Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Certification
Languages
Timeline
Generic

Balasri Sekar

Seattle,WA

Summary

Experienced Senior Sourcing Partner with a strong background in sourcing and procurement. Skilled in managing supplier relationships and negotiating favorable terms for significant cost savings. Expertise in contract management and strategic sourcing, ensuring optimal procurement outcomes. Committed to driving efficiency and maximizing value through comprehensive knowledge of industry trends and best practices.

Overview

15
15
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Senior Sourcing Specialist

LogicSource Inc
06.2024 - Current
  • Responsible for end to end contract management of various categories from authoring to sign off approvals in docusign.
  • Negotiating contractual terms and conditions as per Gap’s procurement policy with due diligence
  • Handled Complex Sourcing projects in the Consumer insights space that’s accountable for75MM spend through benchmarking and RFX
  • Coordinated with legal ,Privacy and finance departments to ensure all contractual agreements were in compliance with company policies and industry regulations and uploading the same in CLM.
  • Led contract negotiations with vendors, achieving favorable terms that supported both cost reduction initiatives and quality requirements.


Indirect Strategic Sourcing Consultant

Sephora
10.2023 - 05.2024
  • Responsible for various Indirect procurement category's Sourcing projects right from inception to completion in Ariba that often involves working across multiple teams to develop one Sephora solution wherever possible.
  • Strategizing across multiple categories/departments to identify opportunities for gained efficiencies and cost-effectiveness in supplier negotiations to optimize the cost/savings by all means
  • Ensuring all sourcing projects are closed in a timely manner, including but not limited to uploading executed agreements to our contract lifecycle management by collaborating with Legal, finance, internal controls and privacy teams
  • Reviewed contracts thoroughly before signing off on agreements, protecting the company from potential legal disputes or unanticipated costs down the line.
  • Liaised with internal and external stakeholders to identify and leverage contract value opportunities.
  • Cultivated strong relationships with vendors to maintain and improve levels of customer service.

Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist

NOKIA NETWORKS AND SOLUTIONS
01.2019 - 07.2021
  • Responsible for Sourcing and End to End Order management that includes RFX, competitive bidding process, bid evaluation, negotiations, contracting and releasing purchase orders
  • Closely worked with Business owners and a liaison between Procurement managers and Suppliers with related to Purchase orders, Sow's, delivery status and inventory management
  • Implemented Ariba e-Sourcing platform at Nokia and trained the stakeholders across various regions
  • Led100 sourcing events in ERP that includes RFI, RFQ'S and reverse e-auctions supporting the Senior Category Sourcing managers/Key stakeholders that resulted in significant cost savings
  • Accountable for multiple procurement categories supporting the sourcing strategy that covers the spend of Euro120 million
  • Led supplier creation requests in Ariba tool merging data from Supplier Data Management
  • Trained100 vendors and project procurement managers on end to end RFX process
  • Responsible for supplier onboarding and consolidation through Supplier Information System and RFI
  • Collaborated with project procurement and senior category managers to provide guidance on Sourcing projects to achieve planned target savings and revenue generation
  • Led as key single point of communication for knowledge transfer to various indirect and direct procurement teams located in APJ, MEA, APAC and Europe
  • Led contracts and NDA's and add them in Contract Lifecycle Management Apptus tool using X-author

P2P Procurement Specialist

MICROSOFT INDIA
10.2014 - 05.2016
  • Responsible for indirect procurement's exception management services related to backlog purchase orders, critical invoices resolution and closure to ensure on time payment to Vendors
  • Responsible for invoice postings in SAP, credit notes postings, backlog clearance general query Management and speedy resolution of critical invoices
  • Handle all the Vendor issues and escalations on time
  • Closure of Purchase orders as part of3 way matching in SAP
  • Revamped procurement processes, resulting in a20% decrease in purchasing errors and30% increase in on-time deliveries

Buyer And Sourcing Specialist Indirect Sourcing

Nokia India Private Ltd
05.2010 - 09.2014
  • Responsible for purchase requests and orders worth100 Million Euros per annum for various categories such as IT consultancy services, IT software, Marketing, Care and Logistics, HR Professional services and HERE operations
  • Led100 New Supplier Initiation Process (NSUP) process to select the right suppliers
  • Handled end to end order management
  • Followed up proactively with the vendors for quotations and statement of work to frame agreements
  • Part of Quality assessment team and SOX audits on quarterly basis
  • Resolved multiple queries from Suppliers, Stakeholders and contact centre teams

Education

Master In Business Administration - Mba

University Of Madras
12.2019

Bachelors In Commerce - B.Com

University Of Madras
12.2010

Skills

  • Strategic sourcing
  • Procurement strategy
  • Supplier relationship management
  • Supply chain optimization
  • E-procurement systems
  • Contract negotiation expertise
  • Problem-solving abilities
  • Time management
  • Contract management

Accomplishments

  • Supervised team of 5 staff members.
  • Achieved by introducing Ariba ERP for Nokia.

Certification

  • Oracle Procurement Cloud 2020 Certified Implementation Specialist – Oracle, relevant for users of Oracle procurement solutions.

Languages

English
Full Professional

Timeline

Senior Sourcing Specialist

LogicSource Inc
06.2024 - Current

Indirect Strategic Sourcing Consultant

Sephora
10.2023 - 05.2024

Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist

NOKIA NETWORKS AND SOLUTIONS
01.2019 - 07.2021

P2P Procurement Specialist

MICROSOFT INDIA
10.2014 - 05.2016

Buyer And Sourcing Specialist Indirect Sourcing

Nokia India Private Ltd
05.2010 - 09.2014

Bachelors In Commerce - B.Com

University Of Madras

Master In Business Administration - Mba

University Of Madras

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