Let's change the world! As the Senior Manager Global Procurement - Strategic Project Lead AIN in Hyderabad, you will play a critical role within the Procurement Center of Excellence (COE). Your mission will be to successfully execute special projects and drive the enterprise-wide procurement strategic roadmap. This position uniquely blends strategic program management, investment and portfolio prioritization, and strong stakeholder partnerships to deliver business transformation and operational excellence. You will enable a structured, agile, and harmonized approach to cross-functional initiatives, leveraging your deep expertise in procurement, project management, and stakeholder engagement to continuously evolve procurement capabilities across people, process, technology, and analytics.
Roles & Responsibilities
Strategic Program Management
- Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of initiatives within the Procurement strategic roadmap, from ideation to implementation and adoption.
- Enable and support the execution of a multi-year procurement transformation agenda focused on talent, process excellence, digital tools, and data-driven decision-making.
- Provide clear visibility to leadership on initiative interdependencies, risks, milestones, and status, ensuring robust governance and timely escalation/resolution.
- Design, champion, and maintain a harmonized suite of agile-based project and program management tools, templates, and methodologies used across the Procurement function.
- Oversee procurement-related M&A program activities, coordinating with internal SMEs and managing integration timelines and risks.
Portfolio & Investment Prioritization
- Consolidate and evaluate programs and strategic investments, facilitating regular reviews and prioritization discussions with the Procurement Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
- Partner with the Functional Strategy Lead and Finance to align roadmap execution with investment strategy and budget implications.
- Communicate investment priorities and outcomes across relevant stakeholders (e.g., COE, Category Leadership).
- Stay current on market trends and external benchmarks to recommend leading practices in portfolio strategy and investment planning.
Special Projects Leadership
- Lead complex, high-impact special projects spanning innovation, ESG, digital procurement, or operational transformation.
- Drive initiatives from concept to execution, ensuring stakeholder alignment, measurable impact, and long-term adoption.
- Apply design thinking, change management, and continuous improvement principles to deliver scalable and sustainable outcomes.
Stakeholder & Change Management
- Build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with global procurement teams and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Gather and synthesize business needs, aligning them with the overall procurement strategy and program portfolio.
- Drive change management efforts to ensure smooth transitions and stakeholder buy-in across diverse initiative types.
- Promote a culture of accountability, transparency, and performance across all programs and project teams.
Functional Skills
Must-Have Skills:
- Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-wide initiatives and managing complex project portfolios.
- Deep understanding of procurement operating models, strategic sourcing, and enabling technologies.
- Prior experience in driving procurement transformation.
- Proven ability to apply agile, waterfall, and hybrid methodologies in a structured and scalable way.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Strong business acumen with the ability to influence at senior leadership levels.
- PMP, PgMP, or Agile certification preferred.
- Experience with M&A integration activities, financial planning, and digital procurement systems (e.g., SAP Ariba, Coupa, Oracle) a strong plus.
Good-to-Have Skills:
- (No specific Good-to-Have Skills were provided in the original text, so this section is left open if there were any intended to be added.)
Soft Skills
- Strategic thinker with strong analytical, organizational, and execution skills.
- Collaborative leader and coach with a passion for building high-performing teams and capabilities.
- Continuous improvement mindset and a strong drive for results.
- Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive clarity through structure and communication.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to work effectively with global, virtual teams.
- High degree of initiative and self-motivation.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities successfully.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree.
- Minimum 10-15 years of progressive experience in procurement, strategic program management, transformation, or management consulting.