Purchasing Agent

About KB Home

KB Home is one of the largest and most recognized homebuilders in the United States and has built over 650,000 quality homes in our more than 60-year history. Today, KB Home operates in 45 markets from coast to coast. What sets KB Home apart is the exceptional personalization we offer our homebuyers from those buying their first home to experienced buyers allowing them to make their home uniquely their own, at a price that fits their budget. As the leader in energy-efficient homebuilding, KB Home was the first builder to make every home it builds ENERGY STAR certified, a standard of energy performance achieved by fewer than 10% of new homes in America, and has built more ENERGY STAR certified homes than any other builder. An energy-efficient KB home helps lower the cost of ownership and is designed to be healthier, more comfortable and better for the environment than new homes without certification. We build strong, personal relationships with our customers so they have a real partner in the homebuying process. As a result, we have the distinction of being the #1 customer-ranked national homebuilder in third-party buyer satisfaction surveys. Build your career with KB Home. Learn more.

JOB SUMMARY: A Purchasing Agent conducts the following purchasing procedures: bid evaluation, negotiation between vendors, contractor selection, and contract documentation. This position manages all contracts, work orders, purchase orders and expense controls, with the ultimate goal of securing the best-value at a fair and reasonable cost. Purchasing Agents own the purchasing responsibilities of a single community at a time, from new community setup to completion working directly with both intradepartmental and interdepartmental management as necessary.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Purchasing Process

Responsible for implementing the purchasing process:

• Establish material take-off's and cost estimates with subcontractors and consultants

• Evaluate and onboard subcontractors and solicit bids

• Conduct effective negotiations to achieve desired results (best-value)

• Comprehensively analyze proposals and prepare bid-award packages (cost breakdown analysis)

• Deliver and document professional contract awards

• Archive all critical path supporting documents to SharePoint in accordance with compliance requirements.

• Ensure contract administration process flows efficiently at all times

Process Improvement

• Aggressively streamline the labor and material supply chain with the construction team

• Seek out cost reduction opportunities; eliminate material waste and pricing discrepancies

• Leverage national contracts and other economies of scale for division use

Options

• Setup and manage Sales and Studio options.

• Maintain options database to reflect changes and upgrades on a consistent basis

New Community Setup and Community Plan Adds

• Manage new community setup including Direct Cost budgets

• Coordinate and implement community plan adds from solicitation of bids to activation to-sale

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

Education

• High School Diploma required

• Associate or Bachelor's Degree preferred in Business, Accounting, Communications, or related field.

Experience

• 2+ years of progressive experience with material and/or trade partner procurement

• Prior homebuilding industry experience, preferably Single-Family New Construction.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• General knowledge of residential construction and the labor and material components needed to construct single family homes including:

• Material Takeoffs

• Scopes of Work (SOW's)

• General market knowledge:

• Sufficient so as to analyze direct costs in order to create, maintain or improve budgets.

• Local trade -base relationships a plus.

• Must be able to multi task and meet deadlines, high level of organization required.

• Need to possess strong communication and problem-solving skills with the ability to negotiate contracts that will support the division needs.

• Display a cooperative attitude at all times.

• Must have strong mathematical and statistical aptitude.

• Interact with all levels of internal and external customers in a professional and supportive manner.

• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal.

• Must be able to complete work with limited supervision and high level of autonomy.

• Strong experience in using various computerized systems necessary.

• MS Dynamics preferred but not required.

• Hyphen Platform (BuildPro / SupplyPro)

• Proficient in Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook

• Incorporate these Fundamentals

• Autonomy & Self-Direction

• Business Expertise

• Problem Solving

• Quality Focus/Detail Orientation

• Negotiation & Interpersonal Communication Skills

• Team Orientation

• Ownership - Results Focused

• Project / Task Management

• Adaptability / Flexibility

• Clerical / Technology Skills

• Customer obsessed & community oriented

Work Requirements

• Ability to maintain ethical behavior at all times

• Local travel will be periodically required

• Need to be able to work a full work day with additional time after hours if needed

Find out why KB Home is attracting and retaining the best employees! If you are interested and qualified, please apply now. KB Home provides above average compensation packages and earnings potential, full benefits, an outstanding 401K matching program, bonus plans and amazing promotional opportunities. KB Home is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse work team. Diversity is important to KB Home!