Supply Chain Lead - South Asia Hub

Lead the Project Business Supply Chain function as team leader, ensuring end-to-end material availability, cost competitiveness and on-time delivery for customer projects. Act as the supply chain interface between Operation Units, Engineering, Tendering, Project Management and suppliers converting project and tender requirements into executable sourcing, planning and delivery commitments in full compliance with company procurement policies.

Role & responsibilities

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop the project supply chain team; set clear objectives, workload allocation and performance goals.
• Build capability in project procurement, planning and supplier management; drive succession and skill-gap closure within the team.
• Establish standard ways of working, SOPs and governance rhythm (daily material reviews, weekly project reviews, monthly performance reviews).

Collaboration with Operation Units

• Serve as single point of contact for Operation Units on all project material and delivery matters.
• Align project milestones, factory load and material readiness with OU delivery commitments; escalate and resolve constraints proactively.
• Participate in project kick-off, design freeze and delivery review gates to secure supply chain input early.

Driving Material with Suppliers

• Drive material availability against project schedules expediting, capacity booking, long-lead item pre-ordering and shortage recovery.
• Negotiate and manage frame agreements, outline agreements and project-specific contracts covering price, lead time, delivery terms and penalties.
• Manage supplier performance: On-Time Delivery (SOTD), quality, responsiveness and forecast accuracy; run structured supplier reviews and improvement plans.
• Handle claims PPV, forecast deviation, excess/obsolete and consignment and recover value where contractually due.
• Lead localization, resourcing and product transfer initiatives to improve cost, lead time and supply security.

Customer & Supplier Planning

• Own project-level demand planning; translate order backlog and forecast into a rolling 1824 month supplier forecast.
• Align customer required dates with supplier capability; manage buffer, safety and consignment stock strategies for critical items.
• Actively represent supply chain in the S&OP process; balance project demand against capacity and component availability.
• Manage production prioritization jointly with Operations based on order urgency and component readiness.

Engineering Interface

• Partner with Engineering on BOM readiness, make-or-buy decisions, alternate/approved-vendor qualification and obsolescence management.
• Provide supply chain feedback into design-to-cost, standardization and component rationalization programs.
• Ensure engineering change requests are assessed for cost, lead time and inventory impact before release.

Tendering Management

• Support Tendering and Sales with cost inputs, supplier quotations, lead-time commitments and risk assessment during bid preparation.
• Validate scope, terms and delivery feasibility before bid submission; flag supply-side risks, escalation clauses and currency/commodity exposure.
• Ensure a clean handover from tender to execution, with cost assumptions, supplier selections and schedules carried through.

Cost, Data & Reporting

• Deliver annual cost savings targets (material cost, freight, inventory) and track them transparently.
• Own SAP master data governance for the project business: material master, MDF, delivery and payment terms, contracts and outline agreements.
• Provide MIS dashboards and reporting on OTD, shortages, backlog, overdue orders, inventory turns, PPV and savings pipeline.

Risk, Compliance, HSE & Integrity

• Ensure compliance with internal and external regulations, procurement policy, export/import requirements and sub-contracting rules.
• Maintain supply risk register with mitigation plans for single-source, geopolitical and capacity risks.
• Uphold Hitachi Energy's core values of safety and integrity, taking responsibility for own actions while caring for colleagues and the business.

Preferred candidate profile

• Proven leadership of a supply chain / procurement team in a project or ETO (engineer-to-order) business.
• Strong exposure to EMS suppliers and knowledge of the electronic and electrical component landscape.
• Demonstrated expertise in strategic and tactical procurement, supplier negotiation and contract management.
• Solid understanding of project planning, S&OP, MRP logic and medium- to long-term supply planning.
• Experience supporting tendering/bid processes with cost and lead-time inputs.
• Working knowledge of export/import processes, sub-contracting and consignment models.
• Hands-on SAP ERP (MM/PP) experience; advanced MS Excel and PowerPoint; comfortable with data analysis and dashboards.
• Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional influence at management level.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English required.