Procurement Coordinator

 Wanted: A Self-Driven Purchasing Powerhouse(Also known as a Procurement Coordinator)  EMBARK ON YOUR JOURNEY

We invite you to join Entara and further your career journey with us as our Procurement Coordinator. At Entara, we believe we have perfected the craft of what it looks like to be a top-tier service provider.  In the midst of solidifying our client’s technical foundations, there is an ongoing need to get the right items to the right stakeholders at the right time. That’s where our Procurement Coordinator comes in, employing a mastery of data and logistical details with a precision that enables our teams and clients to be at their technical best.  
Procurement at Entara involves understanding purchase needs, learning about technology, preparing proposals, gathering approvals, placing orders, communicating with suppliers, delivering updates, following well-developed processes, transferring data, and documenting religiously. We are seeking out an administrative ace, someone to bring order and efficiency to the wide-reaching activities of our purchasing department.  As a tech-forward company, our ideal Coordinator would aim to use online platforms and automation as much as possible to streamline their activities and throughput. Our Coordinator is a team player who regularly “makes the magic happen” behind the scenes to keep the wheels moving and occasionally pull a rabbit out of a hat.
The life of a purchaser can involve unexpected twists and turns, leaving never a dull moment and plenty of opportunities to act quickly and decisively, handling requests on a tight deadline with ease. In the quieter moments, time is well spent keeping parallel projects moving and ensuring our systems provide the best possible purchasing information for our teammates. Are you the powerhouse Procurement Coordinator we’ve been looking for?  

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

The Procurement Coordinator sits at the helm of our purchasing function, managing the purchasing and distribution process to get resources (including hardware, software, and more) from vendors to Entara and to our clients or employees. The Procurement Coordinator monitors and receives incoming requests for procurement and passes these requests through the appropriate stages of our purchasing process. From providing quotes, to communicating with stakeholders, to arranging logistics, the Procurement Coordinator will ensure each purchase is placed and tracked to completion. In addition, the Procurement Coordinator will review and enter transactions into company systems, ensure procurement standards are applied uniformly, and respond to special purchase request projects. Our Procurement Coordinator will report directly to our Finance Operations Manager.

Manage Inventory Flow
•    Periodically manage the flow of drop ship inventory and internal inventory in the company logistics office (located in downtown Chicago). 
•    Organize inventory items and supplies to promote ease of handling/processing by other team members
•    Design and oversee organizational systems at our facilities to ensure consistency
•    Serve as SME on company software platforms and other tools to properly document and track the flow of inventory items from order placement to final destination; and train other users as needed 
•    Keep teammates updated on the status of incoming and outgoing shipments
•    Implement security and process flow improvements to enhance inventory management

Provide Pre and Post-Sales Support
•    Review bills of materials prepared by Sales team to QA pricing/product selection
•    Submit deal registrations to Entara vendors for eligible high-volume purchases and validate accuracy
•    Assist the sales team with questions as the SME on the procurement process with Entara’s major distributors and vendors 
•    Prepare and send quotes for product purchases to Entara customers
•    Maintain the internal workstation hardware standards list by gathering input from engineers and keeping current in-stock part numbers associated with each available configuration item
•    Update new project records in PSA tool to ensure they align with Entara reporting standards and create tasks as needed for assignment of Finance responsibilities

Conduct Purchasing & Renewals
•    Track device data in our ServiceNow platform and optimize the process for determining device support renewal needs
•    Request quotes from vendors in anticipation of pending customer orders or upcoming contract renewals
•    Confer with vendors to understand shipping details, stock issues, or new/discontinued SKUs that may impact current or future orders
•    Finalize buying decisions and place orders for new product purchases with Entara distributors/vendors utilizing an appropriate combination of phone, email, and online portal access
•    Provide direct project management of each order and maintain order status in the company’s online tracking platforms
•    Communicate with vendors as needed to relay urgency, changes to shipments, or order amendments

Enter & Process Spend Transactions
•    Issue invoices to customers (using company accounting system) for new product orders and track payment status
•    Create purchase orders (using company accounting system) for submission to vendors describing purchased products
•    Enter and categorize vendor bills into the company payables module based on department standards
•    Issue special purchasing cards for Entara staff traveling for service delivery
•    Oversee the collection of online expense reports from employees each month, validate for proper categorization, and import to accounting system
•    Administer and recommend enhancements to company expense policies, training users as needed

Vendor Management
•    Establish and document main contacts and lines of communication with major vendors
•    Track vendor subscription contracts and coordinate renewal plans with Finance management
•    Project manage the attainment and renewal of partnership levels with key distributor partners
•    Organize and file vendor documents to promote reliable recordkeeping for the Finance team
•    Set up new vendors in company accounting/payment systems after obtaining information from each
•    Audit vendor records for accuracy and perform periodic cleanup when possible
•    Perform routine audits of client software licenses to compare actual consumption with current vendor billing and collaborate with Entara team members to action required updates

See The Big Picture
•    Improve the financial impact of owned processes and purchases; look for trends or inefficiencies in purchasing practices and provide recommendations
•    Analyze purchasing card spend to streamline cards/spend and eliminate redundancies Develop your knowledge of available Entara vendors to understand how to leverage each for cost-effectiveness and high-quality fulfillment
•    Escalate any anomalies or unexpected cost components to the Finance Operations Manager for review

WHO YOU ARE: REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

•    You’re a knowledge seeker. Regardless of method, you have obtained and exposed yourself to knowledge centers that have qualified you to understand business administration and organizational processes. You ideally have a related college degree or you’re actively working toward completion of one, preferably in an administratively inclined field—such as Marketing, Business, Finance, or Communications. A basic working knowledge of accounting principles is a plus. 

