At Manuel Builders, we are committed to building exceptional homes and creating an outstanding experience for our homeowners. We are seeking a highly motivated Purchasing Agent to help drive quality, efficiency, and strong partnerships across our vendor and trade network.

If you excel at building relationships, negotiating solutions, managing performance, and collaborating across departments, we'd love to hear from you.

As a Purchasing Agent, you will play a critical role in recruiting, developing, and maintaining high-quality trade and vendor partners while ensuring labor and material resources are available to support construction schedules and company goals.

Trade Partner Management

• Recruit and maintain a high-performing network of labor trades at competitive market rates.
• Monitor trade staffing levels to ensure schedules are met while maintaining healthy workloads for trade partners.
• Develop and manage trade performance improvement and accountability processes.
• Facilitate trade meetings and performance reviews using quality control, warranty, survey, and field feedback data.
• Create and maintain scopes of work, production checklists, and field guides.
• Serve as a liaison between trade partners and Manuel Builders to resolve issues professionally and effectively.

Vendor Management

• Rebid vendors and evaluate supplier performance as needed.
• Collaborate across departments to ensure product offerings meet customer and market needs.
• Coordinate successful implementation of new products throughout the organization.
• Work directly with vendors to resolve material shortages, quality concerns, and operational challenges.
• Build strong vendor relationships that support project success and customer satisfaction.

Labor & Vendor Allocation

• Analyze performance and production data to optimize trade and vendor assignments.
• Identify scheduling constraints and proactively allocate resources to maintain construction timelines.
• Communicate recurring performance concerns and coordinate corrective action plans.

Team Collaboration

• Participate in key operational, purchasing, production, and vendor meetings.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives and process enhancements throughout the organization.

• Strong organizational and recordkeeping skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication abilities.
• Ability to build relationships and manage difficult conversations with professionalism.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to influence positive change while maintaining company values.
• High level of integrity, accountability, and professionalism.
• Experience in purchasing, construction operations, vendor management, or trade partner management preferred.
• Residential construction experience is a plus.

• Collaborative and values-driven culture.
• Opportunity to make a direct impact on quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
• Work with a respected homebuilder committed to excellence.
• Professional growth and development opportunities.

First year's anticipated earnings $68,000 - $80,000

If you're ready to help build strong partnerships and support the construction of exceptional homes, apply today and become part of the Manuel Builders team.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree
• 5-7 years construction or residential building experience, preferably new home construction

Technical knowledge and skills

• Stays up to date on the basic concepts and methods used by trade partners including plumbing, electrical, and HVAC.
• Is knowledgeable of all governmental regulations related to the construction of homes within a respective jurisdiction.

Work environment and schedule:

• Normal business hours: Monday - Thursday (7 am – 5 pm); Friday (7 am – 12 pm)
• Periodic night and weekend work may be necessary.
• Travel required-Serves the Greater Baton Rouge market