Associate Director - Strategic Procurement

Aldar Education; Abu Dhabi Emirate; On-site; AED 312,000 - 446,000; Full time

Job summary

Aldar Education in Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates is seeking an Associate Director - Strategic Procurement to lead complex sourcing portfolios, drive procurement governance, and negotiate supplier contracts. This senior role supports schools and corporate functions while delivering measurable cost savings and improved procurement visibility.

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 10 years regional procurement experience, expertise in framework agreements, and strong leadership with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline with procurement training; minimum 10 years regional procurement experience.
• Master's degree preferred for seniority and leadership responsibilities.
• Fluent written and spoken English; Arabic language capability is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain procurement plans for assigned portfolios covering confirmed, forecasted, recurring, and strategic requirements.
• Lead RFQs, RFPs, bidder-list development, tender planning, evaluation frameworks, negotiations, award recommendations, and approval submissions.
• Review sourcing strategies to ensure procurement routes, evaluation criteria, disqualifiers, and approval requirements are appropriate and compliant.
• Deliver measurable cost savings and cost avoidance through negotiation, demand consolidation, and early stakeholder engagement.
• Coordinate with Schools and HQ departments on scope, budgets, specifications, timelines, approvals, and business priorities before sourcing begins.
• Ensure all procurement activity complies with internal policy, Delegation of Authority, financial controls, contract governance, and audit requirements.
• Prepare executive-level reports, dashboards, portfolio summaries, risk updates, and recommendations for management decisions.

Skills

Strategic procurement

Commercial negotiations

RFQ/RFP management

Tender governance

Stakeholder management

Contract coordination

Portfolio management

Supplier performance

Governance

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline

Master's degree preferred

CIPS certification desirable

Tools

Oracle Fusion

ERP procurement systems

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft PowerPoint

Job description

Associate Director - Strategic Procurement Job Snapshot Role: Associate Director - Strategic Procurement Location: Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates Industry: Education Management Function: Purchasing Experience: Minimum 10 years regional procurement experience Job Type: Full-time Position Overview Associate Director - Strategic Procurement in Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates is a senior Education Management opportunity with Aldar Education for an experienced procurement leader who can manage complex sourcing portfolios, procurement governance, commercial negotiations, supplier performance, framework agreements, and transformation initiatives. The role supports schools, headquarters functions, and cross‑functional programmes by converting business requirements into compliant, commercially sound procurement outcomes while improving cost efficiency, operational readiness, and procurement visibility.

Job Details Country: United Arab Emirates City: Abu Dhabi Emirate Industry: Education Management Function: Purchasing Salary: 28000-40000 Estimated salary range based on similar jobs in the job city; please confirm the final offer with the employer. Gender: Any Candidate Nationality: Any Job Type: Full‑time

Role Context

The Associate Director - Strategic Procurement provides senior leadership across assigned procurement portfolios, ensuring requirements are properly planned, competitively sourced, approved, contracted, and delivered in accordance with procurement policy, Delegation of Authority, budgets, service expectations, and organisational priorities. The position combines strategic sourcing with hands‑on portfolio management across schools and corporate functions. It oversees complex capital and operational requirements covering facilities, school expansions, technology, security, specialised learning environments, furniture, equipment, refurbishment, and other recurring procurement categories. A major part of the role is strengthening procurement maturity. This includes consolidating demand, creating framework agreements, standardising specifications, improving reporting, managing supplier performance, supporting audit actions, and applying digital tools to improve transparency, cycle times, governance, and measurable value creation.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain procurement plans for assigned portfolios covering confirmed, forecasted, recurring, and strategic requirements.
• Work with schools and headquarters departments to clarify scope, budgets, specifications, timelines, approvals, and business priorities before sourcing begins.
• Reduce emergency purchasing by improving demand forecasting, early engagement, procurement planning, and stakeholder readiness.
• Oversee major capital and operational procurement programmes including school expansions, specialised rooms, inclusion facilities, security, FF&E, refurbishment, technology, and learning‑space requirements.
• Track portfolio delivery, dependencies, risks, approval delays, supplier constraints, and other blockers requiring senior intervention.
• Lead RFQs, RFPs, bidder‑list development, tender planning, evaluation frameworks, negotiations, award recommendations, and approval submissions.
• Review sourcing strategies to ensure procurement routes, evaluation criteria, disqualifiers, and approval requirements are appropriate and compliant.
• Validate specifications with requestors before market engagement and challenge unnecessary customisation or unclear requirements.
• Review and appropriately challenge single‑source procurement proposals where competitive sourcing should be applied.
• Use structured tender trackers and regular portfolio reviews to improve sourcing cycle times and identify bottlenecks.
• Deliver measurable cost savings and cost avoidance through negotiation, demand consolidation, auctions, volume leverage, and early stakeholder engagement.
• Analyse procurement spend to identify frequently purchased or high‑value categories suitable for framework agreements.
• Develop standardised specifications where commercially appropriate to reduce fragmented purchasing and improve economies of scale.
• Support catalogue‑based ordering and approved reference catalogues for recurring school and operational requirements.
• Coordinate with Contracts, Supplier Relationship Management, Legal, Finance, and business teams on agreements, renewals, variations, purchase orders, and supplier commitments.
• Ensure approved requirements are formalised through purchase orders before suppliers commence work or deliver goods and services.
• Verify that sourcing, evaluation, award, approval, and commercial documentation is complete before handover to contract or supplier management teams.
• Escalate purchase order, contract execution, supplier delivery, or commercial issues that could affect portfolio performance.
• Act as a senior procurement partner for Education, Operations, Finance, Legal, IT and Digital, HR, schools, and other headquarters functions.
• Facilitate stakeholder and supplier workshops where additional scope definition, specification alignment, or catalogue development is required.
• Guide internal requestors on procurement routes, required documentation, approval requirements, and realistic sourcing timelines.
• Maintain professional supplier relationships while ensuring formal bidder communication during live tenders remains controlled through Procurement.
• Ensure all procurement activity complies with internal policy, Delegation of Authority, financial controls, contract governance, and audit requirements.
• Coordinate assigned internal audit actions, gather supporting evidence, monitor corrective measures, and drive timely closure.
• Contribute to procurement risk registers, internal controls, policy development, governance improvement, and value‑creation reporting.
• Escalate material supplier risks, policy exceptions, contract concerns, budget constraints, and delivery failures to appropriate leadership.
• Coach and guide procurement team members, reviewing the quality and compliance of sourcing outputs.
• Set expectations for portfolio execution and help team members resolve complex stakeholder, supplier, or commercial issues.
• Prepare executive‑level reports, dashboards, portfolio summaries, risk updates, and recommendations for management decisions.
• Use Oracle Fusion and related procurement systems to monitor requisitions, approvals, purchase orders, supplier information, and transaction status.
• Apply procurement dashboards and trackers to monitor KPIs, sourcing activity, delivery performance, and outstanding actions.
• Support procurement transformation through automation, AI‑enabled initiatives, improved reporting, digital workflows, and more consistent operating practices.

