Carla Dennard
Winter Garden,FL
Summary
10 years of proven success in different job functions within Communication, Operations, Organizational Initiatives, Problem Solving, Process Management Supply Chain and Order Management/Strategic Analysis including; Cost Analysis, Project/ Program Management, Agile Project Management, Material Logistics, Procurement, Scheduling, Planning, Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), Purchasing, MRP, SAP MM, FAR/DEAR, Infor Syteline
Experienced with vendor negotiations, supplier relationships, and procurement strategies. Uses analytical skills to evaluate market trends and make informed purchasing decisions. Track record of maintaining inventory levels and ensuring timely delivery of materials. Knowledgeable Supply chain with solid foundation in procurement and vendor management. Successfully negotiated favorable terms and streamlined purchasing processes to enhance operational efficiency. Demonstrated ability in cost analysis and inventory control, ensuring optimal stock levels and budget adherence.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Sr. Manufacturing Buyer
Thales, USA – Contract
06.2025 - Current
- Convert purchasing requests into purchasing orders.
- Make sure that suppliers acknowledge P.O. receipt and provide delivery commitment.
- Follow-up and expediting of Purchase orders.
- Ensuring accuracy of the purchase order in the ERP system (dates, quantity, schedule delivery lines, ship to location, supplier information and relevant notes/comments).
- Assists the Finance department by resolving invoices issues/discrepancies to ensure timely accurate payment
- Manage parts critical list.
- Implement and lead recovery meetings/ Tiger teams.
- Assist the team with inventory reductions efforts (managing purchasing order cancellation, rescheduling in/out or PO information change).
- New Tariffs rules, requiring support from purchasing to clear Customs shipments
- As part of the integrated project/program team, perform assigned roles and responsibilities
- Lead actions to improve customer OTD.
- Manage workload while being compliant to established department KPIs
- Provide updates as requested: collaborates with any required internal areas (Engineering, Repairs, Planning, Warehouse, QA, etc.) providing updates as requested
- Ability to drive issues to closure with minimal supervision
- Resolve discrepancies with parts certifications (8130-3, CoC, EASA) to clear rejections and request RMA
Sr. Program Buyer
C4 Advanced Tactical Systems, LLC.
01.2020 - 01.2025
- Analyze and understand requirements for complex electro-mechanical sub- assemblies.
- Develop competitive sources of supply based on vendors’ ability to perform specific contract requirements and maintain on-time delivery in accordance with best practices, ISO standards, company policies, procedures.
- Negotiate prices, delivery schedules, terms and conditions and ensure compliance with all contract provisions and risks including financial terms, acceptance criteria, delivery requirements, warranty, intellectual property, termination provisions, indemnification, and all other potential risk areas.
- Develop and maintain robust, ethical supplier relationships to ensure selected vendors comply with procurement standards, schedules, and other requirements. Resolve procurement issues, including supplier progress and/or problems.
- Recommended pricing using cost analysis and best price analysis.
- Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with diverse stakeholders.
- Exceptional organizational and problem-solving abilities, with keen attention to detail.
- Communicate with management, accounting, warehouse, and manufacturing operations functions within the organization to ensure procurement and planning requirements are met in a timely fashion according to the master schedule.
- Prepares a request for proposal form and verifies accuracy and completeness of proposal packages. Interfaces with affected sections to clarify and ensure that all necessary data has been included.
- Participate in continual improvement focusing on supply chain. Evolve and maintain documentation and standard operating procedures for procurement and planning processes and systems.
Sr. Supply Planner-Buyer
FARO Technologies
01.2018 - 01.2020
- Manage Continuity of supply and inventory investments in accordance with department and company goals.
- Develop, implement, and manage inventory planning methodologies for products in the assigned value chain.
- Execute material planning, buying, expediting, and optimization initiatives in support of assigned product lines.
- Work directly with suppliers to obtain confirmation that all orders are set to ship at the appropriate time to meet committed due date. Resolve exceptions, update the system appropriately and escalate, as necessary.
- Develop and enhance vendors relationships through timely and effective communication.
- Maintain item planning data in SAP
- Identify opportunities for process improvement and cost reductions.
- Administer and monitor purchase orders with external suppliers.
- Support the development of supply chain management strategies to optimize supply chain investments, improve supply/demand processes, and deliver customer service requirements.
Material Program Manager
Triquint Semiconductor - Qorvo
01.2014 - 01.2017
- Manages engineering production (tracking, scheduling, and prioritizing build) by working with operations teams at multiple sites to ensure product build completion per schedule with focus of achieving on time delivery to customer samples, from project launch to production.
- Responsible for inventory management to ensure all materials are available in a timely manner and correct quantities available for the build requirements through SAP and additional WIP sites.
