Lead - Business Operations

• *About Us**

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Exotel is a customer conversation platform that believes in the power of exceptional customer experience. Our omnichannel contact center, Communication API suite, and Conversational AI come together to create a platform that delivers Connected Customer Conversations at unprecedented scale, speed, and ubiquity.

We believe that customer experience is not just a number, but a feeling. That's why we're dedicated to helping businesses engage with their customers with greater trust, personalization, and empathy. With Exotel, you can listen to your customers, remember every conversation, and provide rich insights to create truly meaningful interactions.

Exotel is the emerging market's leading full\-stack platform and virtual telecom operator. Our cloud\-based product suite drives 70\+ million conversations every day for over 7100 businesses across India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. And with our recent license to offer cost\-effective end\-to\-end VoIP telephony services, we're proud to be a 100% compliant cloud calling operator.

• *1\. Role Summary**

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Owns end\-to\-end procurement, commercial negotiation, and vendor governance for SaaS/software, AI/model infrastructure, and hardware/data\-center procurement across the business. Acts as the single point of accountability for procurement strategy, contract structuring, and negotiation leverage — partnering with Legal, InfoSec, Finance, and Engineering to drive budget accountability, risk reduction, and measurable cost savings. Operates with full ownership: identifies the right products/vendors from minimal requirement input, structures the commercial approach, and closes it end\-to\-end within internal financial controls.

• *2\. Key Responsibilities**

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• Identify vendors \& lead commercial negotiations end\-to\-end for SaaS, AI Infra, IT/Infosec, Data Centre, Virtualization infra, SBC etc \- securing rate reductions, improved payment terms, and SLA/warranty commitments \- Including both capex and subscription SKU’s
• Structure RFPs across commitment terms and volume tiers to benchmark rate\-vs\-lock\-in trade\-offs; negotiate take\-or\-pay/minimum\-commitment exposure, overage structures, and SLA/latency terms for real\-time production workloads.
• Coordinate cross\-functional MSA redlines with Legal, InfoSec, and Data Privacy through to signature.
• Identify and flag vendor risk (e.g., single\-vendor concentration on security\-critical tools, reseller stability, contract auto\-renewal traps) and drive consolidation opportunities across the portfolio.
• Own vendor SLA and warranty due diligence — extracting binding RMA/DOA turnaround times, support escalation paths, and license\-tier confirmations and PO release.
• Own Post\-contract activities \- License audit / true\-up risk (SaaS) / consumption audits, Invoice vs contract reconciliation, Warranty/RMA claim ownership through resolution, Asset / entitlement inventory (SaaS seats, SBC capacity etc)
• Build and maintain a renewal tracker covering owner, cost center, PO status, renewal date, and savings realized and build budget vs. actuals, realized vs. negotiated savings, and forecast pipeline for leadership review

• *3\. Skills \& Behaviours**

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• Ability to translate minimal, ambiguous requirement input from a stakeholder into a shortlist of relevant products/vendors — asking the right clarifying questions rather than waiting for a fully\-formed spec.
• SaaS commercial models: fluent in seat\-based, usage\-based, tiered, and committed\-volume pricing; able to model total cost of ownership across renewal cycles.
• AMC / warranty / support constructs: working knowledge of AMC structuring, RMA, SLAs, escalation matrices, and license\-tier mechanics for hardware and infrastructure contracts.
• Contract and legal literacy: comfortable reading and red\-lining MSAs/SOWs for auto\-renewal clauses, liability caps, indemnity, data protection, and termination\-for\-convenience terms — in coordination with Legal, not as a substitute for it.
• Cross\-border commercial mechanics: working knowledge of TDS, gross\-up, and DTAA implications on vendor payments.
• Financial control fluency: operates within, and helps strengthen, internal PO/procurement approval workflows, budget\-vs\-actuals tracking, and audit\-ready documentation.
• High\-stakes negotiation: holds firm and structured in high\-value, high\-pressure commercial discussions; separates positions from underlying interests; knows when to escalate vs. close.
• Ownership mindset: treats every renewal, RFP, and vendor risk as owned end\-to\-end — does not wait for direction to flag an issue, propose a structure, or drive a decision to closure.
• Process discipline with judgment: deploys the right level of process for the situation (full RFP vs. lightweight benchmarking) rather than applying a single template regardless of stakes.
• Cross\-functional fluency: works simultaneously and credibly with Legal, Finance, InfoSec, Engineering, and CXO stakeholders, translating technical/legal detail into commercial trade\-offs for leadership.
• Executive communication: presents budget\-vs\-actuals and savings narratives in a form senior leadership can act on directly, with weaknesses and risks flagged rather than smoothed over.
• Independent operating style: comfortable owning a high line\-item volume as an individual contributor with direct senior leadership visibility, without needing a large team structure underneath.

• *4\. Ideal Candidate Profile**

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• 7\+ years in procurement, vendor management, or business operations, ideally in a technology/SaaS or telecom/CPaaS environment.
• Demonstrated experience independently owning commercial negotiations end\-to\-end — not just processing renewals, but structuring RFPs, running competitive benchmarks, and closing MSAs.
• Comfortable operating as an independent contributor across a high line\-item volume with direct senior leadership visibility.
• Working knowledge of contract risk areas (auto\-renewal, liability caps, SLAs) and cross\-border commercial/tax mechanics (TDS, gross\-up, DTAA) is a strong plus.
• Exposure to AI/ML vendor commercial models (usage\-based, committed\-volume, take\-or\-pay) is a differentiator given the growing AI vendor footprint.
• Excellent stakeholder management — able to work fluently with Legal, Finance, InfoSec, Engineering, and CXO stakeholders simultaneously.