Procurement Lead - Telco
Operations
United Kingdom
Posted on Jun 25, 2026
About Airalo
Alo! Airalo is the world’s first eSIM store that helps people connect in over 200+ countries and regions across the globe. We are building the next digital service that revolutionizes the telecom industry. We are a travel-tech company and an equal-opportunity environment that values and executes diversity, inclusion, and equity. Our team is spread across 50+ countries and six continents. What glues us together is our commitment to changing the way you connect.
Check out more information about Airalo in our Public Handbook: https://airalo-public.notion.site/airalo-public-handbook
About you
We hope that you care deeply about the quality of your work, the intrinsic worth of tasks, and the success of your team. You are self-disciplined and do not require micromanagement in terms of your skillset and work ethic. You do your best to flourish as an individual every day while working hard to foster a collaborative team environment. You believe in the importance of being — and staying — authentic, honest, positive, and kind. You are a good interlocutor with clear and concise communication. You are able to manage multiple projects, have an analytical mind, pay keen attention to detail, and love to get your hands dirty. You are cognizant, tolerant, and welcoming of vulnerabilities and cultural differences.
About the Role
Position: Full-time / Employee
Location: Remote-first within the UK or Spain. To be considered for this role, candidates must live in and possess valid work authorization for one of these two countries.
Benefits: Health Insurance, work-from-anywhere stipend, annual wellness & learning credits, annual all-expenses-paid company retreat in a gorgeous destination & other benefits
We are hiring the Procurement Lead to build the procurement function and policy from the ground up and drive standardization and savings across our largest spend categories: Networks, Sales & Marketing, and IT/Software.
You will design how Airalo buys, embed a disciplined purchase-to-pay process into our new ERP, and turn fragmented, function-by-function spending into a governed, competitive, and auditable process, and drive savings to every dollar we spend with third parties.
This is a senior role for a builder who will set the policy, run the high-value negotiations, and deliver hard savings that fund growth and protect EBITDA. You will report to the CFO and partner across every spending function in the company.
What you'll do:
- Design and roll out Airalo's procurement policy, delegation-of-authority thresholds, supplier onboarding, and competitive-tendering standards.
- Establish clear, proportionate approval workflows that bring control without slowing the business.
- Own the category strategies across the major spend areas: network and infrastructure spends, S&M (agencies, media, martech), IT and SaaS, and professional services.
- Build single source of truth with spends visibility and a vendor taxonomy so we know what we buy, from whom, and on what terms; build standardization and a framework to adhere to credit terms.
- Maintain a validated savings pipeline reported with Finance, and ensure segregation of duties, audit trail, and anti-fraud controls aligned to the SOX-lite framework.
- Lead competitive sourcing and high-value negotiations on a total-cost-of-ownership basis; set and deliver savings targets and improve working capital.
- Partner with Finance's zero-based budgeting and the process to convert sourcing wins into budgeted savings;
- Own master agreements, a renewals calendar, supplier performance, and third-party risk and due diligence.
- Follow through the PO/PR process and three-way match, support clean accruals, and embed procurement into the ERP as a core stakeholder.
Procurement policy & governance
Category management
Strategic sourcing & negotiation
Supplier & contract management
Purchase-to-pay process & systems
What you'll bring:
- 10+ years in procurement, strategic sourcing, or commercial / category management, including building or materially scaling a procurement function in a fast-growth company.
- Deep category expertise across indirect spend (marketing, IT/SaaS, professional services); exposure to network, telecom, or infrastructure spend like capacity, routing, wholesale in a must have.
- Track record of running competitive tenders and complex negotiations with measurable, validated savings.
- Hands-on experience designing PO/PR and purchase-to-pay processes, potentially within an ERP (SAP, Oracle, or Microsoft) environment.
- Strong command of procurement policy, delegation of authority, supplier risk, and controls.
- Influence without authority: credible with senior leaders across Networks, Marketing, and Technology, able to change buying behaviour with evidence.
- Experience in a high-growth company, including controls and audit-readiness maturity.
- Direct involvement in an ERP / P2P implementation.
- Comfort operating in a globally distributed, multi-currency, multi-jurisdiction business.
Preferred Experience
If you are interested in this position, please apply to the ad.
By applying, you acknowledge and agree that, in case of successful application, Airalo may request to run background checks as a condition for entering into an agreement with you. Rest assured that these checks will only occur upon your prior consent and at the end of the selection process, and will be strictly limited to what is allowed under the laws that are applicable to you. All data that you share or that we collect in connection with such checks will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy, available here: https://www.airalo.com/more-info/privacy-policy?srsltid=AfmBOooBT0rXAj1FaNelZ3VfN0wvhwzvAoxdtHnOKSVETpiSjiXVuycy
We sincerely thank all applicants in advance for submitting their interest in this opportunity. Airalo is an equal-opportunity employer and values diversity, equity & inclusion. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations upon request for individuals with disabilities throughout our job interview process.