Supplier Manager

Knorr Bremse Group; Kancheepuram; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Knorr Bremse Group in Chennai is seeking a Supplier Manager to oversee governance-level management of external service providers. You will ensure adherence to contracts, SLAs and budgets while coordinating cross-provider governance at the SIAM level.

The role requires 8–12 years in supplier management, strong ITIL knowledge, and the ability to drive supplier performance improvements across multi-vendor engagements.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of experience in Supplier Management with multiple Indian IT vendors
• Strong understanding of ITIL processes (Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change, SLA)
• Experience in SIAM or other managed services governance models
• Ability to manage complex provider ecosystems and cross-vendor coordination
• Proven skills in contract interpretation, SLA/KPI management and supplier performance reviews

Responsibilities

• Govern overall performance of assigned service providers, ensuring SLA/KPI and contractual compliance
• Lead supplier-related escalations, including major incidents and performance issues
• Maintain relationships with suppliers and address collaboration and performance issues
• Act as first escalation point for performance or operational issues
• Conduct performance reviews and report to Senior Management
• Participate in SIAM governance boards and ensure alignment with enterprise architecture and governance
• Oversee onboarding and offboarding of suppliers with contract frameworks
• Identify strategic risks and drive continual supplier improvement initiatives
• Support commercial discussions with Indirect Procurement (without owning contracts)
• Validate service consumption and assist in billing accuracy reviews
• Ensure provider scorecards and KPIs are delivered to required quality and cadence
• Conduct supplier audits to ensure compliance with quality standards

Skills

Supplier management

ITIL processes

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Cross-cultural collaboration

Multi-provider coordination

SIAM governance

Job description

LOCATION: Chennai - Porur

The Supplier Manager is a key role responsible for the strategic and governance-level management of external managed service providers. The role ensures that providers deliver services in alignment with contractual commitments, quality and within the agreed costs. Ensuring that suppliers adhere to the IT governance structures agreed is also a key responsibility. The Supplier Manager will act as the primary point of contact and accountability for provider performance, escalations, cross-provider coordination at governance level, and continual supplier improvement initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Govern overall performance of assigned service providers, ensuring SLA/KPI and contractual compliance.
• Lead and manage supplier-related escalations, including SLA breaches, major incidents, and systemic performance issues
• Maintain effective working relationships with suppliers, addressing behavioral, collaboration and performance issues impacting service delivery
• Act as first point of escalation for performance or operational issues
• Conduct performance reviews, compare outcomes against contractual obligations, and ensure implementation of corrective actions and improvement initiatives and provide periodic reporting to Senior Management
• Participate in and contribute to SIAM (Service Integration and Management) strategic, tactical, and operational governance boards.
• Oversee onboarding and offboarding of suppliers, ensuring alignment with governance, service readiness, and contractual frameworks.
• Identify and elevate strategic risks and systemic cross-provider issues, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, risk, and compliance requirements.
• Support commercial and contractual discussions in partnership with Indirect Procurement (without owning contracts).
• Support financial transparency by validating provider service consumption and contribution to billing accuracy reviews
• Ensure that provider scorecards, reporting, and KPIs are delivered to the required quality and cadence.
• Conduct on-site and virtual supplier audits to ensure compliance with relevance quality standards

Required Experience & Skills

• 8-12 years of experience in Supplier Management, with emphasis on handling multiple Indian IT Vendors, operating in a global context
• Proven experience in multi-provider environments, ideally following SIAM or other managed services governance models.
• Strong understanding of ITIL processes (Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change, Service Level, Supplier Management).
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex provider ecosystems, including coordination across multiple vendors and service lines.
• Experience in contract interpretation, SLA/KPI management, and structured supplier performance assessments.
• Financial knowledge with ability to understand service consumption, billing structures and cost drivers
• Excellent stakeholder management, negotiation & Conflict Resolution skills at operational, tactical, and executive levels.
• Strong analytical skills for SLA/KPI trending, performance reporting, and identifying systemic improvements.
• Strong interpersonal skills and Ability to work effectively with roles like Client Relationship Managers, Operations Managers and Project Managers, as well as Service Owners, Product Owners, and Indirect Procurement.
• High resilience, communication strength, and ability to navigate cross-cultural, global delivery environments.
• Ideally previous exposure to the SIAM Body of Knowledge framework

Who are we?

Some 32,000 team players around the world, hard at work in over 100 locations across more than 30 countries. As a force for progress on road and rail, we prioritize technical excellence, sustainable business practices and social responsibility. At the last count, our global revenues totaled EUR 7.9 billion. Responsibility and variety are hallmarks of the work you’ll be doing in an international environment with attractive working conditions – including flexible working hours, sabbaticals and remote work. In addition, you can work up to twenty days a year from abroad in the EU. A broad selection of continuing education programs offers you plenty of opportunities to develop both professionally and personally. And you can look forward to many other benefits, such as paid vacations and end-of-year bonuses, an in-house cafeteria, sports and healthcare programs, corporate volunteering, BusinessBike bicycle leasing and so much more. Come and experience the inspiring team spirit that energizes our international development network.

Let’s shape the future of mobility together!