Senior Commercial & Demand Planner – Procurement - Ikwezi Mining (A OZA Holding Company) - Johannesburg, South Africa
(2025-09)
- Procurement, Contracts, Strategic Sourcing & Negotiation: Spearheaded high-stakes negotiations with global suppliers to secure favorable pricing and contractual terms, consistently meeting rigorous quality, cost-saving, and JIT (Just-in-Time) delivery benchmarks.
- Inventory Optimization: Orchestrated and executed strategic inventory frameworks to maintain optimal stock levels, successfully minimizing carrying costs while ensuring 100% material availability for critical operations.
- Technical Collaboration: Partnered with engineering and project teams to develop technical specifications for equipment and materials, identifying high-performance substitutes that enhanced operational efficiency.
- Market Intelligence: Conducted comprehensive market research to identify emerging products and top-tier suppliers, diversifying the vendor base and mitigating supply chain risks.
- Quality Assurance & Vendor Compliance: Implemented robust quality control protocols for incoming goods and established KPI-driven monitoring to ensure vendor adherence to strict delivery timelines and specifications.
- Operational Leadership: Directed cross-functional teams, fostering a high-performance culture through mentorship, rigorous performance monitoring, and process optimization.
- Value Delivery: Aligned procurement strategies with end-user requirements to ensure seamless delivery of products and services, consistently exceeding client expectations and project milestones.
Lead Engineer – Procurement, Demand Planner & Coal Logistics - Tata Power Co. Ltd. - Jamshedpur, India
(2013-05 - 2025-08)
- Digital Transformation: Spearheaded the digitalization of coal logistics and procurement, utilizing Power BI and Python to automate manual data entry and PPT formation.
- Cost Optimization: Developed alternative vendor bases for OEMs (e.g., replacing BHEL with Thermax/Siemens), significantly reducing lead times and costs.
- Contract Strategy: Consolidated repetitive Purchase Requisitions (PRs) into long-term ARCs, achieving substantial time and cost savings.
- Efficiency: Reduced safety evaluation turnaround times for high-value services by establishing a pre-qualified vendor roster.
Lead Engineer – MIS & Performance Analyst - Tata Power Co. Ltd. - Jamshedpur, India
(2010-10 - 2013-04)
- KPI Management: Developed comprehensive dashboards to monitor thermal power plant performance against global benchmarks.
- Advanced Analytics: Utilized Minitab, SQL, and Tableau to identify trends for cost reduction and process enhancement.
Operation & Commissioning Engineer - Vedanta Aluminum Limited / Tata Power - Orissa/Jamshedpur, India
(2007-04 - 2010-09)
- Project Commissioning: Led the successful commissioning of new systems and technologies within thermal power plants.
- Plant Operations: Oversaw day-to-day operations ensuring strict adherence to environmental and regulatory standards.