Purpose

The Team Leader, Tactical IT Sourcing is responsible for leading, developing, and managing a team of Tactical Sourcers supporting global clients across a broad range of IT procurement activities. The team primarily executes lower-complexity, value sourcing projects, quotation exercises, contract renewals, supplier onboarding activities, and operational procurement support.

The role focuses on ensuring operational excellence, delivery quality, service efficiency, stakeholder satisfaction, and team productivity while developing sourcing capabilities within the India delivery center. The Team Leader acts as the first point of escalation for sourcing challenges, drives process standardization, and ensures adherence to client requirements, procurement policies, and service level agreements (SLAs).

Operating in a fast-paced shared services environment, the Team Leader is expected to balance people management, workload distribution, process governance, and continuous improvement initiatives while supporting multiple clients and sourcing categories.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & People Management

1. Lead, coach, and develop a team of Tactical Sourcers.
2. Conduct regular performance reviews, coaching sessions, and development planning.
3. Support recruitment, onboarding, and training of new team members.
4. Foster a culture of accountability, customer focus, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
5. Monitor individual and team performance against KPIs and SLAs.
6. Ensure appropriate capability development and knowledge sharing across the team.
7. Drive employee engagement and retention initiatives.

Operational Delivery Management

1. Manage daily sourcing operations and ensure efficient execution of sourcing requests.
2. Allocate workload effectively across team members to meet client deadlines.
3. Monitor sourcing pipeline, queues, and project status to ensure timely delivery.
4. Act as the escalation point for sourcing issues, supplier challenges, and stakeholder concerns.
5. Ensure sourcing activities are completed according to client processes and policies.
6. Conduct quality reviews of sourcing events, supplier evaluations, and negotiation outcomes.
7. Monitor team productivity, utilization, and service quality metrics.

Tactical Sourcing & Procurement Support

1. Oversee execution of RFQs, RFPs, supplier selection exercises, and bid evaluations.
2. Support commercial negotiations for low- to medium-value sourcing initiatives.
3. Review supplier quotations and ensure competitive pricing is obtained.
4. Support contract renewal and extension activities.
5. Ensure sourcing opportunities are handled according to category strategies and procurement guidelines.
6. Assist with supplier onboarding and supplier management activities.
7. Support basic spend analysis and cost optimization opportunities.

Stakeholder & Client Management

1. Build effective working relationships with procurement stakeholders, business users, and suppliers.
2. Ensure high levels of customer satisfaction through responsive service delivery.
3. Provide sourcing status updates and reporting to internal and external stakeholders.
4. Support client governance meetings and operational review discussions.
5. Collaborate closely with Strategic Sourcers, Category Managers, and Client Delivery Teams.
6. Escalate strategic, high-risk, or complex sourcing matters to senior sourcing leadership.

Process Excellence & Continuous Improvement

1. Drive standardization of sourcing processes, templates, and documentation.
2. Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, quality, and automation.
3. Support implementation of procurement technologies and e-sourcing tools.
4. Ensure compliance with procurement policies, audit requirements, and regulatory standards.
5. Track and report team KPIs, SLA performance, and operational metrics.
6. Promote best practices across sourcing operations.

Required Experience & Skills

Professional Experience

• 6–10 years of procurement or sourcing experience.
• 2–5 years of people management or team leadership experience.
• Experience in shared services, global business services, or procurement operations environments.
• Experience managing high-volume sourcing activities and multiple concurrent requests.
• Exposure to multinational stakeholder environments.

Procurement & Sourcing Knowledge

Good understanding of:

• RFQ and sourcing processes
• Supplier identification and supplier management
• Contract renewals and extensions
• Procurement operations and governance
• Spend analysis and reporting
• Basic negotiation principles
• E-sourcing platforms and procurement technologies

Exposure to IT procurement categories is preferred, including:

• Software and SaaS
• Hardware and end-user devices
• IT services and consulting
• Cloud services
• Telecommunications and network services

Leadership Skills

• Strong people leadership and coaching abilities.
• Ability to motivate and develop teams in a delivery environment.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills.
• Effective stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Technical & Language Skills

• Experience using procurement and e-sourcing tools.
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
• Familiarity with process automation and AI-enabled procurement tools is advantageous.
• Business fluency in English.
• Strong reporting and analytics capabilities.