Senior Specialist – Telecom Sourcing & Contact Management

Rakuten Symphony; Gurugram District; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Rakuten Symphony is hiring a Senior Specialist – Telecom Sourcing & Contact Management for its Gurgaon onsite team. You will support the Section lead in Sourcing activities (RFP/RFQ/RFI), drive negotiations with telecom vendors and manage Vendor Performance and cost optimization initiatives.

You will also lead P2P related efforts, define business requirements for ERP tools, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve procurement efficiency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering. MBA or professional certification is preferred.
• Proven experience (at least 5–8 years) in handling Sourcing/Procurement & Vendor Management profile in telecom industry.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex data.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Proficiency in ERP & P2P Tools and MS Excel.
• Ability to work independently with speed and collaborate effectively in a team environment.
• Attention to detail and a commitment to accuracy.

Responsibilities

• Strategic & Tactical Supplier Management & RFI/RFQ support and evaluation.
• SME support on scope of work and commercial terms.
• Make TCO comparison and ensure compliance on RFPs.
• Support data analytics to bring out insights on operational efficiency and savings.
• Participate in vendor negotiations for networks and professional services.
• Drive and support RFP/RFI/RFQ for networks and related purchases.
• Maintain master pricing and identify cost-innovation opportunities.
• Coordinate with procurement buyers, network division and vendors for a cordial relationship.
• Develop long-term vendor management strategies and ideation for P2P tools.
• Oversee vendor SLAs repository and BI reports on performance.

Skills

Vendor Management

Sourcing & Procurement

Telecom industry

Data analytics

ERP & P2P Tools

MS Excel

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

MBA or professional certification

Tools

ERP tools

P2P tools

Job description

Job Title: Senior Specialist – Telecom Sourcing & Contact Management

Experience: 5 – 8 years

Location: Gurgaon (Onsite)

Why should you choose us?

Rakuten Symphony is reimagining telecom, changing supply chain norms and disrupting outmoded thinking that threatens the industry’s pursuit of rapid innovation and growth. Based on proven modern infrastructure practices, its open interface platforms make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security.

Rakuten Symphony has operations in Japan, the United States, Singapore, India, South Korea, Europe, and the Middle East Africa region. For more information, visit: https://symphony.rakuten.com.

Building on the technology Rakuten used to launch Japan’s newest mobile network, we are taking our mobile offering global.

To support our ambitions to provide an innovative cloud-native telco platform for our customers, Rakuten Symphony is looking to recruit and develop top talent from around the globe. We are looking for individuals to join our team across all functional areas of our business – from sales to engineering, support functions to product development.

Let’s build the future of mobile telecommunications together!

About Rakuten Group, Inc. (TSE: 4755) is a global leader in internet services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Founded in Tokyo in 1997 as an online marketplace, Rakuten has expanded to offer services in e-commerce, fintech, digital content and communications to 2 billion members around the world. The Rakuten Group has over 30,000 employees, and operations in 30 countries and regions. For more information visit https://global.rakuten.com/corp/.

What Do We Expect From You

As a Team Member and individual contributor, you will be responsible to support the Section lead of Sourcing Management on various activities around Sourcing like RFP/RFQ/RFI, drive new/renewal negotiations with vendors for all Network Capex/Opex purchases, drive Cost Innovation and Operational efficiency Projects, Price benchmarking, TCO comparison for new ventures , SME consultation on P2P process/ERP development. In addition to this, the candidate would need to conduct various activities, engagements around Vendor Performance Management. Key activities include Vendor SLA Monitoring, Voice of Customer Surveys, Vendor Cadence and relationship management, Creating Long term and tacticial strategies on Vendor Management.

Responsibilities

Strategic & Tactical Supplier Management & RFI/RFQ Support, Evaluation & Management

• SME support on Scope of work, commercial terms and conditions, contractual terms and conditions
• Make TCO comparison and compliance on RFPs initiated.
• Supporting Data analytics team as SME to bring out key insights on Operational efficiency, Savings on New sourcing/renewals through automated reports for Vendor Management function from vendor cost and performance perspective.
• Participate in Vendor negotiations on Scope and Commercials for new/renewals engagement for Supply & Professional Services.
• Drive and Support RFP/RFI/RFQ to support Networks team with vendors on Network Capex/Opex purchases.
• Ensure favorable commercial terms, Contractual compliances for all new/renewals on Network related purchase.
• Work in close co-ordination with a diverse team of Procurement buyers, Network division and Vendors to ensure a co-ordial Customer-Supplier relationship.
• Maintain Master Price Book for existing vendors and Pricing, Identifying cost innovation areas based on Price Master and reviewing each Department purchase.
• Developing Alternate source to drive cost innovation and challenging vendors for quality with cost.

P2P Process and Tools

• SME support in giving Business requirements/user stories for implementation of new ERP tools and systems for P2P process
• Evaluate the existing process and suggest improvements for implementation
• Manage the Vendor SLAs repository and track/monitor updates in the same
• Provide business requirements for tool based automation of Vendor Performance Monitoring coming from various sources like
• SLAs repository
• Operations ticket ageing of Vendor tickets
• Software release performance of Vendors
• Voice of customer - Survey based feedback collection
• Conduct Voice of Customer surveys on periodic intervals and track the Vendor performance through BI based tool
• Create and publish Excel based Reports for Vendor SLAs performance
• Create and Manage a Vendor Risk register for tracking Vendor related risks
• Manage Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly vendor cadence with critical suppliers of Rakuten
• Work in close co-ordination with a diverse team of Procurement buyers, Network division and Vendor team to ensure a co-ordial relationship with Vendors.
• Build and manage the long term strategies for Vendor Management including the Business requirements/ideations for P2P tools

Required Skills & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering. MBA or professional certification is preferred.
• Proven experience (atleast 5-8 years) in handling Sourcing/Procurement & Vendor Management Profile in telecom industry
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex data.

Excellent communication and presentation skills.

• Proficiency in ERP & P2P Tools and MS Excel.
• Ability to work independently with speed and collaborate effectively in a team environment.
• Attention to detail and a commitment to accuracy.

Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviours that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

• Always improve, always advance. Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen.
• Be passionately professional. Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best.
• Hypothesize - Practice - Validate - Shikumika. Use the Rakuten Cycle to success in unknown territory.
• Maximize Customer Satisfaction. The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see their customers smile.
• Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.