Purchasing Manager – Interior Design

Olson Kundig is a design practice founded on the ideas that buildings can serve as a bridge between nature, culture and people, and that inspiring surroundings have a positive effect on people’s lives. The firm’s work can be found across the globe, with projects as wide-ranging as huts to high rises, homes—often for art collectors—to academic, cultural and civic projects, museums and exhibition design, places of worship, creative production, urban design, and interior design. 

Currently, we are seeking an interior design Purchasing Manager to join our team and who can help contribute to the overall excellence of work produced by Olson Kundig.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Leads the Purchasing Department, implementing best practices to streamline the purchasing process effectively.
• Manage a purchasing team relative to job performance, career development.
• Keeps firm leaders informed about purchasing department activities and progress toward strategic and financial objectives.
• Provides training to design and technical team members on procurement procedures.
• Drafts and revises all Interior Purchasing Service Agreements in coordination with the Legal Affairs team and Designers.
• Establish communication cadence with designers, the financial office and firm leaders on purchasing pipeline, status, client payment
• Collaborate with bookkeeper on financial reporting
• Initiates or participates in kick-off meetings with interior design team members to assess project scope and strategize logistical aspects of procurement.
• Leads collaborative efforts between the purchasing team and interior design team related to furnishings for clients, ensuring seamless coordination throughout. Provides oversight over product selections and ensures custom furniture shop drawings maintain quality standards.

Procurement and Product

• Manages the Studio Designer purchasing system, ensuring its effective implementation and ongoing maintenance.
• Establish initial processes for usage of Studio Designer and provides training to team members on system navigation and usage.
• Oversees and is able to communicate the entire order process from acknowledgment to final delivery and installation, including monitoring manufacturing, shipping, receiving, and storage.
• Generates purchase orders and works closely with designers to finalize and approve them.
• Cultivates and sustains strategic vendor relationships on behalf of the firm, maintaining a comprehensive master database of interior vendors.
• Facilitates resolution of product availability issues, reselections, and changes in coordination with project teams.

Financial Responsibility

• Oversees departmental profitability.
• Analyzes initial client budgets, schedules, and contracts to strategize shipping, delivery, and installation logistics, as well as insurance requirements and project timelines.
• Supports design teams by establishing and maintaining client furnishing budgets based on schematic plans and client profiles. Provides regular updates to clients regarding project status and purchased items.
• Collaborates with the accounting team to manage client budgets, including reconciling accounts during the purchasing process and at project completion and generating final project reports.
• Prepares internal and external financial reports, processes payments for purchased goods, monitors fund usage, reconciles account statements, and conducts basic record-keeping.

Position Requirements  

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Minimum 10 years of experience with direct work-related experience in interior purchasing
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Management or a closely related field or a similar role with equivalent work experience 
• Advanced proficiency in purchasing software systems; Studio Designer preferred
• Intermediate proficiency in MS Office Suite with an emphasis on Excel and Outlook
• Intermediate proficiency in Quickbooks or similar software
• Skilled in driving change initiatives to implement streamlined systems and communication channels, aimed at optimizing the specification and purchasing process and reducing errors.
• Able to manage a small team, including effectively hiring, onboarding, and reviewing individuals for high performance.
• Able to establish, negotiate, and manage budgets and schedules in collaboration with interior designers and vendors to ensure purchased goods are received and installed on time and budget.
• Efficiently handles shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment to meet tight deadlines while demonstrating superb customer service ensuring positive internal and external client relations.
• Communicates effectively verbally and in writing, demonstrating the ability to communicate effectively with all levels of internal and external “stakeholders and vendors.

Nice to Have –

• Ability to review and advise on custom furniture design.
• Established relationships with high-end manufacturers, galleries, work rooms, receiving houses, freight, delivery, and installation companies all over the world. 

What can you expect from us?

• A creative work environment and colleagues who are collaborative, creative, and challenging.
• Opportunity to grow professionally.
• Check our culture page to learn about life at Olson Kundig.

In addition to a dynamic and creative culture, Olson Kundig provides a generous benefits package that includes 16 days of paid time off, paid holidays, health plan, 401(k) match, bonuses, profit-sharing plans for qualified positions, a monthly travel subsidy for public transportation, and more.

As a firm, we are committed to pay practices that are fair, competitive, and reflect internal pay equity. At the time of posting this job, the hiring range for this position in Seattle is between $90,000 and $105,000 annually.  Final salary decisions are made based upon the extent and relatedness of the candidate’s education and experience and considering internal equity and external market factors.

All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship and must already possess long-term work authorization.