Manager, Bid Desk (L09)

Company Overview

Synchrony is a major consumer financial services organization with a wide digital product portfolio spanning sectors such as digital, health and wellness, retail, telecom, home, auto, outdoors, pet, and more. The company has been recognized as one of India’s best workplaces, including high rankings for workplace quality, innovation culture, and BFSI workplaces. It also highlights strong employee benefits, work-life integration, well-being support, and career growth opportunities, including pathways into leadership roles.

Team Overview

This position sits within the Sourcing function of the Source to Pay (S2P) organization. The team supports supplier procurement, contracting, and ongoing supplier management across the business. By standardizing contracting and strengthening governance, the team helps the company obtain the products and services needed for daily operations efficiently.

Role Summary

The Bid Desk Manager is an individual contributor role responsible for leading enterprise-wide competitive bidding programs, including RFx events and e-auctions, across business units. The role acts as a central point of coordination among business partners, sourcing leadership, P2P/S2P teams, and suppliers to ensure competitive bidding is compliant, efficient, and delivers value. It also includes ownership of event execution, governance and control, stakeholder support, reporting, and ongoing process improvement, with a focus on identifying automation and AI opportunities.

Core Responsibilities

• Act as the main coordinator between internal requestors, sourcing teams, P2P/S2P teams, and suppliers for competitive bid activities; manage the full lifecycle of events such as RFx creation, supplier communication, administration in Coupa, and different e-auction formats.
• Prepare bid analyses, support supplier evaluation, communicate outcomes to suppliers, and share award recommendations that align with business needs; negotiate with assigned suppliers for quick-bid categories and record savings in line with policy.
• Review historical spend and tail-spend data to uncover and expand opportunities for competitive bidding.
• Lead initiatives that shorten cycle time, improve productivity, and reduce total cost by increasing supplier competition through bidding.
• Set up, track, and maintain controls that ensure the bidding process remains compliant; oversee procurement and sourcing controls, approvals, and documentation requirements.
• Monitor workflow steps to support timely requisition submission and smooth handoffs across the S2P/P2P process.
• Provide Tier-2 support for escalations, complex questions, and problem resolution related to sourcing events and purchasing workflows; work with S2P and business teams to simplify procurement and improve user experience.
• Build and maintain dashboards and reports for key metrics such as cycle time, participation, compliance, savings, exceptions, and supplier performance.
• Conduct quarterly review and feedback discussions with selected suppliers to improve service quality and process execution.
• Deliver training and awareness sessions for suppliers and internal stakeholders on process updates, expectations, and compliance needs.
• Drive process improvements that reduce manual work, remove duplication, and strengthen controls; identify opportunities for automation and AI to improve efficiency, data quality, and customer experience.
• Create non-strategic contract records for selected categories by entering required metadata into the CLM tool and ensuring alignment with sourcing decisions.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Finance, or a related discipline, or equivalent business experience.
• 7+ years of experience in procurement, sourcing, or bid management, or 5+ years with a postgraduate degree.
• Baseline requirement of 5+ years in procurement or sourcing; if no degree is held, 9+ years of experience in procurement, sourcing, or bid management is required.
• Hands-on experience with Coupa, Ariba, or similar procurement tools, along with strong MS Office skills, especially Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Strong analytical ability and basic negotiation skills, with proven experience managing RFx events and e-auctions.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple stakeholders and priorities with limited supervision.

Preferred Background

• Experience in financial services or banking is preferred.
• Strong facilitation skills and experience delivering presentations are desirable.
• Demonstrated quantitative and analytical ability, along with practical negotiation skills, is expected.
• Comfort working in a fast-paced, constantly changing environment is important.
• Ability to handle complex initiatives across multiple teams and platforms is valued.
• Strong project management capability, including managing several workstreams and stakeholder groups, is preferred.
• A mindset focused on continuous improvement, standardization, and operational excellence is beneficial.

Working Schedule and Flexibility

Standard working hours are 5:30 AM to 2:30 PM EST. This role includes enhanced flexibility and requires availability between 06:00 AM Eastern Time and 11:30 AM Eastern Time for meetings with India and US teams; these hours shift twice yearly to stay aligned with US Eastern time. The remaining hours can be chosen flexibly by the employee, although business needs may occasionally require exceptions.

Employees can work from home or from regional engagement hubs in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, or Delhi/NCR. Occasional travel or commuting to Hyderabad or another regional hub may be needed for in-person meetings, training, and culture events.

Internal Applicant Guidelines

• Candidates should review the role criteria and required skills carefully before applying.
• Applicants must inform their manager and HRM before submitting an application through Workday.
• The professional profile should be current, including education, experience, and skills, and an updated resume in Word or PDF format must be uploaded.
• Applicants must not be under any corrective action plan, including First Formal, Final Formal, or LPP.
• Employees at L8 level are eligible only if they have completed 18 months with the organization and 12 months in their current role and level.

Role Details

Grade/Level: 09

Job Family Group: Sourcing