Sourcing & Should-Cost Specialist

Stozia; Pune District; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Stozia, an AI-native procurement platform for manufacturers, is hiring a seasoned procurement professional in Pune. You will own bottom-up should-costing, run RFQs, evaluate techno-commercials, and negotiate with suppliers to defend costed numbers.

You'll work on drawings, BOMs, and process data to build accurate costs, test workflows, and help shape the platform’s costing logic for the cost intelligence solution.

Qualifications

• BE/B.Tech in Mechanical or Production Engineering.
• 3–6 years direct sourcing and should-costing.
• Bottom-up should-costing from first principles.
• Strong drawing reading: GD&T, weld symbols, material specs.

Responsibilities

• Build bottom-up should-costs from drawings, BOMs and processes.
• Review platform cost outputs line by line and document root causes.
• Test end-to-end sourcing flow: PR to RFQ to negotiation.
• Validate techno‑commercial comparisons and landed costs.

Skills

Should-costing

Sourcing

RFQ negotiations

Drawing reading

Incoterms

Education

BE/B.Tech Mechanical/Production

Tools

aPriori

Facton

Teamcenter PCM

Ariba

Coupa

Job description

This role is for someone who has bought direct materials for a manufacturer and lived through RFQs, supplier follow-ups, techno-commercial comparisons and negotiations.

And who, along the way, stopped accepting supplier quotes at face value and started asking: what should this part actually cost? Someone who has opened a drawing or a BOM, built the number up from material, process, cycle time, machine hours and overhead, and then gone into a negotiation knowing they were right.

If that sounds like you, keep reading.

What we're building

Stozia is building an AI-native procurement platform for manufacturers. At its core is cost intelligence: should-costing, zero-based costing and commercial benchmarking. It lets sourcing teams stop negotiating blind and start negotiating from a defensible number.

You’ll work hands‑on with the platform: costing parts, testing sourcing workflows, finding where the outputs go wrong, and making them better.

What you'll work on

Should-costing

• Build and validate bottom-up should-costs from drawings, BOMs and process routes: material, process, cycle time, machine hour rate (MHR), labour, overhead, rejection and margin.
• Review platform-generated cost outputs line by line, identify errors and their root cause, and document them clearly.
• Work across categories: machined parts, forgings, castings, welded fabrications, sheet metal, assemblies and bought-outs.
• Maintain and improve reference data: MHR cards, cycle-time and labour-time tables, and raw material rates.
• Take ownership of the AI agents’ costing logic and instructions (prompts): find gaps, improve them, and validate every change on live costing runs.

Sourcing

• Test the end‑to‑end sourcing flow on the platform: PR to RFQ, supplier queries, quote receipt, comparison and negotiation. Report defects clearly.
• Validate techno‑commercial comparisons: spec compliance, deviations, exclusions and like‑for‑like scope.
• Check price normalisation and landed cost: FX, Incoterms, freight, duties, payment terms, lead time and supplier risk.
• Review platform‑generated negotiation strategy to make sure it is correct and usable by a real buyer.

Product and customers

• Turn buyer pain points and costing knowledge into clear requirements and test cases for the tech team.
• Support customer demos and pilots with realistic sourcing scenarios and cost walkthroughs.

Who we're looking for

Must-have

• BE/B.Tech in Mechanical or Production Engineering.
• 3–6 years across direct sourcing and should‑costing/estimation at a manufacturing company.
• Bottom‑up should‑costing from first principles in one or more of: machining, casting, forging, fabrication or sheet metal.
• Strong drawing reading: GD&T, weld symbols, material and finish specs.
• Hands‑on sourcing experience: RFQs, quote evaluation, techno‑commercial comparison and supplier negotiation.
• Working knowledge of Incoterms, payment terms, freight and logistics costs, GST and import duty basics, and landed cost.

Good to have

• Experience with costing or e‑procurement tools (aPriori, Facton, Teamcenter PCM, Ariba, Coupa or similar).
• Knowledge of the Indian supplier base.
• Interest in AI tools, and comfort writing precise, structured instructions.

Who will do well here

• Questions numbers instead of accepting them, including AI outputs.
• Can explain a cost assumption clearly and defend it under challenge.
• Comfortable with startup pace and building things that don't exist yet