Shop Assistant Jobs in Alberta (NOW HIRING)

Canoco is looking for a Material Purchaser to support our fabrication shop and project teams.

This role is responsible for sourcing, purchasing, expediting, tracking, and coordinating materials, consumables, rentals, and outside services required for fabrication and project execution. The successful candidate will work closely with the shop manager, project managers, estimators, QA/QC, receiving, accounting, vendors, and field teams to ensure material is ordered correctly, delivered on time, properly documented, and charged to the right project.

This is a key support role in the shop. The right person will help prevent delays, protect project costs, improve material flow, and keep fabrication moving.

Key Responsibilities

• Purchase materials, consumables, rentals, and services required for Canoco's fabrication shop and project work.
• Source pipe, fittings, flanges, valves, structural steel, plate, bolts, gaskets, welding consumables, shop supplies, and project-specific materials.
• Review material requests, MTOs, BOMs, drawings, and project requirements before ordering.
• Confirm material specifications, quantities, delivery requirements, documentation requirements, and cost coding before issuing purchase orders.
• Send RFQs to suppliers, compare quotes, confirm lead times, and recommend best-value options.
• Issue and manage purchase orders in accordance with Canoco procedures.
• Track open orders and expedite deliveries to support shop and project schedules.
• Communicate material status, shortages, delivery risks, and supplier issues to the shop and project teams.
• Coordinate with receiving to confirm materials arrive correctly and are properly identified.
• Support QA/QC by ensuring required documentation is requested and received, including MTRs, C of Cs, heat numbers, test records, coating information, and other project-required paperwork.
• Coordinate returns, credits, damaged goods, shortages, overages, and replacement materials.
• Support inventory control for common shop materials, welding consumables, tools, and frequently used supplies.
• Help reduce duplicate purchasing, dead stock, emergency buys, and unnecessary cost leakage.
• Maintain strong vendor relationships and support supplier performance tracking.
• Assist estimating and project teams with budget pricing, lead times, material availability, and long-lead identification.
• Support accounting with PO, invoice, receiving, rental, freight, and cost code discrepancies.
• Ensure purchases are properly assigned to the correct project, work order, or overhead account.

What We Are Looking For

The ideal candidate has experience in a fabrication, construction, industrial, mechanical, or maintenance environment.

Strong candidates will have:

• Experience purchasing for a fabrication shop, construction contractor, mechanical contractor, industrial maintenance group, or similar environment.
• Working knowledge of pipe, fittings, flanges, valves, structural steel, plate, bolts, gaskets, welding consumables, and shop materials.
• Ability to read and understand material takeoffs, BOMs, drawings, isometrics, requisitions, and fabrication packages.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Strong follow-up skills with suppliers and internal teams.
• Ability to work under schedule pressure.
• Good understanding of cost codes, purchase orders, receiving, invoices, and project cost control.
• Ability to identify missing information before ordering.
• Strong communication skills with shop, project, vendor, QA/QC, and accounting teams.
• Experience with ERP, purchasing systems, Excel, and Microsoft Office.
• Understanding of material traceability and documentation requirements is considered an asset.

What Good Looks Like

Success in this role means:

• The shop has the material it needs before it becomes a schedule issue.
• Purchase orders are clean, coded correctly, and easy to track.
• Suppliers are followed up with, not just sent POs.
• Material delays are communicated early.
• QA/QC documentation is requested up front, not chased after the fact.
• Project costs are protected.
• Inventory is controlled.
• The shop manager and project managers know where their material stands.
• Canoco's fabrication team can keep producing without unnecessary purchasing-related delays.

Preferred Experience

• Fabrication shop purchasing experience.
• Industrial construction or mechanical contractor experience.
• Piping, structural, exchanger, maintenance, or turnaround experience.
• Familiarity with MTRs, heat numbers, QA documentation, and material traceability.
• Experience coordinating rentals, freight, hot shots, outside services, and vendor-managed supply.
• Experience supporting multiple active projects at one time.