Procurement & Finance Manager

Procurement & Finance Manager AI/ML Programme

Designation: Procurement & Finance Manager

Reports to: Programme Director

Location: New Delhi (on-site)

Educational Qualification

• Graduate in any discipline (Must have); commerce, business administration, supply chain, law or engineering preferred
• MBA or postgraduate qualification in procurement, supply chain, finance or public policy is desirable
• Candidates without these qualifications but with a demonstrable record of running technology procurements end to end will be considered in lieu of formal qualification

Experience

• 7+ years total in procurement, contracts or programme finance
• Demonstrable hands-on experience drafting RFPs, EoIs and RFQs and running bid evaluation (pre-qualification, technical and financial) through to contract award
• Demonstrable experience procuring IT services, software, cloud or technical manpower, and drafting the resulting contracts or MSAs
• Demonstrable experience tracking budgets for several projects at once: commitments, payments and utilisation certificates
• Prior experience procuring AI, data, GPU or cloud compute, or specialist technical services is a strong plus
• Prior experience managing contracts with multiple empanelled agencies or vendors in a technology programme is desirable

Key Responsibilities

Procurement Planning & Requirement Definition

• Maintain a 12-month procurement plan tied to each teams roadmap and budget, so purchases start early enough for the work that depends on them
• Work with team leads to turn needs into buyable requirements (context, objective, scope, as-is vs to-be, quantities and service levels), and push back on requirements that are vague, over-specified or written around a single vendor
• Choose and document the procurement route for each purchase (GeM direct purchase, GeM bid or reverse auction, GeM custom bid, open tender on CPPP, limited tender or proprietary purchase) and the evaluation method (L1, QCBS or fixed budget)

Solicitation Document Drafting

• Draft RFPs, EoIs, RFQs and corrigenda, merging pod-specific requirements into NeGD's standard documents
• Set pre-qualification criteria, technical evaluation parameters and scoring, bills of material, payment milestones, SLAs and penalties that are measurable and defensible
• Apply Make in India, MSE and startup procurement provisions correctly
• Consolidate the AI security, Responsible AI and evaluation requirements that the AI Safety Researcher, AI QA Lead and security leads contribute to NeGD RFQs and RDRs, and make sure they are enforceable in the contract

AI-Specific Procurement

• Compute: procure GPU capacity across the programme's compute paths (IndiaAI Compute, on-premise or sovereign GPU, and CSP APIs), covering MeitY-empanelled cloud providers, pricing per GPU-hour, reserved vs on-demand capacity and data residency
• Models and APIs: usage-based pricing with spending caps, terms that bar vendors from training on government data, and exit and portability terms
• Data and annotation: per-unit pricing, sample-based quality acceptance, consent and DPDPA 2023 compliance
• Evaluation, red-team and security services: CERT-In empanelled auditors and specialist evaluation vendors
• Use benchmark tests or proof-of-concept demonstrations in technical evaluation where a paper bid cannot show capability
• Secure IP and reuse rights so the programme can publish reusable artefacts to AIKosh and OpenForge

Empanelled Agency & Manpower Contracts

• Manage rate cards and contracts for specialist manpower supplied through empanelled agencies, including niche-role rates
• Check agency deployment and monthly billing against agreed rate cards and attendance, and manage replacement and exit terms

Solicitation Management & Bid Evaluation

• Publish bids, run pre-bid meetings, answer bidder queries in writing, issue corrigenda, and manage EMD and performance security
• Set up the evaluation matrix; check pre-qualification documents; coordinate technical evaluation with the technical committee; evaluate financial bids against the bill of materials
• Prepare evaluation reports, convene the Bid Evaluation Committee, and record its decisions and award recommendation

Contracts & Contract Management

• Draft contracts and MSAs aligned with the RFP, covering SLAs, penalties, acceptance, exit management, ownership of code, models and data, confidentiality and data protection; obtain legal vetting where required
• Take part in negotiations where the rules allow
• Maintain a register of every programme contract (obligations, milestones, SLAs, renewals, expiries and bank guarantees) and flag renewals and risks
• Handle variations, extensions and vendor disputes on record

Budget Management & Payments

• Maintain the budget for each pod and project: allotment, commitments, payments and balance; track usage-based spend such as cloud and API consumption against monthly caps
• Verify invoices against contract milestones, SLA reports and delivered work before forwarding them for payment, and apply penalties where due
• Prepare utilisation certificates and expenditure statements, and coordinate with NeGD Finance on fund releases
• Prepare inputs for annual budget estimates and revised estimates

Compliance, Audit & Governance

• Keep a complete, audit-ready trail for every procurement and respond to audit observations
• Ensure every purchase complies with GFR 2017, the Department of Expenditure procurement manuals, CVC guidelines and GeM policies

Functional Competencies

• Public Procurement Rules: GFR 2017; Department of Expenditure manuals for procurement of goods and of consultancy and other services; CVC guidelines on tendering; Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order; Public Procurement Policy for MSEs; startup relaxations
• GeM & e-Procurement: GeM direct purchase, bids, reverse auction, custom bids and contract management; CPPP
• Solicitation & Evaluation: pre-qualification and technical criteria design; L1, QCBS and fixed-budget methods; evaluation matrices; Bid Evaluation Committee procedure
• Contracts: MSAs, SLA and penalty design, acceptance, exit management, IP and data clauses, limitation of liability, EMD, performance security and bank guarantees
• Technology & AI Procurement: cloud and GPU pricing models, usage-based API pricing, software licensing (including open-source licence obligations), data and annotation services, security audits, agency manpower rate cards
• Budget & Payment Control: commitment tracking, milestone- and SLA-linked payments, utilisation certificates, budget estimate and revised estimate inputs; strong Excel skills
• Government Frameworks: Digital India and MeitY initiatives, MeitY cloud empanelment, CERT-In empanelment, DPDPA 2023
• Communication & Stakeholder Management: clear file notings, evaluation reports and bidder correspondence; working with pod leads, NeGD Finance and Legal, and empanelled agencies and vendors

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