Dy Vice President AVP Category Specialist with a Leading Private Sector Bank

Job Purpose

The Category Specialist is responsible for developing and executing sourcing strategies across assigned spend categories within the Procurement organization. Operating as part of the Category Management team under the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) the role partners closely with business stakeholders to optimize supplier value reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) mitigate risks and ensure compliance with enterprise procurement policies. This role is especially critical in the banking and services sectors where regulatory compliance data security and supplier governance are key.

Job Responsibilities

Strategic Sourcing & Category Management

• Develop and implement category strategies aligned with business objectives risk appetite and market trends.
• Conduct spend analysis supply market assessments and supplier segmentation to identify optimization opportunities.
• Lead endtoend sourcing events (RFx negotiations supplier evaluations).
• Deliver quantifiable cost savings cost avoidance and value creation initiatives.
• Maintain deep understanding of category dynamicsparticularly for services like IT consulting outsourcing facilities financial services vendors etc.

Supplier Management & Relationship Governance

• Support supplier onboarding qualification and duediligence processes.
• Drive ongoing supplier performance management including SLAs KPIs governance reviews and improvement plans.
• Collaborate with Supplier Risk Compliance InfoSec and Legal to ensure ongoing regulatory adherence (critical in banking).
• Identify new suppliers innovation opportunities and diversification opportunities to reduce concentration risk

Contracting & Negotiation

• Lead commercial negotiations to optimize pricing contract terms and service levels.
• Draft and review contract documents in partnership with Legal and Risk teams.
• Ensure contracts meet regulatory requirements (e.g. outsourcing guidelines data protection clauses).
• Manage renewals renegotiations and competitive rebids

Stakeholder Engagement & Business Partnering

• Partner with business units (technology operations HR marketing risk etc.) to understand demand requirements and priorities.
• Advise stakeholders on sourcing best practices and market insights.
• Communicate strategies project updates benefits and risks with clarity and accountability.
• Drive a culture of compliant procurement engagement across the organization.

Risk Compliance & Governance

• Ensure sourcing processes comply with regulatory frameworks relevant to banks and financial institutions (e.g. outsourcing guidelines operational risk management data privacy).
• Identify and mitigate supplychain risks including operational financial geopolitical sustainability/ESG risks.
• Maintain documentation and audit trails required for internal audit regulators and procurement governance forums

Data Analytics & Reporting

• Conduct and present spend analytics benchmark analysis and savings tracking.
• Use digital procurement tools (e.g. Ariba Coupa Ivalua Jaggaer) for sourcing contracts and supplier management.
• Maintain transparent reporting of category pipeline benefits supplier performance and risk indicators

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Business Finance Supply Chain Engineering or related field.
• MBA or professional certification (CIPS CPSM PMP) preferred

Key Skills

• Strategic sourcing methodologies & category management.
• Strong financial acumen and TCO modeling.
• Contracting and negotiation skills.
• Supplier performance management.
• Understanding of regulatory requirements (e.g. RBI/SEBI guidelines for outsourcing data privacy operational resilience - for India banks).

Experience Required

• Typically 4 - 8 years of procurement or sourcing experience in banking or services industry.
• Experience in category management strategic sourcing cost modeling and supplier governance.
• Exposure to regulated environments with multivendor technology/service ecosystems.
• Strong experience negotiating complex highvalue service contracts (e.g. outsourcing IT services consulting facilities).

Required Skills:

Category ManagementCategory SpecialistProcurement ManagerStrategic Sourcingvendor negotiationsSupplier Risk ManagementProcurement SpecialistCost Optimization