Ideal Profile

Candidates should hold a Bachelor's Degree in a relevant discipline, supported by professional procurement training or qualification where applicable. A Master's Degree in Business Administration is preferred for this senior position. A recognised procurement qualification or professional membership such as CIPS is desirable. Applicants should bring at least 10 years of procurement experience within the region, with demonstrated responsibility for strategic sourcing, commercial negotiations, tender governance, portfolio management, supplier relationships, and procurement controls. Previous education‑sector procurement experience is preferable, particularly where the candidate has managed requirements across schools, facilities, technology, furniture, equipment, refurbishment, or other institutional categories. Strong working knowledge of Oracle Fusion or comparable enterprise procurement and ERP platforms is essential. The role requires advanced stakeholder‑management capability and the confidence to influence senior internal clients, challenge non‑compliant procurement approaches, resolve escalations, and balance commercial priorities against governance requirements. Candidates should demonstrate strong MS Excel and PowerPoint capability, including the ability to build management dashboards, analyse procurement data, and present complex information clearly to executive stakeholders. Fluent written and spoken English is required. Arabic language capability is an added advantage. The successful candidate should be highly organised, commercially astute, detail‑focused, proactive, agile, and comfortable managing multiple high‑value procurement activities under pressure.

Skills Set

• Strategic procurement
• Procurement portfolio management
• Strategic sourcing
• RFQ management
• RFP management
• Tender management
• Bidder list development
• Tender evaluation
• Evaluation matrices
• Commercial negotiation
• Award recommendations
• Procurement governance
• Delegation of Authority
• Procurement policy compliance
• Cost savings
• Cost avoidance
• Spend analysis
• Demand consolidation
• Framework agreements
• Category standardisation
• Catalogue procurement
• Supplier management
• Supplier performance management
• Supplier relationship management
• Contract coordination
• Purchase order management
• Procurement planning
• Procurement risk management
• Internal audit actions
• Commercial governance
• Stakeholder management
• Procurement dashboards
• KPI reporting
• Executive reporting
• Oracle Fusion
• ERP procurement systems
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Procurement automation
• AI procurement initiatives
• Process improvement
• Procurement transformation
• Team leadership
• Coaching and mentoring

Why Join Us

This position offers the opportunity to influence procurement strategy across one of Abu Dhabi's largest Education Management networks while managing a diverse portfolio spanning schools, corporate functions, technology, facilities, learning environments, and major operational programmes. The role provides substantial scope to shape procurement planning, supplier strategy, framework agreements, digital reporting, governance, and commercial performance rather than simply managing transactional sourcing. It is particularly suited to an experienced procurement leader seeking senior responsibility in an organisation where purchasing decisions directly support education quality, operational continuity, and long‑term institutional growth.

Aldar Education also places emphasis on professional development, coaching, and future‑focused working practices, creating opportunities to contribute to procurement transformation while developing broader strategic and leadership capability.

About the Company

Aldar Education is a major education group in the United Arab Emirates, operating and managing a broad network of schools and learning institutions across Abu Dhabi. The organisation supports multiple curricula and educational pathways while contributing to Abu Dhabi's long‑term development priorities through high‑quality education, innovation, operational excellence, and investment in students, staff, and school communities.