Role – Global Commodity Manager with Supply Chain
Location – Austin, TX (3 Days per week in Office)
Duration – 12 months
Role Summary:
As a Senior Global Commodity Manager, you will develop commodity strategies and execute on them. You will lead cross-functional teams through the supplier selection process for new platforms/components. You will conduct business discussions and secure comprehensive agreements with suppliers. You will maintain a high level of industry expertise and supplier/market conditions, and manage supplier performance in cost, quality, delivery, and technology alignment. You will propose and implement supply chain improvements.
Job and Role Description:
You know that in capital-intensive programs, the schedule is only as reliable as the supply behind it. Commodity decisions now shape cost, capacity, continuity, and the timing of critical milestones. It is no longer enough to react to price changes or supplier delays—organizations need a standing capability that sees the market early, secures capacity, and makes accountable decisions quickly.
At Indigo Slate, part of Zensar, we work at the intersection of business strategy, technology, operations, and human-centered change. The Commodity & Supply Chain Consultant is a key member of our consulting delivery team, helping global clients build and run disciplined commodity-management capabilities across critical categories. You will work with procurement, planning, engineering, construction, finance, and suppliers to turn market intelligence into practical decisions and measurable outcomes.
What you will be doing:
In this role, you will help clients manage critical commodities and long-lead equipment from market insight through commercial commitment and delivery. You will build and strengthen supplier assurance, align demand with secured capacity, and embed the governance and operating rhythms that allow client teams to sustain the capability.
Commodity Intelligence and Management:
- Build and maintain market, price, capacity, allocation, and lead-time views across categories such as copper, aluminum, steel, transformers, switchgear, generators, cooling equipment, semiconductors, and technology hardware.
- Develop should-cost models, cost-driver analyses, buy-versus-hedge scenarios, and reusable sourcing plays before commercial commitments are made.
- Translate market and supplier signals into clear hedge, lock, source, qualification, and escalation recommendations.
- Use licensed market sources, supplier engagement, and client purchase-order and quotation history to create defensible decision baselines.
- Use predictive analytics and machine-learning techniques for demand forecasting, price and lead-time scenarios, supplier-risk sensing, anomaly detection, and early-warning indicators.
- Design AI-supported decision workflows with transparent assumptions, source traceability, confidence thresholds, and human approval for material sourcing and commercial decisions.
Supplier assurance and commercial execution:
- Assess supplier capability, capacity, allocation position, quality, and performance.
- Support supplier qualification, competitive sourcing, negotiation strategy, capacity commitments, factory acceptance, and delivery adherence.
- Build supplier scorecards and structured relationship-management practices for critical vendors.
- Help clients secure priority and capacity ahead of the build schedules that depend on them.
What you need to have:
- 25% — Commodity intelligence, and AI-enabled decision support: 6+ years of experience in commodity management, supplier relationship, strategic sourcing, supply-chain planning, procurement transformation, operations consulting, or a related field, with deep capability in should-cost modeling, cost-driver analysis, supplier economics, negotiation strategy, competitive sourcing, and buy-versus-hedge decisions. Must be able to combine incomplete market, quotation, supplier, and transaction data into defensible recommendations with explicit assumptions, confidence, and risk.
- 20% — Supplier assurance and commercial execution: Demonstrated experience assessing supplier capability, capacity, allocation position, quality, and performance; leading or supporting qualification, scorecards, competitive events, commercial negotiations, capacity commitments, factory acceptance, and delivery-performance management.
- 20% — Supply continuity and demand–supply planning: Proven ability to identify and mitigate single-source, geographic, tariff, logistics, specification, quality, and qualification exposure; develop dual-source, alternate-supplier, buffer, and contingency strategies; and connect forecasts, build waves, order timing, supplier capacity, and schedule-critical milestones.
- 15% — Client consultancy and change enablement: Demonstrated success advising cross-functional and executive stakeholders in global, client-facing environments. Must be able to facilitate decisions, clarify roles and escalation paths, translate complex analysis into executive choices, establish operating rhythms and measures, create playbooks, train users, and transfer a sustainable capability to client teams.
- 10% — Business development and project delivery: Experience shaping proposals, statements of work, estimates, and RFP responses; translating scope into workplans, milestones, stakeholder inputs, and measurable outcomes; and maintaining delivery quality, commercial discipline, risk escalation, and client trust.
- Analytics and enterprise tools: Working knowledge of SQL, Python, and Excel modeling; SAP Ariba, Coupa, or SAP SCM 09 and Google collaboration tools.
- Professional capabilities and credentials: Strong facilitation, communication, storytelling, analytical, Strong negotiation, and relationship-management skills. Supply-chain analytics, cloud AI
Education and industry context:
Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, procurement, engineering, operations, finance, economics, data science, or a related discipline; an MBA or advanced degree is preferred. Experience with long-lead, capital-intensive, or schedule-critical categories is required. Datacenter experience is advantageous.
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