Benjamin Black
Lakeland
Summary
Dynamic Procurement Specialist with extensive experience at the City of Lakeland, adept in strategic sourcing and vendor management. Achieved $250,000 in savings through cost analysis and reduced purchasing errors by 10%. Proven ability to foster relationships and drive efficiency, ensuring compliance and enhancing procurement processes.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Procurement Specialist
City of Lakeland Central Stores Warehouse
Lakeland
05.2024 - Current
- Manage expected pricing and delivery of orders/back-orders and reduce purchasing errors by 10%.
- Work closely with municipality management to develop and maintain relationships with 37 vendors.
- Manage a $50 million annual budget for all municipality departments held within the Central Stores Warehouse and 200-meter yard.
- Procure items totaling $26.7 million for municipality departments to include Electrical, Water, Police, Fire, Safety, Parks and Recreation, Library, Training, Office Supplies, and Janitorial.
- Reduce overspending on supplies to adjust for inflation-based cost increase and global tariffs, saving approximately. $250,000.
- Gather data, evaluate vendors, and provide quarterly reports to department management, resulting in adding 3 vendors every quarter.
- Procured $2 million in Electrical supplies to restore electricity to affected customers during Hurricane Milton restoration (Oct - Dec 2024).
- Spent 20 hours and tested around 450 warehouse items for upgraded versions of Maximo and Oracle for Procurement Purposes to prepare for the January 2026 release.
- Generate weekly RFQs, creating bulk purchasing to improve lead times by an average of 14 days.
Inventory Control Specialist
City of Lakeland Central Stores Warehouse
Lakeland
05.2024 - Current
- Maintain warehouse inventory of 2600 items and $36 million with multiple cycle counts per day, and ensure records are correct within inventory systems (Maximo and Oracle).
- Acting Warehouse Supervisor during the Supervisor’s absence, supervising 8 employees and acting Lead Buyer for the warehouse.
- Assist the receiving team daily by accepting freight deliveries for stock items held in the warehouse. Daily average of approximately 500 items worth $250,000.
- Created a system utilized in Maximo and Oracle to accept stock item returns in large quantities of Electrical items that saved approximately 150 hours of labor in FY 2024 and saved $550,000.
- Spent 50 hours total training 12 employees with warehouse procedures, item knowledge, safety, and forklift training.
- Meet with the Electric department officials to determine the best products used daily for safety and efficiency. An average of 10 new products are added, worth $300k.
- Generate monthly inventory reports to department officials, accounting for 2600 stock items and over $36 million in total cost.
Lead Buyer
United States Marine Corps - Camp Pendleton
Oceanside
02.2021 - 10.2023
- Procured stock totaling $85 million annually. Items included firearms, ammunition, military vehicles, uniforms, training materials, safety equipment, janitorial supplies, office supplies, and items for the military police and fire department.
- Maintained government contracts to ensure delivery times were followed and improved quoted lead times by an average of 2 weeks. This saved the US Marine Corps $100,000 annually in expedited delivery times.
- Managed a $75 million annual budget for Camp Pendleton and ensured all funds were spent under Department of Defense policy.
- Recorded data concerning contracts and vendors to send to my chain-of-command for approval. This data enabled the US Marine Corps to utilize bids and RFQs, resulting in a significant increase in the quality of stock and creating more reliable firearms and ammunition for training and wartime strategy.
- Advocate for creating a law within different branches of the US military concerning procurement between the US Marines, Navy, Army, and Air Force, allowing procurement options to increase and improve lead times.
- Trained my replacement as Lead Buyer and Stock Control Specialist. Trained this individual for 2.5 years on the procedures and rules of buying within the US Department of Defense, contract awards, RFQs, Annual Inventory and maintaining the US Marine Corps’ inventory system, Marine Stock Online.
- Procured emergency items to assist the California National Guard and the US Marine Corps in assisting with the wildfires in Central California from 2022-2023. Created and enforced an emergency stock to help combat future fires that is still being used today.
Assistant Buyer
US Marine Corps - USMC Reserve
New Orleans
02.2015 - 01.2021
- Assisted with procuring stock totaling $100 million annually. Items included firearms, ammunition, military vehicles, uniforms, training items, safety, janitorial, office supplies, military police and military fire department items.
- Assisted with managing a $100 million annual budget for Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces Pacific by allocating funds to each department and voiced needs for procurement to my chain of command.
- Assisted with managing the government contract award process, selecting an average of 85 contracts per year from 2016 to 2021.
- Recorded vital data to assist with choosing the new service rifle used by the US Marine Corps in 2017, Sig Sauer. This choice saved the Marine Corps $6 million every two years and resulted in improvements in battlefield accuracy and training.
- Recorded data with vendor and contract pricing to establish efficient future deals. This resulted in annual savings of $1.5-$ 1.75 million from 2016 to 2021.
- Procured emergency items to assist the Florida, Texas, and Louisiana National Guard, US Coast Guard, and Marine Corps Reserve with restoration efforts during Hurricane Matthew (2016).
Junior Buyer
Whitfield County Schools
Whitfield County
01.2010 - 03.2014
- Procured items for 13 Elementary schools, 5 middle schools and 4 high schools within Whitfield County Schools in Northwest Georgia. Assisted with procuring items totaling $10 million.
- Procured items every month for all schools' arts and music programs. Items included general classroom items, musical instruments, music stands, and sheet music.
- Procured items every month for all schools' arts and music programs. Items included general classroom items, musical instruments, music stands, and sheet music.
- Assisted with negotiating vendor contracts that resulted in a 15% reduction in annual office supply costs, saving the school system over $75,000 in the first year.
- Served as the main point of contact for vendor communications, resolving discrepancies and ensuring timely and accurate delivery of goods and services. Improved discrepancies from previous years by 15% annually and saved $20,000.
- Assisted with reconciling invoices and purchase orders, contributing to a 99% accuracy rate in financial reporting for the years 2012-2014.
Education
Bachelor's - Business Administration
Jacksonville State University
Jacksonville, AL, USA12.2009
Skills
- Strategic Sourcing
- Contract Management
- Cost Analysis and Reduction
- Vendor Management
- Spend Analysis
- Risk Management
- Inventory Management
- Data Analysis
- Compliance Management
- Procurement software
Certification
- ACPP Certification, 06/01/24, Lakeland, FL
- Data Analyst Google Certification, 08/01/25, Online
- CIPS Level 4 in Procurement and Supply, 08/01/26, Online
Timeline
Procurement Specialist
City of Lakeland Central Stores Warehouse
05.2024 - Current
Inventory Control Specialist
City of Lakeland Central Stores Warehouse
05.2024 - Current
Lead Buyer
United States Marine Corps - Camp Pendleton
02.2021 - 10.2023
Assistant Buyer
US Marine Corps - USMC Reserve
02.2015 - 01.2021
Junior Buyer
Whitfield County Schools
01.2010 - 03.2014
Bachelor's - Business Administration
Jacksonville State University