, premium freight, and documented cost reductions to manufacturing and functional leadership.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent substantial procurement experience.
• 8 years of experience in manufacturing purchasing, sourcing, supplier management, or industrial logistics, including team or commodity leadership.
• Experience purchasing specification-driven, long-lead materials or engineered components against factory production schedules.
• Strong supplier negotiation, cost analysis, ERP/MRP, expediting, and contract-administration skills.
• Ability to coordinate supply constraints with Engineering, Planning, Quality, Operations, and Project Management.
• Experience using engineering bills of material and MRP demand dates to manage material shortages and expediting priorities.
• Ability to quantify copper, aluminum, and electrical steel cost exposure, supplier delivery risk, and freight variance at the order or plant level.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in power transformer, electrical equipment, or heavy engineered-to-order manufacturing.
• Experience sourcing copper, aluminum, electrical steel, transformer accessories, and materials from international suppliers.
• Knowledge of oversized and heavy-haul freight planning, import/export requirements, or Incoterms.
• Experience with supplier agreements and logistics for engineered electrical equipment or heavy capital equipment.
• Familiarity with supply-chain coordination across the United States, Mexico, and India.

Key Performance Measures

• Critical-material readiness against scheduled production starts
• Supplier on-time delivery and incoming quality
• Material price variance and inventory exposure
• Premium freight, heavy-haul readiness, and shipment performance
• Long-lead purchase-order acknowledgment and promise-date accuracy
• Material shortages affecting scheduled coil, core, assembly, or test starts
• Approved alternate-source coverage for critical component families

Role details: This is a full-time, onsite position in Roanoke, Virginia. Reporting line, direct reports, delegated authority, and specific performance targets will be established by leadership.