Supplier Management Specialist

Elsevier; Chennai; On-site; INR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Elsevier is seeking a Supplier Management Specialist in Chennai to drive strategic supplier performance and manage contracts across the supply chain. You will build partnerships that foster accountability, innovation, and cost improvements, while collaborating with Procurement, Operations, Finance, and Risk teams to strengthen resilience.

The role emphasizes data-driven insights, dashboards, and continuous improvement within a print SCM context, with a 2pm-11pm shift and a focus on end-to-end

Qualifications

• Demonstrate a strong commitment to achieving goals.
• Provide coaching and mentoring to others and communicate complex topics clearly.
• Identify problems, analyze data, and propose practical solutions.
• Foster cross-team collaboration and remove barriers to performance.

Responsibilities

• Supplier Performance Management: maintain scorecards, KPIs, reports, reviews, and meetings; monitor contracts and SLAs; drive improvements in service, quality, cost, and operations.
• Contract Management: manage supplier contracts throughout their lifecycle, support renewals and amendments, coordinate with Procurement and Legal for terms.
• Tender and Supplier Selection Support: assist with RFPs/RFIs, supplier assessments, onboarding, and transitions, define performance expectations.
• Financial and Commercial Management: track spend and cost trends, verify pricing, and report spend and performance.
• Risk and Business Continuity: assess risks across operational, financial, geopolitical, cybersecurity, and compliance domains; maintain risk registers.
• Supplier Governance: ensure compliance with policies and ethics; support onboarding and ongoing governance.
• Data, Reporting, and Insights: maintain dashboards, analyze data, identify trends and improvements, support forecasting.
• Collaboration: partner with multiple teams to promote end-to-end supply chain.
• Shift Timings- 2pm-11pm

Job description

Supplier Management Specialist

Are you passionate about managing strategic supplier performance, contracts, and partnerships to improve quality, service, cost, and operational outcomes?

Would you enjoy using data, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous improvement to manage risk and strengthen an end-to-end supply chain?

About the Team

Print Supply Chain Management is responsible for printing/manufacturing books, demand forecasting, deciding where products should be produced, and distribution, warehousing, transportation, stocking, and print-on-demand fulfillment.

About the Role

The role requires driving the performance of strategic suppliers to deliver quality, service, cost, and value; build strong supplier partnerships that promote accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement; and collaborate across the Supply Chain to strengthen resilience, manage risk, and deliver end-to-end business outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Supplier Performance Management: Manage strategic supplier performance. Maintain scorecards, KPIs, reports, reviews, and meetings. Monitor contracts and SLAs. Address gaps through corrective actions. Improve service, quality, cost, and operations. Build strong relationships and maintain commercial governance.
• Contract Management: Manage supplier contracts throughout their lifecycle. Monitor obligations, pricing, and service commitments. Support renewals, amendments, and extensions. Maintain accessible records. Work with Procurement and Legal to clarify contract terms.
• Tender and Supplier Selection Support: Support sourcing and tender activities. Contribute to RFPs, RFIs, evaluations, and due diligence. Assist with supplier assessments, onboarding, and transitions. Define performance and service expectations.
• Financial and Commercial Management: Track supplier spend, volumes, and cost trends. Measure results against budgets and targets. Support invoice checks and payment resolution. Verify pricing and identify savings. Report spend, volume, and performance.
• Risk and Business Continuity: Work with Risk Management and Operations. Assess operational, financial, geopolitical, cybersecurity, sustainability, and compliance risks. Maintain risk registers and track mitigation actions. Support continuity plans, incident management, and reviews.
• Supplier Governance: Ensure compliance with company policies, regulations, sustainability commitments, and ethical standards. Support onboarding and ongoing governance. Review compliance records and certifications. Escalate issues appropriately.
• Data, Reporting, and Insights: Maintain supplier dashboards and reports. Analyse operational and commercial data. Identify trends and improvement opportunities. Report to key stakeholders. Support forecasting and capacity planning.
• Collaboration: Partner with Procurement, Operations, Finance, Customer Service, Planning, Risk Management, Legal, and other teams. Prevent silos and share expertise. Support cross-training, supplier transitions, business changes, and major projects. Promote an integrated, end-to-end supply chain.

Requirements

• Demonstrate a strong commitment to achieving goals. Monitor progress regularly, take responsibility for group outcomes, and encourage accountability and ownership. Recognise and share credit for contributions.
• Serve as a subject matter expert and provide coaching and mentoring to others. Explain complex technical matters clearly and adapt communication to suit the audience. Remain current within the discipline, build external connections, and apply best practices.
• Provide clear instructions and direction. Listen actively, ask effective questions, and consider different viewpoints. Explain the wider business context clearly.
• Manage unexpected situations independently and act with confidence. Remove obstacles and follow through on agreed actions. Encourage initiative by providing appropriate information, resources, and support while maintaining individual ownership of goals and achievements.
• Ask relevant questions and gather facts from multiple sources. Identify and analyse problems, recommend suitable solutions, and manage routine issues independently.
• Promote cooperation across the team. Remove barriers that affect team performance and support the effective resolution of conflicts.
• Identify opportunities for teams to collaborate. Seek input and expertise from team members, and encourage open, constructive discussion on matters affecting the team.
• Provide support without reducing individual ownership. Help individuals and teams achieve their objectives, and recognise shared contributions to successful outcomes.
• Shift Timings- 2pm-11pm

Work in a way that works for you

• We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organisation.
• We offer an appealing working prospect for our people.
• With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long-term goals.