Procurement Professional II, Telecom Expense Management

Nielsen; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 2,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Nielsen Bengaluru is seeking an experienced procurement professional to lead IT/telecom sourcing and supplier management. You will run RFPs, negotiate contracts, and drive category strategies that reduce cost while maintaining service levels.

You will collaborate with Legal, Finance, and engineering teams to ensure compliant, value-driven outcomes and manage supplier relationships across global and local partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business, finance, IT or related field.
• 3–5+ years in IT/telecom procurement, strategic sourcing, vendor management or TEM.
• Understanding of telecom circuits, carrier billing, and networking basics.
• Experience developing category strategy with KPI improvements.
• Strong contract analysis and supplier relationship management.

Responsibilities

• Sourcing & bidding: Run RFPs/RFQs for telecom carriers and network infrastructure.
• Contract negotiation: Negotiate pricing, SLAs, and terms with suppliers.
• Align strategies: Implement procurement category plans to cut costs.
• Lead strategic procurement activities from assessment to transition.
• Manage supplier negotiations and enforce contractual terms with internal teams.
• Partner with Legal, Finance, Marketing to support procurement needs.
• Lifecycle management: quote, order, service delivery, and issue resolution.

Skills

RFX management

Contract negotiation

Vendor management

Advanced Excel

Coupa/SAP/Oracle Fusion

Education

Bachelor’s degree in supply chain/Business/Finance/IT

Tools

Coupa

SAP

Oracle Fusion

Job description

Company Description

At Nielsen, we are passionate about our work to power a better media future for all people by providing powerful insights that drive client decisions and deliver extraordinary results. Our talented, global workforce is dedicated to capturing audience engagement with content - wherever and whenever it’s consumed. Together, we are proudly rooted in our deep legacy as we stand at the forefront of the media revolution. When you join Nielsen, you will join a dynamic team committed to excellence, perseverance, and the ambition to make an impact together. We champion you, because when you succeed, we do too. We enable your best to power our future.

Company Description

At Nielsen, we are passionate about our work to power a better media future for all people by providing powerful insights that drive client decisions and deliver extraordinary results. Our talented, global workforce is dedicated to capturing audience engagement with content - wherever and whenever it’s consumed. Together, we are proudly rooted in our deep legacy as we stand at the forefront of the media revolution. When you join Nielsen, you will join a dynamic team committed to excellence, perseverance, and the ambition to make an impact together. We champion you, because when you succeed, we do too. We enable your best to power our future.

Job Description

• Sourcing & Bidding: Run Requests for Proposals (RFPs, RFQs) for telecom carriers, cloud communications (CCaaS/UCaaS), and network infrastructure.
• Contract Negotiation: Negotiate pricing, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and terms with major global and local telecom suppliers.
• Align Nielsen enterprise strategy with effective procurement category strategies that deliver best-in-class products and services at the lowest possible cost.
• Gain support and execute the global category/sourcing strategy
• Lead the strategic procurement activities involving assessment, selection, negotiation and management for externally contracted services.
• Negotiate requirements and provisions in contracts, including terms and conditions, to ensure compliance with all laws, regulations and enterprise policies.
• Work with external partners and internal colleagues (Marketing, Finance, and Legal) to ensure best in class operational support, at the best possible conditions for Nielsen.
• Expense & Inventory Management: Partner with Telecom Expense Management (TEM) systems to reconcile billing, audit vendor invoices, and track asset inventories.
• Cost Optimization: Analyze network architecture (such as migrating expensive legacy circuits to commodities or SD-WAN paths) to find continuous savings.
• Proactively identify areas of opportunity for new business opportunities, process improvement, procedures and/or systems to improve organizational efficiencies and cost controls.
• Manage or support specific Suppliers’ negotiations & sourcing arrangements.
• Provide insight to how to best develop and leverage supplier capabilities to meet business needs.
• Deliver against savings objectives.
• Support Legal teams in contractual discussions and oversee signature, to ensuring that Nielsen business relationships are protected by appropriate contractual documents.
• Lifecycle Management: Coordinate quoting, ordering, service delivery, and dispute resolution with network engineers and vendors.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, Business, Finance, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Experience: 3 to 5+ years working in IT/telecom procurement, strategic sourcing, vendor management, or telecom expense analysis.
• Domain Knowledge: Understanding of telecom circuits (MPLS, DIA, broadband), carrier billing, and networking hardware.
• Experience/ Passionate in the Procurement space
• Experience developing and implementing category strategy leading to year-over-year KPI improvement (for example cost savings, diversity spend, etc.).
• Individual with good and proven influencing skills, Actor of change who can operate autonomously with his/her stakeholders.
• Capable of adapting its way of workings depending on the situations/stakeholders while maintaining rigorous procurement behaviors.
• Prior experience in the sourcing event management (RFX management): Scoping & Planning, Detailed Requirements Definition & SOW Development, Evaluation & Selection, Negotiation & Contract Award, Implementation, Relationship & Contract Management, and Contract Transition & Termination.
• Good understanding of product offerings and/or experience negotiating enterprise agreements with large suppliers.
• Commercial Acumen: Strong contract analysis, supplier relationship management, and total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) evaluation.
• A desire to work in a fast paced, global, and collaborative environment.
• The ability to multi-task is critical for success in this role. Demonstrated ability to lead multiple projects simultaneously with potentially conflicting tight deadlines.
• Analytical Tools: Advanced Microsoft Excel proficiency and familiarity with procurement platforms like Coupa, SAP, or Oracle Fusion.
• Ability to adapt to different cultures and time zones to execute the work.
• Fast learning methodology can get up to speed quickly.
• Strong team player
• Focus on performance and results.
• Project Coordination: Ability to align purchasing timelines with IT infrastructure updates and data center relocations.
• Builder of partnership.
• Adaptable, Flexible, Persuasive.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal and Customer Service skills.
• Autonomous and able to work both autonomously and in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.