VinFast | Automotive & Electric Vehicle Manufacturing
Position: Director of Purchasing
Industry: Automotive / Electric Vehicles
About the Role
VinFast is seeking an experienced and highly strategic Director of Purchasing to lead the company’s purchasing organization and develop a world-class procurement strategy across its automotive and electric vehicle manufacturing operations.
This is a senior leadership position with direct responsibility for purchasing strategy, supplier sourcing, commercial performance, cost competitiveness, supplier performance, supply continuity, and procurement organization development.
The successful candidate will work closely with Executive Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Finance, Logistics, and other functions to build a competitive, resilient, and high-performing automotive supplier ecosystem supporting current and future vehicle programs.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and execute the overall purchasing strategy in alignment with corporate objectives, vehicle programs, manufacturing requirements, product development plans, localization targets, and long-term business growth.
- Lead strategic sourcing and commercial negotiations across automotive components, systems, materials, and services, including supplier selection, RFQ/RFQ evaluation, commercial negotiations, pricing strategy, contracts, and long-term supplier agreements.
- Drive purchasing competitiveness and cost reduction through cost-breakdown analysis, should-cost modeling, benchmarking, VA/VE, localization, supplier productivity, volume leverage, and continuous cost-improvement initiatives.
- Build and manage a world-class automotive supplier base, including supplier identification, sourcing, qualification, nomination, onboarding, development, performance management, and strategic supplier relationship management.
- Establish and manage purchasing performance KPIs, covering cost savings, purchase price variance, supplier performance, localization, payment terms, quality, delivery, capacity, and supply risk.
- Ensure supply continuity for vehicle production, working closely with suppliers, Manufacturing, Production Planning, Logistics, Quality, and Engineering to identify and resolve potential supply constraints and production risks.
- Lead supplier risk management and business continuity, including capacity constraints, financial instability, quality issues, geopolitical risks, raw-material volatility, logistics disruptions, and single-source dependencies.
- Partner with Engineering and Product Development from early vehicle-program stages to ensure sourcing decisions support target cost, design-to-cost, manufacturability, localization, quality, timing, and production readiness.
- Drive localization and supplier development strategies, expanding the competitive local supplier ecosystem while maintaining required standards for cost, quality, technology, capacity, and delivery.
- Establish strong purchasing governance and processes, ensuring compliance with corporate policies, delegation of authority, audit requirements, sourcing procedures, contract governance, and ERP-based purchasing workflows.
- Lead procurement transformation and digitalization, leveraging ERP systems, spend analytics, procurement dashboards, automation, market intelligence, and data-driven decision-making to improve transparency and operational effectiveness.
- Develop and lead a high-performing purchasing organization, including organization design, talent development, succession planning, performance management, and creation of a culture of accountability, commercial excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Represent Purchasing at senior management and executive levels, providing clear visibility on sourcing strategies, cost performance, supplier risks, major commercial decisions, and critical supply issues.
Mandatory Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Finance, or a related discipline.
- Minimum 12–15 years of progressive purchasing/procurement experience, with significant leadership responsibility.
- MANDATORY: Proven experience working directly for an Automotive OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). Candidates whose experience is exclusively with Tier 1/Tier 2 suppliers, trading companies, distributors, or general manufacturing companies will not be considered.
- Mandatory hands-on experience in OEM automotive purchasing, covering production parts/components, automotive systems, materials, or other categories directly supporting vehicle manufacturing.
- Proven track record of leading strategic sourcing, supplier nomination, commercial negotiations, cost reduction, supplier development, and purchasing performance management within an automotive OEM environment.
- Strong understanding of the automotive OEM purchasing lifecycle, including sourcing strategy, RFQ, supplier nomination, tooling, engineering changes, localization, launch readiness, mass production, and supplier performance management.
- Demonstrated experience supporting new vehicle programs / product launches, from sourcing and supplier nomination through SOP and mass production.
- Strong knowledge of automotive cost structures, cost breakdowns, should-cost analysis, VA/VE, commodity pricing, localization, and supplier productivity improvement.
- Proven experience managing local and international automotive suppliers and complex multi-tier supply chains.
- Strong understanding of Incoterms, international purchasing, import/export processes, supplier contracts, commercial terms, and supply chain risk management.
- Demonstrated ability to negotiate and manage high-value, long-term commercial agreements with strategic suppliers.
- Experience working cross-functionally with Engineering, R&D, Manufacturing, Quality, Finance, Logistics, Production Planning, and senior executive management.
- Strong proficiency in ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, or equivalent, with the ability to leverage procurement and spend data for strategic decision-making.
- Strong analytical capability using Power BI, Tableau, advanced Excel, or equivalent data-analysis tools.
- Proven ability to lead large and multicultural teams, develop senior procurement talent, and influence stakeholders at executive level.
- Strong commercial acumen, strategic thinking, negotiation skills, financial understanding, and problem-solving capability.
- Fluent in English, both written and spoken.
Preferred Experience
- Experience in EV / electric vehicle manufacturing or other advanced automotive technologies.
- Experience with greenfield automotive manufacturing projects, new plant ramp-up, or large-scale localization programs.
- Experience managing purchasing organizations across multiple countries or manufacturing sites.
- Experience in a rapidly growing automotive company undergoing procurement transformation and supplier-base expansion.
What VinFast Offers
- Competitive compensation package with performance-based bonus.
- Opportunity to take on a high-impact executive leadership role within a rapidly growing global automotive and electric vehicle company.
- Opportunity to influence purchasing strategy, supplier ecosystem development, localization, and cost competitiveness at scale.
- Dynamic, entrepreneurial, and high-performance working environment.
- Significant opportunities for career growth, organizational leadership, and international exposure.
- The opportunity to help build and transform a world-class automotive OEM purchasing organization.
Join VinFast
If you are a senior automotive OEM purchasing leader with a proven track record in strategic sourcing, supplier management, cost optimization, commercial negotiations, and vehicle-program purchasing, we invite you to join VinFast and help build a globally competitive and resilient supply base for the future of automotive and electric vehicle manufacturing.
Location: Hanoi, Vietnam
Position: Director of Purchasing
Industry: Automotive / Electric Vehicles
