Sourcing & Should-Cost Specialist

About the role

This role is for someone who has bought direct materials for a manufacturer and lived through RFQs, supplier follow-ups, techno-commercial comparisons and negotiations.

And who, along the way, stopped accepting supplier quotes at face value and started asking: what should this part actually cost Someone who has opened a drawing or a BOM, built the number up from material, process, cycle time, machine hours and overhead, and then gone into a negotiation knowing they were right.

If that sounds like you, keep reading.

What we're building

Stozia is building an AI-native procurement platform for manufacturers. At its core is cost intelligence: should-costing, zero-based costing and commercial benchmarking. It lets sourcing teams stop negotiating blind and start negotiating from a defensible number.

You'll work hands-on with the platform: costing parts, testing sourcing workflows, finding where the outputs go wrong, and making them better.

What you'll work on

Should-costing

• Build and validate bottom-up should-costs from drawings, BOMs and process routes: material, process, cycle time, machine hour rate (MHR), labour, overhead, rejection and margin.

• Review platform-generated cost outputs line by line, identify errors and their root cause, and document them clearly.

• Work across categories: machined parts, forgings, castings, welded fabrications, sheet metal, assemblies and bought-outs.

• Maintain and improve reference data: MHR cards, cycle-time and labour-time tables, and raw material rates.

• Take ownership of the AI agents costing logic and instructions (prompts): find gaps, improve them, and validate every change on live costing runs.

Sourcing

• Test the end-to-end sourcing flow on the platform: PR to RFQ, supplier queries, quote receipt, comparison and negotiation. Report defects clearly.

• Validate techno-commercial comparisons: spec compliance, deviations, exclusions and like-for-like scope.

• Check price normalisation and landed cost: FX, Incoterms, freight, duties, payment terms, lead time and supplier risk.

• Review platform-generated negotiation strategy to make sure it is correct and usable by a real buyer.

Product and customers

• Turn buyer pain points and costing knowledge into clear requirements and test cases for the tech team.

• Support customer demos and pilots with realistic sourcing scenarios and cost walkthroughs.

Who we're looking for

Must-have

• BE/B.Tech in Mechanical or Production Engineering.

• 3–6 years across direct sourcing and should-costing/estimation at a manufacturing company.

• Bottom-up should-costing from first principles in one or more of: machining, casting, forging, fabrication or sheet metal.

• Strong drawing reading: GD&T, weld symbols, material and finish specs.

• Hands-on sourcing experience: RFQs, quote evaluation, techno-commercial comparison and supplier negotiation.

• Working knowledge of Incoterms, payment terms, freight and logistics costs, GST and import duty basics, and landed cost.

Good to have

• Supplier-side estimation, supplier development or VAVE experience.

• Experience with costing or e-procurement tools (aPriori, Facton, Teamcenter PCM, Ariba, Coupa or similar).

• Knowledge of the Indian supplier base.

• Interest in AI tools, and comfort writing precise, structured instructions.

Who will do well here

• Questions numbers instead of accepting them, including AI outputs.

• Can explain a cost assumption clearly and defend it under challenge.

Comfortable with startup pace and building things that don't exist yet