- Initiate, manage and expedite wafer filter lot starts both in FL and TX fab locations.
- Monitor and track project milestones and deliverables.
- Demonstrates initiative and the ability to work effectively within time constraints in an interrupt driven environment.
- Performs additional work for the other teams such as supplying material and bandwidth to support the packaging team for required Beijing process certification, as well as Process Improvement builds for jobs released in production.
- Extensive SAP experience – Material Master, TRLT, Sourcing
- Generates weekly customer samples shipment and provided reports and backlog reports to Business Unit General Manager
- Generate updates and maintain program spreadsheets of material status in core team meetings.
- Planner in control of the most engineering projects from 2014, both Open Markets and Custom Products.
- Provided backup NPI Planner for other team members, as well as other groups within the organization.
- Shipped, tracked, received, and confirmed all components of BOM for upcoming customer builds and communicated with Program Managers or Design Engineering directly for build instructions.
- Prepared all incoming laminate dicing requests from multiple design centers.
- Reviewed BRF, ASY, wafer maps, strip drawings and other documentation to ensure proper building instructions were compliant for domestic and international build sites.
Project Management
Siemens Energy/Long Term Projects (LTP)
01.2011 - 01.2013
- Provided complete one-to-one contact with external customers in the Southeast Region This includes requests for proposal preparation, parts quotations, order entry/follow, return material issues, suspense resolution, and outage planning.
- Manage multiple Long-Term Projects, workflow, and tasks, and respond to changing priorities.
- Responsible for project implementation for parts, services, and labor for 501F and 501G Gas Turbines across the United States; this includes repair of parts, ordering new parts, and invoicing the project as per the original contract.
- Over 5 years of experience in engineering and procurement methodologies.
- Work with the project manager regarding changes with existing contract agreements and re-negotiating of existing contracts, warranty and other contract terms and conditions.
- Invoices a minimum of $10M quarterly for different Gas Turbine projects.
- Manage networking channels (Engineering, Marketing, Supply Management, Factories, Sales, Contracts, Freight Forwarders, etc) to meet customer requirements.
- Experience in executing contracts as well as performing post-award administration (e.g. negotiating, issuing change orders, contract closeouts).
- Familiarization with SAP integrated capabilities and SAP modules; Sales & Distribution, Purchasing, Inventory Management and Finance.
Procurement Specialist
Siemens Energy – Procurement Specialist
01.2009 - 01.2011
- Promote competitive sourcing and generation of sustainable cost savings. Develops lower value
- RFQs and purchase orders, analyzes RFQ responses and selects suppliers.
- Provides expediting services and resolves invoice mismatches, pricing, and quantity and logistics issues.
- I participated in professional development activities to keep abreast of current industry’s best practices.
- Maintains/improves supplier relationships and ensures compliance supplier agreements to help realize value
- And added services benefits.
- Assume the role as a liaison between supply management and other business units, maintaining a positive, high trust and ethical relationship with customers and vendors.
- Responsible for the procurement of various materials, equipment and supplies required for production. Managed and processed orders within SAP. Involved in the entire procurement cycle and procedures from requisitioning material and order placement through the payment process.
- Prepare and execute clear structured negotiations following pre-defined strategic methodology.
- Understand and assist in the development and execution of performance management programs with suppliers that focus on quality, responsiveness, and cost.
- Ensure compliance with sourcing and procurement policies and best practices.
- Prepare and review bid documents for accuracy and compliance with purchasing policy/regulations. Ensure proper advertising and distribution of bid documents to vendors. Monitor purchase orders, contracts, bids and budgetary expenditures; Expedite delivery for accurate allocation of funds.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Business Management
University of Phoenix
Orlando, FL10.2012
Contract Management Certification -
Udemy Academy
Online10.2025
Skills
- Purchase order management
- Multi-tasking strength
- Relationship building
- Materials sourcing
- Supplier relationship management
- Purchasing strategies
Certification
- Business Etiquette: Phone, Email, and Text
- Agile Project Leadership
- Learning Excel 2016
- Learning SAP Sales and Distribution (SD Module)
Timeline
Sr. Manufacturing Buyer
Thales, USA – Contract
06.2025 - Current
Sr. Program Buyer
C4 Advanced Tactical Systems, LLC.
01.2020 - 01.2025
Sr. Supply Planner-Buyer
FARO Technologies
01.2018 - 01.2020
Material Program Manager
Triquint Semiconductor - Qorvo
01.2014 - 01.2017
Project Management
Siemens Energy/Long Term Projects (LTP)
01.2011 - 01.2013
Procurement Specialist
Siemens Energy – Procurement Specialist
01.2009 - 01.2011
Bachelor of Science - Business Management
University of Phoenix
Contract Management Certification -
Udemy Academy