Director of Procurement

You are a seasoned procurement leader with extensive experience in the data center industry, responsible for leading strategic sourcing for civil infrastructure and critical operations. Your role is crucial in facilitating scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient procurement across large-scale data center construction projects and 24x7 mission-critical operations. With 7-10 years of core procurement experience in the data center industry or similar capital-intensive sectors like hyperscale infrastructure, telecom, or industrial manufacturing, you have a proven track record in sourcing civil, structural, and MEP packages for greenfield/brownfield data center builds. Moreover, your hands-on experience in procuring O&M services, AMC contracts, critical spares, and vendor management for live data center operations is essential. Your responsibilities include designing and executing category strategies for Civil Works, MEP systems, Facility Management, AMC/CAMCs, Security & Ops supplies, and leading end-to-end RFP/RFQ processes with robust evaluation frameworks. You will also lead high-value negotiations, ensure cost competitiveness, quality, and favorable risk terms, and partner with Legal for airtight contracts with strong SLA frameworks and risk mitigation clauses. In addition, you will drive supplier onboarding, audits, and performance evaluation using structured KPIs, manage vendor escalations, cost overruns, and delivery slippages for multi-site builds and live sites, and deliver measurable cost savings and cost avoidance through smart sourcing and negotiation. Implementing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) frameworks for capital and service buys is also part of your role. You should have 15-20 years of overall procurement experience, with at least 5-7 years in a senior leadership role, and a Bachelor's degree in Engineering/Supply Chain/Business; an MBA or CPSM/CIPS/PMP is preferred. Proficiency in SAP Ariba/Oracle Procurement Cloud/Contract Management Tools is required. Success will be measured by targeted % cost savings in DC categories, procurement cycle time reduction, high supplier performance scores, zero non-compliances in procurement audits, and % spend under strategic contracts. As a preferred candidate, you are a sharp negotiator with deep data center category knowledge, a strategic thinker with strong commercial and legal acumen, comfortable leading cross-functional teams, and well-networked within the DC vendor ecosystem in India.,