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.