Supply Chain Expert - Sourcing & Procurement

ZENITH INFOTEK LLC•Research Triangle Park, NC

18h•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a highly experienced Supply Chain Expert / Subject Matter Expert with deep expertise in sourcing and procurement, vendor management, and end-to-end Source-to-Pay (S2P) processes within the automotive industry. The ideal candidate will assess current sourcing and procurement practices, define future-state processes, collaboration touch points, and translate business requirements into practical operating-model and technology solutions. The role requires strong knowledge of strategic sourcing, category management, supplier lifecycle management, contracting, purchasing, invoicing, supplier performance, and procurement analytics, along with the ability to engage business, procurement, finance, legal, technology, and supplier stakeholders.

Requirements

Extensive functional knowledge of sourcing and procurement across direct and indirect spend categories in an automotive or complex manufacturing environment.
Strong understanding of the complete S2P / P2P process, including intake, sourcing, contracting, requisitioning, purchase orders, goods or service receipt, invoicing, exception handling, and payment.
Hands-on expertise in strategic sourcing, category management, supplier relationship management, vendor risk, contract management, and procurement analytics.
Experience defining procurement policies, controls, approval matrices, delegation of authority, compliance mechanisms, and governance forums.
Ability to facilitate workshops, map processes, identify pain points, define requirements, and develop pragmatic transformation roadmaps.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to interpret spend, supplier, contract, purchase-order, invoice, and performance data.
Excellent communication, consulting, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to influence senior business and functional leaders.
Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Engineering, Finance, Operations, or a related field.
10–15 years of relevant experience in sourcing, procurement, supplier management, or procurement transformation, preferably within automotive or manufacturing.
Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional S2P improvement or digital-transformation programmes.

Nice To Haves

Experience with leading procurement platforms such as SAP Ariba, Coupa, Ivalua, Jaggaer, GEP SMART, Oracle Procurement, or equivalent solutions.
Understanding of ERP integration, supplier master data, catalogs, contract repositories, tax, accounts payable, and payment processes.
Knowledge of automotive procurement practices, supplier quality requirements, regulatory expectations, and global supply-market dynamics.
Experience with procurement transformation, shared services, global process ownership, or procurement centre-of-excellence models.
Familiarity with data visualization, spend analytics, workflow automation, AI-enabled procurement, and supplier-risk intelligence tools.
Experience working with global, cross-functional, and multicultural teams.
A Master’s degree is preferred and added advantage.
Relevant certifications such as CPSM, CIPS, CSCP, PMP, Lean Six Sigma, or procurement-platform certifications are an advantage.

Responsibilities

Lead process discovery, maturity assessment, and transformation initiatives across the end-to-end S2P lifecycle, from demand intake and sourcing through contracting, purchasing, receipt, invoicing, and payment.
Define current-state and future-state processes, operating models, governance, policies, controls, and performance measures for sourcing and procurement.
Advise on strategic sourcing, spend analysis, category strategy, market intelligence, RFx, e-auctions, bid evaluation, negotiation, contracting, and savings realization.
Design and improve supplier lifecycle processes, including onboarding, qualification, segmentation, risk assessment, compliance, performance management, development, and communications and collaboration.
Drive vendor-management frameworks covering service levels, scorecards, quality, delivery, cost, innovation, sustainability, financial health, and corrective-action tracking.
Translate business needs into functional requirements, process designs, user stories, acceptance criteria, and implementation priorities for procurement platforms and digital solutions.
Partner with procurement, supply chain, finance, accounts payable, legal, operations, IT, and suppliers to resolve process gaps and improve adoption.
Identify opportunities for standardization, automation, guided buying, catalog adoption, touchless processing, analytics, and compliance improvement.
Define and monitor procurement KPIs such as spend under management, sourcing cycle time, negotiated and realized savings, contract coverage, purchase-order compliance, supplier performance, invoice exceptions, and payment cycle time.
Support solution evaluation, implementation, testing, data migration, change management, training, deployment, and post-go-live stabilization.