Senior Strategic Sourcing Lead

Wenger & Watson; Chennai District; Hybrid; INR 2,500,000 - 4,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Wenger & Watson in India is seeking a seasoned procurement leader to manage a purchasing team within the US/Canada scope, driving end-to-end ownership of categories and savings goals.

You will coordinate with the Category Manager, engage suppliers to harmonize pricing and terms, and influence senior stakeholders to deliver value across projects and initiatives. This role requires strong leadership, change management, and hands-on analytics.

Responsibilities

• Managing a purchasing team and overseeing a portion of the purchasing scope within the US/Canada Purchasing division.
• Full end-to-end ownership of the team and associated categories in scope, including project identification, sourcing leadership, and prioritization in alignment with the Category Manager.
• Responsible for managing the savings plan to deliver significant value.
• Team Leadership in Sourcing Integration for new acquisitions by engaging suppliers to harmonize pricing and payment terms, ensuring a smooth transition.
• Ownership of the overall project pipeline while assisting the team in developing a robust pipeline and prioritizing projects, assigning resources, and delivering value.
• Obtain significant cost savings in your Categories of scope/Projects for companies with increasing level of quality and lower delivery time.
• Managing relationships with stakeholders up to Business Line Leadership and collaborating with key stakeholders to understand organizational priorities.
• Influence BU leaders and support the team through change management to ensure sourcing practices, processes and tools are adopted across the organization.
• Sound analytical skills and use of Excel to conduct spend analyses at executive and detailed levels, identifying trends and savings opportunities.
• Regular reporting of results and preparing reports and presentations for management and communicating key insights to stakeholders.
• Ensuring the integration of initiatives such as supplier diversity, sustainability, cash flow improvement, automation, and digitization into the team’s work plans with tracking of progress.
• Supporting the team and leading negotiations with suppliers across multiple contract complexities, collaborating with supplier leadership.
• Cultivating and managing supplier relationships at leadership level through regular business reviews and escalation points for major issues.
• Maintaining compliance with policies, processes and legal requirements across purchasing activities.
• Organizing priorities and projects with flexibility to adapt to departmental needs and ensuring timely delivery.

Job description

Responsibilities:

• Managing a purchasing team and overseeing a portion of the purchasing scope within the US/Canada Purchasing division.
• Full end-to-end ownership of the team and associated categories in scope, including project identification, sourcing leadership, and prioritization in alignment with the Category Manager. Responsible for managing the savings plan to deliver significant value.
• Team Leadership in Sourcing Integration for new acquisitions by engaging suppliers to harmonize pricing and payment terms, ensuring a smooth transition.
• Ownership of the overall project pipeline while assisting the team in developing a robust pipeline. This includes prioritizing projects, appropriately assigning resources, and ensuring the team maintains a sharp focus on delivering value.
• Obtain significant cost savings in your Categories of scope/Projects for companies with increasing level of quality and lower delivery time.
• Managing relationship with stakeholders up to Business Line Leadership and effectively collaborate with key stakeholders to understand the organizational priorities.

Influence BU leaders and support the team through the change management (including set-up of test plans) to ensure sourcing practices, processes and tools are adopted across the organization.

• Sound analytical skills and use of Excel to conduct both executive and detailed level spend analysis, analyzing trends, ability to link and leverage spend and find savings opportunities.
• Regular reporting of results and preparing reports and presentations for management and communicating key insights to stakeholders.
• Ensuring the integration of key organizational initiatives, such as supplier diversity, sustainability, cash flow improvement, automation, and digitization, into the team's work plans while actively tracking sustained progress on these initiatives.
• Supporting the team and/or leading negotiations with suppliers across a spectrum of complexity, from straightforward agreements to intricate, multi-faceted contract, often collaborating with supplier leadership.
• Cultivating and managing supplier relationships at the leadership level through regular business reviews to align and implement strategies and goals. Additionally, serving as the escalation point for suppliers on major issues to ensure swift resolution and continuous

improvement.

• Strong understanding of legal and contractual issues with experience negotiating complex supplier contracts, ensuring comprehensive spend coverage. Ensures team compliance with

processes and alignment with legal, business unit, and purchasing management requirements.

• Developing excellent understanding of relevant policies, processes and Key Group Documents and ensuring compliance across the
• Working closely with the team to organize priorities and projects with the ability to adapt to Purchasing department/customer/business needs.
• Demonstrates the ability to manage a team, work under pressure while managing multiple priorities, ensuring timely delivery and maintaining high-quality outcomes across all projects.
• Success in this role hinges on candidates ability to work autonomously, manage tasks without requiring constant oversight, and demonstrate a strong capacity for self-directed learning on the job.
• Being agile and adaptable to and teaxxm needs, which may include potential assignment of new goals and adjustments in roles and responsibilities within the Purchasing team.