Operations Specialist

Cengage; India; On-site; INR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage is seeking an Operations Specialist for the PTI Digital team in India to streamline procurement and contracting workflows. You will own end-to-end procure-to-pay within SAP, track SOWs, POs, and invoices, and provide regular budget variance updates to leadership.

You will collaborate with Finance, Procurement, and POM teams to improve visibility, accountability, and financial transparency across programs.

Qualifications

• 3–7 years experience in PMO, business operations, financial operations, or procurement.
• Strong familiarity with SAP or comparable ERP in procurement and finance modules.
• Deep understanding of the procure-to-pay lifecycle (SOWs, POs, invoices) and budget tracking.
• Proven ability to work with data to produce clear, concise reports.
• Excellent skills with Excel and SmartSheet.
• Organized, proactive and able to handle complexity across teams.

Responsibilities

• Financial & Procurement Operations: manage end-to-end procure-to-pay within SAP, track SOWs, POs, and invoices; monitor budgets and variances; oversee vendor financial tracking and reporting.
• Resource Management & Rostering: maintain team roster aligned to POM and IT programs; track allocations and staffing plans; improve rostering accuracy month over month.
• Operational Governance & Support: implement guidelines, identify process improvements in procurement, invoicing, and vendor management; ensure compliance and maintain core process documentation.

Skills

SAP

Procurement processes

Data analysis

Excel

SmartSheet

Tools

SAP ERP

Excel

SmartSheet

Job description

Operations Specialist, PTI

As an Operations Specialist with the Digital team, you will be a key player in building our scalable and efficient operational engine. Your primary goal is to reduce the administrative burden associated with procurement, vendor management, and resource tracking, allowing our technology leaders to focus on strategic execution. You will manage the day-to-day operations for our procurement and contracting lifecycle, guaranteeing all requests are managed accurately and reported on precisely. You will collaborate with leadership, Finance, Procurement, and our Product Operating Model (POM) teams to enhance visibility, consistency, and financial transparency across our programs. This role demands outstanding attention to detail, operational difficulty, and the capacity to work collaboratively across teams to promote continuous improvement.

Your primary responsibilities:

• Financial & Procurement Operations: Manage the end-to-end procure-to-pay process within SAP, including the management and tracking of Statements of Work (SOWs), Purchase Orders (POs), and invoices. Partner with budget owners and Finance to monitor spending against budgets, providing regular updates on the pace of spend and highlighting potential variances. Lead vendor financial tracking; maintain list of PTI vendors, partnerships, and spending for sourcing and financial planning support. Ensure financial data within SAP is accurate, timely, and reliable to support leadership in making data-driven decisions and to enable regular financial reporting.
• Resource Management & Rostering: Manage the team roster, keeping an updated record of members aligned to the Product Operating Model (POM) and IT enterprise programs. Collaborate with Digital leads to track resource allocations, providing access to team composition and staffing plans. Contribute to improving the month-over-month accuracy of our rostering data, ensuring it reflects the true state of our teams.
• Operational Governance & Support: Champion and implement guidelines for our operational processes, ensuring alignment with our company's operating model and governance standards. Discover opportunities for making workflows related to procurement, invoicing, and vendor management more efficient and effective. Support governance processes by ensuring compliance checks, reviews, and approvals are completed in a timely manner. Develop and maintain clear documentation for all core operational processes.

Who you are:

• An experienced operations analyst or specialist with 3–7 years in relevant fields such as PMO, business operations, financial operations, or procurement.
• Practical familiarity with SAP or a comparable ERP platform is required, particularly within procurement and finance modules.
• Deeply familiar with the procure-to-pay lifecycle (SOWs, POs, Invoices) and budget tracking - or equivalent experience.
• Confident working with data to ensure accuracy and provide clear, concise reports.
• Highly proficient with tools like Excel and SmartSheet.
• Organized, meticulous, and proactive in handling complexity and ambiguity to see tasks through to completion.
• An outstanding communicator with strong written and verbal skills, capable of partnering effectively with collaborators in Finance, Procurement, and Technology.
• A collaborative problem-solver who thrives on improving processes and enabling teams to operate more efficiently.

Preferred qualifications:

• Background in supporting a technology or software development organization.
• Experience in a global organization, working with teams across different time zones.

Cengage Group is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, veteran status, and any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Compensation At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy. The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.

Cengage, a global edtech company, supports learners, educators and institutions across more than 100 countries. With products serving nearly 16 million digital users across the Higher Education, School, Work and English Language Learning markets, we’ve built a learning ecosystem that connects education to employment. We combine trusted content, AI-powered insights and scalable digital platforms to power learning for every future and drive meaningful outcomes at every stage of the learning journey.