Category Buyer

Location: Bangalore, India

In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.

Present in India since 1953, Thales is headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and has operational offices and sites spread across Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune among others. Over 1800 employees are working with Thales and its joint ventures in India. Since the beginning, Thales has been playing an essential role in India’s growth story by sharing its technologies and expertise in Defence, Transport, Aerospace and Digital Identity and Security markets.

**Job purpose**

**As Individual contributor**, he/she shall be responsible for primarily sourcing of IT Services, Engineering Design & Development & Electronic Manufacturing

**Duties and responsibilities**
- The Category Buyer (CB) is accountable for end to end performance of the purchase acquisition process, via the management of the RFI &/or RFP's
- The CB shall lead supplier selection exercises to support business needs
- Implements Thales Purchasing policy applied in his/her Category (target suppliers, strategic suppliers, contracts and framework agreements negotiated, etc.) and communicates this to requesting parties
- The CB ensures the deployment, implementation and monitoring of agreed category strategies
- Manages consultation documents (RFQ) and calls for tender: formatting on call for tender tools, mailing, bid receipt, traceability, questions, oral presentations, report monitoring, reminders calls
- Manages contracts, NDA (confidentiality agreement) and framework agreements: creation and monitoring of versions, reviews, approval flowchart and signatures, summary sheet, archiving, distribution and Purchasing contract reference base management, internal communication,
- Negotiates pricing & purchase acquisition conditions with selected supplier(s)
- Keeps Purchasing data up to date in the information systems and guarantees their integrity
- Ensures that Suppliers deliver on their contract commitments and tracks their performance
- Provides the information needed for purchase acquisition forecasts and related requirements, in order to improve the strategy and to ensure better globalization
- Responsible for supplier relationship management and continuous improvement of suppliers within his/her category (with the support of Supplier Performance Management Team if needed) and the management of suppliers performance including, but not limited to, quality, cost, delivery, contractual performance and innovation
- An essential element of his/her role is to ensure that the suppliers provide the competitiveness required to support the business and to introduce optimal supply base changes to support business winning capability
- Creates Purchasing orders in the information system, in line with the terms/contracts negotiated
- Tracks delivery with suppliers (reminders, disputes, receipt tracking, invoicing), identifies risks of non-fulfilment and alerts stakeholders
- Summarize information for management reporting needed to assess suppliers’ operational performance

**Qualifications**
- This position will be based out of Bangalore
- Individual should have good exposure on procurement of IT Services, Embedded Engineering design & development & Electronic Manufacturing & especially on drafting & negotiating contracts/SoW
- Knowledge on Hardware & Software product design and development lifecycle will be an advantage
- Individual should have good understanding of Supplier Management including Risk Management and ESG
- Experience in Aerospace & Defence industry domain will be added advantage
- Individual should have ability to challenge suppliers & internal stakeholders for optimizing cost through smart ideas and engineering inputs and able to individually steer price/contract negotiation and resolving disputes
- Strong oral and written communication skills with experience in influencing others
- Strong tools expertise in Microsoft Power Point, Excel, Word & PowerBI
- Self-motivated /self-starter with ability to work independently and in team environment