General Manager - Sourcing

Experience:
- 15+ years of post-qualification experience in procurement or sourcing, with a significant portion managing suppliers from China.
- Direct, hands-on experience with the China-to-India import process. Exposure to international trade/import-export processes is desirable.
- Demonstrable experience sourcing industrial or commodity-linked manufactured goods (for e.g., metals, chemicals, components, electronics or similar categories where input costs are exposed to significant commodity price volatility).
- Experience operating a high-frequency order cycle.
- Experience building a sourcing function or import operation from early stage.
Responsibilities:
Supplier strategy and development:
- Identify, evaluate and qualify manufacturers, maintaining a qualified supplier base with active, pre-approved backup sources to mitigate concentration and single-source risk.
- Develop and execute a supplier-portfolio strategy that balances cost, quality, capacity and reliability, and that evolves from an initial concentrated base toward a diversified, multi-supplier model as volumes scale.
- Build and sustain long-term, senior-level relationships with strategic suppliers to secure preferential commercial terms, priority allocation and early access to capacity.
Commercial negotiation:
- Lead all commercial negotiations with manufacturers covering pricing, payment terms, minimum order quantities and lead time commitments.
- Ensure negotiated terms are consistent with company's working capital, margin and cash-flow requirements, and structure framework and spot arrangements appropriate to each product and supplier tier.
Order execution and supply continuity:
- Own timely and complete fulfilment of every order from placement through to warehouse delivery, maintaining supplier accountability across the full lead-time chain.
- Manage a high-frequency ordering cycle across multiple products and suppliers, proactively identifying and resolving deviations before they affect downstream operations.
Cost management:
- Continuously monitor commodity prices and exchange rate movements, and recommend optimal order placement timing to manage input-cost exposure.
- Own and maintain an accurate order-level landed-cost model (supplier price, customs duties, freight and incidentals), ensuring each order meets margin targets.
Quality assurance:
- Define and document quality standards and acceptance criteria in conjunction with technical stakeholders.
- Commission pre-shipment inspections, manage rejections and replacements with suppliers.
Governance, reporting and function-building:
- Establish and run a structured supplier performance-review cadence against quality, delivery and cost benchmarks, escalating risks early.
- Provide clear, regular reporting to leadership on cost, service, risk and supplier performance.