Head – Sourcing, Procurement & NPD Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Function: Sourcing, Procurement & NPD

Type: Full-time, Senior Leadership

About the Role We are looking for a senior leader to own and build our Sourcing & Procurement function, with a strong focus on domestic sourcing, vendor development, supplier relationships, cost optimization, and supply-base strategy.

This is a 90% Sourcing & Procurement and 10% New Product Development role. The primary mandate is to build a strong, competitive, reliable, and scalable domestic vendor ecosystem that can support the company’s growth while delivering the right balance of cost, quality, capability, capacity, and speed.

You will own the vendor ecosystem end-to-end — from market discovery and vendor identification to qualification, negotiation, onboarding, contracting, performance management, and long-term relationship building.

The role will also require you to develop a deep understanding of the domestic supplier market, manufacturing capabilities, emerging vendors, cost structures, materials, and competitive landscape. You will work closely with R&D;, Design, Business, Marketing, and Operations teams to bring market and sourcing intelligence into product and business decisions.

The ideal candidate will have an engineering foundation, strong commercial instincts, deep domestic sourcing experience, and a proven track record of building and managing vendor ecosystems in consumer products / hardgoods / durables.

Key Responsibilities1.

Domestic

Sourcing & Procurement – Core Responsibility

- Own the end-to-end domestic sourcing and procurement function across product categories, components, packaging, materials, and other business requirements.
- Develop and execute a domestic sourcing strategy aligned with business growth, cost, quality, capacity, and supply continuity.
- Identify and develop new domestic suppliers and manufacturing partners across relevant product categories.
- Build a strong understanding of the Indian supplier and manufacturing ecosystem — including clusters, capabilities, capacities, technologies, material availability, and cost structures.
- Continuously benchmark the market to identify better suppliers, alternate sources, new manufacturing capabilities, and cost-efficient opportunities.
- Develop a robust and diversified supplier base to reduce single-vendor dependency and supply-chain risks.
- Own supplier qualification, commercial evaluation, capability assessment, audits, trials, pilot runs, and onboarding.
- Lead commercial negotiations covering pricing, MOQ, payment terms, lead times, tooling, quality standards, SLAs, warranties, and other commercial terms.
- Drive year-on-year cost optimization through supplier negotiations, alternate sourcing, value engineering, localization, and volume consolidation.
- Develop long-term strategic relationships with key suppliers rather than operating purely through transactional purchase orders.
- Ensure critical vendors have appropriate capacity planning, backup arrangements, and business continuity plans.
- Monitor vendor performance across cost, quality, delivery, responsiveness, capacity, and service levels.
- Establish vendor scorecards and conduct regular supplier performance reviews.
- Work closely with Finance and Operations to improve working capital, payment terms, inventory efficiency, and landed cost.
- Ensure timely availability of materials and products while balancing cost, quality, inventory, and working capital.

2.

Vendor

Management & Relationship Development

- Build and maintain strong, long-term relationships with strategic domestic vendors and manufacturing partners.




- Act as the senior escalation point for critical vendor issues and commercial negotiations.
- Develop a structured vendor segmentation and relationship-management framework based on strategic importance, spend, capability, and risk.
- Regularly visit vendor and manufacturing facilities to understand capacity, processes, quality systems, infrastructure, and scalability.
- Identify opportunities to jointly improve cost, quality, productivity, lead time, and product capability with strategic suppliers.
- Develop a strong network of manufacturers, component suppliers, material suppliers, packaging partners, and other ecosystem players.

3.

Market

Intelligence & Competitive Mapping

- Develop a strong understanding of the domestic market, supplier ecosystem, manufacturing trends, materials, technologies, and competitive developments.
- Continuously map the market to identify new vendors, emerging manufacturing capabilities, alternate materials, and cost opportunities.
- Conduct competitor and category mapping to understand product offerings, specifications, pricing, materials, features, sourcing patterns, and market gaps.
- Work closely with Business and Marketing teams to translate market intelligence into sourcing and product opportunities.
- Track competitor launches and product developments to identify potential white spaces and sourcing opportunities.
- Build and maintain a database of vendors, manufacturers, capabilities, pricing benchmarks, materials, and market intelligence.