•    You have at least one (1) year of experience in an administrative role in a corporate environment.

•    Technology and the language used to describe it is something you just “get”. You absorb technical information from others like a sponge and put it to use quickly as you keep refining your understanding.

•    Using complex software and online tools, even when they are brand new to you, is something you find intuitive and easy to master. You don’t shy away from learning their ins and outs making you well-equipped to accomplish your work. 

•    You know how to navigate all major Microsoft Office applications with ease, but you have an advanced and proven ability to use Excel, in particular, to manipulate data and create complex functional workbooks.

•    You are a strong written communicator who can provide clear, professional, and effective messages. 

•    You love handling data. Entering and organizing large amounts of it is your comfort zone, and you consistently do it with care and accuracy. 

•    You have a dedicated, private space for a home office and have in place a reliable, private internet connection with at least 50MBPS bandwidth. Public Wi-Fi and shared common spaces do not meet these standards. Entara will supply you with the necessary hardware to complete your tasks remotely.

•    You live within a commutable distance to Chicago and you are able to be onsite at Entara’s downtown Chicago office 1-2 days per week (with flexibility on scheduling) to oversee the flow of goods.  
 
•    You have an approach to working hours that is more adaptable than the traditional "9-to-5". You are career-driven and motivated to put in the time and effort to get the job done right, and you take immense pride in your personal follow-through. At the same time, you can grasp what to prioritize, when to call it a day, and how best to build in some breaks for personal wellness.

WHO YOU ARE: PERSONALITY-WISE

•    Poised & Professional. Despite the number of tasks thrown your way, you always remain calm and maintain an impressive ability to adapt and keep executing. You take pride in crossing things off your to-do list on time and only after they’ve reached 100% completion.

•    A Multi-Player. To expand upon the concept of multi-tasking, you are “multi-acting”. Moving between parallel work streams leaves you feeling energized rather than overwhelmed. You assimilate incoming requests with competing urgencies and priorities with a natural sense for when you can self-determine your focus and when you should ask for direction. 

•    A Stickler for Details. You have an acute ability to sort through lots of information, compartmentalize, and summarize. Your eye and attention for details helps you uncover errors before they become issues, while your thorough documentation and status updates capture and convey key information in the right place at the right time. 

•    A Neat Ninja. Your response to mess, clutter, or a pile of anything is to prevent it in the first place by proactively using systems and habits that keep your life neat and organized. You love it when everything is in its place - you’re not the type to find yourself searching your house looking for lost keys. When disorder does arise, you are driven to attack it head-on and bring everything back into neat arrangement.

•    Accountable & Self-Driven. When you fumble, the most disappointed person is always you. You take great pride in the quality of your work and the way in which you deliver it. “Very good” may do for most people, but you’re out for excellence. You are self-motivated in respect to your work because you view it as a reflection of yourself and all you have to offer. You often find that the standards you set for yourself are even higher than what others expect of you, and you view mistakes as a learning opportunity. 

WHO WE ARE

Founded in 2001, Entara is an eXtended Service Provider (XSP) focused on providing cutting edge technology and cyber security solutions to companies in regulated industries. With our roots in providing service to the electronic trading market, we are known for growing with the pace of technological change and the developing security needs of our clients. We are redefining ourselves - and our industry - and creating a new class of service providers because we recognize that traditional MSPs and MSSPs are no longer what our clients need. Downward pressure from both regulators and insurance providers convinced us that it was time to integrate our IT and cyber security offerings and deliver strategic, future facing solutions for our clients.  
In order to build, maintain, and optimize these types of solutions, we need high-performing, highly-collaborative teammates who are excited to join in this journey with us. There are several reasons why employees love being a part of the Entara team. We’ve been recognized as one of Chicago’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For since 2017. We are a remote-first workplace. We seek to build a team that’s brought together by more than just skills, but who embrace a personal alignment to the values that precede the work we deliver: Empathy, Excellence, Execution, and Evolution. If this sounds like you, let’s connect and discover if we have the foundation to build something great together.  

WHAT YOU GET IN RETURN

As an employee at Entara, you will have a direct impact on our operations, our clients, and your fellow EntaraCorps members. Because of that impact, you get our respect and gratitude for the role you play in making Entara the best it can be. We consider mentoring and participating in the continual learning of others to be absolutely essential for both you and your co-workers. 
To reflect our commitment to our employees, we offer unlimited PTO, remote-first work, 401k matching, paid parental leave, employee outings (virtual and in person), reimbursement for approved seminars, conferences, and certifications, and 100% employee premium coverage for medical, dental, life, and disability insurance….and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.