Senior Procurement Manager

Nielseniq India; Pune District; On-site; INR 3,000,000 - 5,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Nielseniq India seeks a Senior Manager Procurement to lead category strategy and sourcing initiatives across its portfolio. The role combines market insight with commercial discipline and structured supplier management to optimize external services and solutions in support of business performance, efficiency, and long-term value.

In collaboration with internal stakeholders, you will translate requirements into strategic sourcing approaches that support workplace, facilities, and real estate

Qualifications

• 13+ years in strategic procurement or category management
• Proven ability to develop and execute category strategies
• Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills
• Analytical capability for complex proposals and long-term agreements
• Experience with Total Cost of Ownership modeling and NPV analysis
• Experience managing suppliers and complex SLAs in global spend
• Familiarity with procurement systems, digital tools, and analytics

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute category strategies for allocated categories.
• Lead market analysis and supplier capability assessments to identify solutions.
• Drive value through sourcing initiatives, cost savings, and supplier performance.
• Optimize supplier footprint and commercial structures across categories.
• Maintain relationships with stakeholders to align procurement with business priorities.
• Lead RFI/RFP processes, negotiations, and contract awards.
• Manage supplier performance and governance to ensure service levels.
• Support contract management and risk management requirements.
• Streamline procurement processes and reduce complexity across categories.
• Monitor spend, supplier concentration, and contract coverage for cost control.

Skills

Category strategy

Sourcing initiatives

Negotiation

Supplier management

Analytical skills

Financial analysis

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or certification a plus

Tools

Procurement platforms

Spend analytics/tools

Job description

Job Summary:

The Senior Manager Procurement leads category strategy and sourcing initiatives. The role brings market insight, commercial discipline, and structured supplier management to these categories, ensuring external services and solutions are sourced and managed in a way that supports business performance, operational efficiency, and long term value. Working closely with internal stakeholders, the role translates business requirements into sourcing approaches and supplier solutions that support the companys operational footprint, workplace needs, and real estate portfolio.

Major Responsibilities:

1. Develop and execute category strategies for allocated categories.
2. Analyze market trends and supplier capabilities to identify solutions that meet business needs in the short and long term across the categories in scope.
3. Drive measurable value creation through sourcing initiatives and supplier engagement that deliver cost savings, improved cash flow, stronger supplier performance, enhanced internal controls, effective risk mitigation, and supplier-led innovation.
4. Identify opportunities to optimize supplier footprint, service delivery models, and commercial structures across the category portfolio.
5. Maintain strong working relationships with key stakeholders to understand business requirements and ensure procurement activities support operational priorities.
6. Align with Procurement senior management on category strategy, priorities, and sourcing direction, ensuring consistent deployment of agreed approaches across the categories under his or her responsibility.
7. Lead competitive sourcing processes including RFI and RFP, supplier negotiations, and contract award in line with company procurement policies and governance requirements.
8. Manage supplier performance through clear service expectations, performance reviews, and issue resolution to ensure reliable service delivery across workplace and facilities operations.
9. Support contract management and supplier governance to ensure compliance with agreed commercial terms, service levels, and risk management requirements.
10. Simplify procurement processes and rationalize the supply base where appropriate to reduce complexity, improve service consistency, and strengthen commercial leverage across the category portfolio.
11. Monitor category spend, supplier concentration, and contract coverage to maintain visibility of opportunities for cost control, operational efficiency, and risk mitigation.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Value delivered across the categories in scope including cost savings, cash improvement, service quality, and risk mitigation.
• Delivery of sourcing initiatives and contracts.
• Supplier performance against agreed service levels including service quality, reliability, responsiveness, and issue resolution.
• Compliance with Procurement policy, contracting standards, and applicable regulations, including ESG.
• Continuity and reliability of critical services supporting company operations.
• Growing organization capability, team engagement and effectiveness.
• Stakeholder satisfaction.
• Timely execution of sourcing processes including RFI, RFP, negotiations, and contract implementation.
• Supply base effectiveness including appropriate supplier coverage, service consistency, and managed risk exposure.
• Procurement processes simplification and effective use of procurement and contracting technology platforms.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelors degree in Business, Administration, Finance, Economics, Supply Chain, or a related field.
• Advanced degree such as MBA or relevant professional certification is a plus.
• Procurement or Supply Chain professional certifications are a plus.

Experience

• 13+ years in strategic procurement or category management, within global or multi regional organizations.
• Proven experience developing and executing category strategies and leading sourcing initiatives that delivered measurable cost savings, cash flow improvement, stronger supplier performance, improved internal controls, effective risk mitigation, and supplier-driven innovative solutions.
• Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills with the ability to structure competitive sourcing processes and secure favorable commercial terms that support sustainable supplier relationships and value creation across regional or global spend portfolios.
• Strong analytical capability to evaluate complex commercial proposals, payment structures, and long term supplier agreements.
• Advanced financial and commercial analysis skills including Total Cost of Ownership modeling, discounted cash flow analysis, and NPV evaluation of long term projects and supplier agreements.
• Experience managing suppliers and complex SLAs and service contracts in global organizations across the categories in scope.
• Strong understanding of procurement systems and digital tools supporting sourcing, contracting and spend management.
• Experience using procurement platforms and analytics tools to improve visibility and control of supplier spend.
• Ability to drive improvements in procurement processes through systems and digital enablement.