AI-Driven Category Lead, General Spend & Procurement

Confidential; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 300,000 - 600,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential is building a UAE-based, AI-enabled financial services organization. We seek an experienced procurement leader to own category planning, RFP content, and supplier onboarding for general spend, collaborating with the Procurement Operations Lead to mobilize and govern services.

You will drive category intelligence, demand forecasts, and fit-for-purpose requirements across professional services, facilities, marketing, and banking operations.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in category management or procurement within banking or financial services.
• Deep expertise across indirect/general spend including professional services, facilities, real estate, corporate operations, and marketing services.
• Proven record defining category strategies, RFP requirements, evaluation frameworks, and supplier onboarding arrangements in a regulated environment.
• Strong knowledge of relevant CBUAE expectations and applicable standards for outsourcing, data protection, and third-party risk.
• Exposure to AI-enabled procurement tooling, spend and demand analytics, supplier-market insight, and onboarding workflow analytics.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain category strategies, demand forecasts, specs, and supplier-market insight for general spend.
• Define business requirements, scopes of work, SLAs, evaluation criteria, and RFP expectations; coordinate with sourcing lead.
• Lead stakeholder engagement during RFPs and evaluate supplier proposals.
• Provide category intelligence and demand forecasts to support supplier selection and contracting.
• Own onboarding and mobilization plans after appointment, including acceptance criteria and early-life monitoring.
• Collaborate with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance, and facilities to meet control and data-protection needs.
• Monitor category performance and identify opportunities to rationalize demand or refresh requirements.

Skills

Category management

Procurement leadership

RFP development

Stakeholder engagement

Supplier onboarding

Analytics

AI tooling

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business

Procurement certification

CBUAE Fit & Proper awareness

Tools

AI-enabled procurement tools

Job description

Confidential is building a UAE-based, AI-enabled financial services organization. We seek an experienced procurement leader to own category planning, RFP content, and supplier onboarding for general spend, collaborating with the Procurement Operations Lead to mobilize and govern services.

You will drive category intelligence, demand forecasts, and fit-for-purpose requirements across professional services, facilities, marketing, and banking operations.