Job Description
Business Overview
Rakuten Group's mission is to empower people and society through innovation.

We offer a wide range of internet services that touch people's lives, including "Rakuten Ichiba" one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Japan, and "Rakuten Mobile," an innovative mobile communication service. This provides an environment where you can constantly challenge yourself with new things in diverse business areas and have global growth opportunities.

Department Overview
This organization (IT Procurement Office) is in charge of IT-related product procurement for Rakuten Group, Inc (Headquarter) as well as for Rakuten global subsidiaries (partly). Our mission is to bring profit to the Rakuten Group through IT procurement activities.

Due to the significant transaction amounts and target reduction amounts, as well as the constant adoption of new technologies and services, there are abundant opportunities for self-growth and purchasing experience.

IT Procurement office has 3 groups;

• "IT Purchasing Group," which is responsible for executing operations efficiently, quickly, and accurately
• "IT Sourcing Group," which is responsible for reducing and optimizing procurement costs
• "IT Procurement Admin Group" which provides cross-sectional support such as contract management.

The mission of "IT Sourcing Group" is not only achieve Cost Reduction negotiations with supplier, but also consider procurement strategies while communicating with internal and external stakeholders, including executives.

you can grow up a wide range of purchasing, strategic, and communication skills.

In this role, you will be responsible for focused on strengthening strategic collaboration and alignment with Group Companies.

By this collaboration, we aim to create a platform for more strategic negotiations, and strengthen procurement governance within group companies.

Position
Why We Hire
Requirement of new member to implement proactive actions for strategic IT procurement office

Position Details
IT Procurement Office is responsible for the smooth execution of IT-related procurement activities including cost optimization, appropriate vendor selection, and efficient ordering processes.

The main Duty is as following as IT Sourcing Specialist:

• Cost reduction through vendor negotiations on contractual terms (price, delivery time, quality, etc.)
• Building, maintaining, and managing strong relationships with suppliers (Supplier Management)
• Analyzing procurement costs, and cost reduction activity consideration and implementation
• Improvement and streamlining procurement processes
• Ensuring compliance with relevant laws and internal regulations, conducting appropriate procurement activities
• Researching the latest AI trends and technological developments

Main Responsibility of Strengthening collaboration with Group Companies is as follows:

• Building strong relationships with IT procurement leads, IT departments, and executive management across each group company
• Supporting the formulation and driving the widespread adoption of common IT procurement processes, policies, and guidelines across the group
• Promoting the sharing of best practices and standardization among group companies
• Analyzing the procurement status of each group company and proposing/supporting the implementation of optimal procurement methods to achieve cost reductions
• Driving initiatives aimed at strengthening IT procurement governance across the entire group

This position will allow to acquire a broader range of procurement skills and experience by engaging deeply not only in procurement operations but also in the upstream processes of formulating and executing procurement strategies, closely tied to the overall IT strategy and business strategy of the entire group.

Work Environment
Team Composition

Employees:15 (Sourcing: 8, Purchasing: 6, Admin: 1)

Contract Staff/Outsourcing: 20 (including approximately 15 BPO staff)

The team is primarily composed of mid-career hires with only 2 new graduates.

The age range is mainly in the 30s and 40s

Team members come from diverse backgrounds (Sales, SE, Purchasing, Legal, etc.), but many previously worked for IT companies

Mandatory Qualifications
Required Experience

• Minimum 3 years of experience in IT procurement operations (sourcing or purchasing)
• Procurement product example is as following
• Public Cloud (Azure, GCP, etc.)
• SaaS (CRM, CDN, project management tools, etc.)
• IT-related hardware such as servers, storage, and network appliances

Desired Personality

• Possesses in-depth knowledge and experience in IT procurement and can approach tasks from a strategic perspective
• Can utilize data analysis skills to identify issues and propose improvements.
• Have strong communication skills and can smoothly collaborate with related departments and suppliers
• Flexible to change and can proactively acquire new knowledge and skills

Required Mindset

• A mindset of being able to act/improve autonomously
• A mindset of being able to adapt to change
• A mindset of enjoying ambiguous situations.

Desired Qualifications

• Procurement related qualifications (e.g. CPP, CPSM)
• Procurement Data analysis and Create Strategy Experience
• Experience in Group Companies Expansion of procurement processes and policy
• Public Cloud/SaaS (AWS, Azure, GCP, Salesforce, etc.) usage experience
• Legal knowledge (Subcontract Act, Intellectual Property Act, etc.)
• Project management experience

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