Associate Director - Procurement

Aldar Academies; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 550,000; Full time

Job summary

Aldar Education is seeking an exceptional Associate Director Procurement to provide senior leadership for procurement across its education portfolios in Abu Dhabi. You will ensure planning, sourcing, contracting and delivery align with policy, budgets, SLAs and priorities while driving procurement excellence.

The role combines portfolio delivery governance, stakeholder partnering and commercial management across schools and central teams, supporting transformation through data-led insights and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field; MBA preferred.
• Recognized procurement qualification (e.g., CIPS) desirable.
• A minimum of 10 years of procurement experience in the region.
• Experience in education procurement is preferable.

Responsibilities

• Lead portfolio delivery, governance, stakeholder partnering and commercial management across schools, HQ departments and cross-functional programmes.
• Drive procurement transformation through structured planning, framework agreements, standardised specifications, data-led reporting, supplier performance management and continuous improvement.
• Act as a senior escalation point, coach team members, translate business needs into compliant value-driven procurement outcomes.
• Develop dashboards and monitor supplier performance across multiple sites and programmes.

Skills

Excellent communication

Fluent English

Arabic language

Stakeholder management

Attention to detail

Agile

Interpersonal skills

Proactive

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

MBA preferred

Procurement qualification (CIPS) desirable

Tools

Oracle Fusion ERP

MS Office (Excel, PPT)

Dashboard development tools

Job description

Aldar Education is currently seeking an outstanding Associate Director Procurement to provide senior procurement leadership for assigned Aldar Education portfolios ensuring requirements are planned sourced contracted and delivered in line with procurement policy Delegation of Authority approved budgets agreed SLAs and business priorities.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the highly successful Aldar Education family of schools and play a key role in shaping the technology strategy and service delivery across some of Abu Dhabi s leading educational institutions.

As the leading education group in Abu Dhabi Aldar Education provides inclusive and innovative learning that inspires and empowers communities. We offer a range of educational brands for learners from nursery through to adult education with the broadest choice of curricula across the largest number of locations in Abu Dhabi. Working collaboratively our education network aims to empower the next generation to shape our future while directly supporting the educational priorities of the Abu Dhabi Government. Our work is guided by the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 which seeks to build a sustainable knowledge-based economy through premium education.

The Associate Director Procurement role combines portfolio delivery governance stakeholder partnering and commercial management across schools HQ departments and cross-functional programmes. It supports procurement transformation through structured procurement planning framework agreements standardised specifications data-led reporting supplier performance management audit action follow-up and continuous improvement.

The Associate Director is expected to act as a senior escalation point coach assigned team members challenge non-compliant or single-source approaches where appropriate and help translate business needs into compliant value-driven procurement outcomes.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in related field and/or professional training or qualification in related field
• Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) preferred
• Recognized Procurement Qualification and/or professional subscription (e.g.CIPS) desirable
• A minimum of 10 years experience in procurement within the region
• Having education procurement experience is preferable

Key Skills

• Excellent communication skills are essential
• Fluent English communication skills, written and oral, Arabic is an added value
• Great knowledge of ERP system (Oracle Fusions)
• Excellent stakeholder Management skills
• Excellent usage of MS Office (PP, Excel)
• Organized with great governance
• Ability to create dashboards
• Proven track record of developing advanced procurement processes and methods
• Attention to detail with diligent follow up, and able to execute in a timely manner
• Skilled in multi tasking and handling pressure
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Pro-active
• Agile