Purchasing Agent

Austin, TX

Full time

JR134645

Position Summary: The Purchasing Agent serves as a key driver of Brohn Homes’ procurement strategy, balancing cost efficiency with quality and fairness. This role is responsible for leading the full purchasing cycle — from budgeting and bid solicitation to vendor negotiations and contract management. By analyzing costs, leveraging economies of scale, and fostering strong vendor partnerships, the Purchasing Agent ensures Brohn delivers homes that reflect both value and excellence. Acting as a strategic partner to construction, design, and architecture teams, this position plays a critical part in shaping the financial and operational success of every community we build.

Duties / Responsibilities:

Own the Day-to-Day Purchasing Cycle

• Develop budgets and solicit bids for new communities.

• Prepare and review material take-offs and cost estimates with subcontractors and consultants.

• Evaluate subcontractors and negotiate with vendors to secure competitive, fair contracts.

• Analyze proposals and prepare bid-award packages with detailed cost breakdowns and recommendations for leadership approval.

• Maintain complete and compliant purchasing records in SharePoint to ensure accuracy and transparency.

• Oversee the contract administration process to ensure timeliness, clarity, and accountability.

Category & Cost Management

• Manage assigned spend categories, ensuring accurate hard costs and alignment with national programs when applicable.

• Collaborate with warranty, construction, and design teams to review issues and implement product or process improvements.

• Monitor and maintain direct cost budgets for accuracy, including new community setups and plan additions.

• Leverage national contracts and economies of scale to maximize division value and cost efficiency.

Drive Continuous Improvement

• Partner with the construction team to streamline labor and material supply chain processes.

• Identify opportunities for cost reduction while minimizing material waste and pricing discrepancies.

• Provide feedback on redline plan changes and participate in floor plan reviews to improve design and value.

Support Options & Product Plans

• Oversee the creation and maintenance of sales and design studio options, ensuring accurate pricing and timely updates.

• Manage the options database and keep all product changes current.

• Collaborate with KB Architecture on new product development and maintenance initiatives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as a resource for construction, sales, and estimating teams to ensure smooth rollouts of communities and plans.

• Coordinate with vendors and trade partners to resolve discrepancies and ensure alignment with Brohn standards.

Qualifications:

• Education & Experience: High School Diploma required; an Associate or Bachelor’s degree in Business, Accounting, Communications, Construction, or a related field is preferred.

• At least 2 years of experience in construction contracting or purchasing is required, ideally with exposure to residential homebuilding.

• Growth Mindset: Ready to take the next step beyond coordination — leading negotiations, managing budgets, and making strategic purchasing decisions.

• Collaboration Skills: Strong communicator who can build trust and maintain professional relationships with vendors, contractors, and cross-functional teams.

• Analytical Ability: Confident with numbers, budgets, and cost analysis, with the ability to see both details and the bigger picture.

• Decision-Making & Negotiation: Skilled at evaluating options, negotiating fairly, and making sound purchasing decisions that balance cost, quality, and value.

• Technical Skills: Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook, with the ability to quickly learn and adapt to computerized purchasing systems such as KOVA (or similar platforms).

• Personal Attributes: Organized, proactive, and solutions-oriented, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities while maintaining fairness, accuracy, and integrity.

• Supervisory Responsibility: This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

• Work Environment: This job operates in a professional office environment.

• Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.The employee is occasionally required to sit, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and move up to [10] pounds and occasionally lift and move objects up to [25] pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

• Position Type/Expected Hours of Work: This is a full-time, exempt position. Under the Regulations, Part 541, an exempt employee is one who is not entitled to the minimum wage or overtime pay protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Days and hours of work are [Monday through Friday, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.] This position may work outside of normal business hours to include evenings and weekends as needeed.

• Travel: Less than 10% travel is expected for this position.

• EEO Statement: Brohn Homes is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to the policy of equal employment opportunity in recruitment, hiring, career advancement, and all other employment practices.

• Other Duties: Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Business Unit -

Brohn Homes

The Clayton story began in 1956 with a simple but powerful mission – helping more hardworking families across America achieve homeownership. Clayton is committed to Opening Doors to a Better Life. We are a leading single family, values driven home builder dedicated to attainable housing, sustainable practices, and creating a world class experience for customers and team members.

Our company portfolio includes a broad offering of attainable housing, and as a vertically integrated home builder, we are uniquely positioned to serve customers through every stage of the homeownership journey building, selling, financing, and insuring homes.

Our success is in our team members – join our team and see how you can help us build a better tomorrow.

As a shared service, Home Team team members support many functions across the Clayton enterprise. The Home Team includes wellbeing, internal audit, accounting/finance, marketing, legal, campus operations, and more. We believe our strength is our people. That's why we invest in opportunities for our team members to personally and professionally grow.

As a leader in modern and attainable housing, Clayton is committed to delivering forward-looking technology solutions. With a dedicated team of over 500 technology professionals, we continue to evolve and innovate, ensuring we remain at the forefront of our industry. Our collaborative and innovative culture encourages team members to grow to their full potential. Our focus on team member experience, development and engagement is paramount, offering career pathing and leadership development opportunities to foster growth and success within our organization.

Clayton Home Building Group has more than 12,000 team members across the United States, and built more than 59,000 homes last year. Home Building Group makes the dream of homeownership a reality every single day, delivering quality-built homes at an attainable price. We are dedicated to a world-class team member experience, environmentally responsible building practices and helping provide attainable housing for all. This business unit is comprised of Clayton Manufacturing, Clayton Supply, and Clayton Properties Group.

With 2,900+ team members and 400+ Retail locations nationwide, our home consultants create a world-class home buying experience by assisting customers in identifying a floor plan, selecting options, and coordinating the construction process. Clayton Retail sells more than 25,000 homes annually, as we strive to help customers achieve homeownership across America.