4. R&D;, Research & Product Intelligence

- Work closely with the R&D; and Design teams to evaluate the feasibility, manufacturability, cost, and sourcing implications of new product concepts.
- Support R&D; teams in identifying appropriate materials, components, technologies, and manufacturing partners.
- Engage with external research agencies, market research firms, testing agencies, and technical partners wherever required to gather consumer, category, product, or technical intelligence.
- Coordinate with research agencies for market studies, competitor research, product benchmarking, consumer insights, and category mapping.
- Bring external market and supplier intelligence into internal product and sourcing decisions.
- Identify new technologies, materials, suppliers, and manufacturing processes that can create a competitive advantage.

5.

New Product

Development – Supporting Responsibility

- Partner with R&D;, Design, and Engineering teams to support the transition of products from concept to prototype to production.
- Identify suitable vendors for prototyping, sampling, tooling, pilot production, and eventual scale-up.
- Provide sourcing and commercial inputs during product development, including cost, MOQ, lead time, manufacturability, material availability, and supplier capability.
- Participate in DFM discussions and help identify opportunities for cost-effective and scalable manufacturing.
- Support the NPD calendar by ensuring vendor development, sampling, tooling, and sourcing activities are completed within committed timelines.
- Ensure products are developed with a clear understanding of commercial viability, supply availability, and production scalability.

6.

Procurement

Strategy, Systems & Governance

- Build scalable procurement processes, systems, SOPs, approval mechanisms, and dashboards.




- Establish clear procurement controls around vendor selection, quotations, negotiations, purchase orders, contracts, and supplier performance.
- Develop procurement MIS covering spend, savings, supplier performance, lead times, quality, risks, and open requirements.
- Establish clear benchmarks for cost, quality, delivery, and supplier performance.
- Identify opportunities for vendor consolidation, localization, alternate sourcing, and strategic buying.
- Ensure procurement decisions are data-driven and aligned with overall business objectives.

7. Leadership

- Build, mentor, and lead the Sourcing & Procurement team.
- Create a high-performance culture focused on commercial ownership, vendor relationships, market knowledge, and execution.
- Establish clear ownership and accountability across sourcing, procurement, vendor development, and NPD support.
- Work cross-functionally with R&D;, Design, Engineering, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, Business, and Marketing.
- Bring commercial and supply-side thinking into business and product decisions.

What You Bring

- B.E./B.Tech in Mechanical, Production, Industrial, or a related engineering discipline; MBA is a plus.
- 10–15 years of experience in Sourcing, Procurement, Vendor Development, Strategic Buying, or Supply Chain, preferably within consumer products, hardgoods, durables, lifestyle, home, kids, or similar categories.
- Strong hands-on experience in domestic sourcing and supplier development in India.
- Proven experience in building and managing a large domestic vendor ecosystem.
- Strong understanding of Indian manufacturing clusters, supplier markets, materials, production capabilities, and cost structures.
- Demonstrated expertise in vendor negotiation, commercial contracting, cost reduction, supplier qualification, and vendor performance management.
- Strong vendor relationships and the ability to identify and develop new suppliers and manufacturing partners.
- Ability to understand products from both a technical and commercial perspective.
- Strong market intelligence and competitor-mapping capabilities.
- Experience working with R&D;, Design, Engineering, Marketing, and external research agencies will be highly valuable.
- Strong understanding of landed cost, COGS, MOQ, payment terms, lead times, tooling, capacity, quality, and supplier economics.
- Willingness to travel regularly across India to vendor and manufacturing locations.
- A builder's mindset — hands-on, commercially sharp, structured, relationship-oriented, and comfortable operating in a fast-growing environment.

What Success Looks Like

- A robust and diversified domestic supplier ecosystem with minimal critical single-vendor dependency.
- A continuously expanding network of qualified and competitive domestic vendors.
- Strong, long-term relationships with strategic suppliers.
- Measurable year-on-year improvement in procurement costs and COGS without compromising quality.
- Improved vendor performance across cost, quality, capacity, and delivery.
- Better visibility into the Indian supplier and manufacturing market.
- A structured database and intelligence system covering vendors, capabilities, costs, materials, competitors, and market opportunities.
- Faster identification and onboarding of new vendors for capacity, cost, capability, and innovation.
- Strong collaboration between Procurement, R&D;, Design, Business, and Marketing.
- New product initiatives supported by real-time sourcing, cost, feasibility, and market intelligence.
- A procurement function that is scalable, process-driven, commercially disciplined, and capable of supporting the company's next phase of growth.

📌 Head - Sourcing, Procurement & NPD (New Delhi)
🏢 Merlin Brands
📍 New Delhi