Buying Specialist Region IMEEA

American President Lines; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 550,000; Full time

Job summary

American President Lines in Abu Dhabi is seeking a Buying Specialist for IMEEA region. You will own procurement, supplier relationship management, and category strategies for ports and terminals across the ADRO footprint.

The role requires 7–10 years in container terminals, ports, or logistics procurement, strong English communication, and proven negotiation skills. Travel may be required as part of global sourcing initiatives and stakeholder engagement.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years in procurement for container terminals, ports, or logistics.
• Excellent English skills; French/Arabic is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Establish annual budget for the portfolio and drive cost-saving initiatives.
• Develop and manage relationships with incumbent and potential suppliers.
• Analyze spend patterns to identify cost drivers and opportunities.
• Conduct market research to identify risks and opportunities and inform category strategies.
• Develop models to analyze should-costs and total value of ownership.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to craft sourcing strategies.
• Negotiate contracts and SLAs to secure favorable terms.
• Monitor supplier performance to ensure contractual value.

Skills

English fluency

Negotiation skills

Supplier management

Category management

Project management

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Excel

PowerPoint

Power BI

Travel flexibility

Tools

PowerBI

Job description

Job Title: Buying Specialist Region IMEEA

Posting Start Date: 24/09/2026

Job Description:

Purpose of the role:
This role is part of our Abu Dhabi Regional Office (ADRO) which covers the geographical scope from Southern Africa to the Indian Subcontinent. We are looking for a Ports & Terminals (P&T) Procurement Manager to join our team in Abu Dhabi. You will be in charge of procurement & supplier relationship management for the assigned portfolio.

Responsibilities:

• Establish annual budget for the portfolio and actively manage with sourcing and optimization initiatives to deliver value.
• Develop and manage relationships with incumbent and potential suppliers.
• Analyzing current spend patterns, identifying cost drivers and opportunities.
• Conduct market research & stay updated on the industry trends to identify potential risks and opportunities and incorporate in category strategies.
• Develop models to analyze should costs, supplier offers, TCO/TVO to unlock opportunities of cost savings, value generation and optimization.
• Collaborate with cross functional teams to understand their requirements for developing appropriate sourcing strategies.
• Participate and provide inputs to Line Management based on market knowledge, ensuring cost-optimal deployment of assets, in line with contracts.
• Leading creative idea generation workshops with suppliers and internal stakeholders and taking responsibility to drive results in the identified initiatives.
• Conduct contract negotiations in line with the Group Purchasing process and based on the six-step sourcing process methodology.
• Negotiate contracts, pricing & SLAs to ensure the best terms and conditions.
• Collaborate and coordinate extensively with Operations teams to develop agreements that include SLAs, secure constant improvement of our contracting clauses & ensuring vendors accountability towards SLAs.
• Close monitoring to ensure all agreements are realizing contractual values. Monitor supplier performance according to the contractual terms, report deviations and put in place appropriate actions.
• Ownership of all aspects of the portfolio – costs, performance, supplier relationshipmanagement, stakeholders, systems, compliance, documentation and housekeeping, communication materials. Keeping information up to date on internal tools and category playbooks.support and provide input to the leadership team, execution teams, head office teams todrive a red thread through local and global initiatives, improve synergies and implement global standards within contracts.
• Create, evolve, and enhance stakeholder map – we work in a complex universe with internal plus external stakeholders, this role will be responsible to own that map for assigned portfolio.
• Enhancing professionalization of the portfolio, including but not limited to, category playbooks, supplier relationship program, supplier performance & scorecards.
• Communicating complicated messages in compelling ways to senior stakeholders.
• Participate and provide input to wider cross functional procurement strategy.
• Execute and deliver on time in a high pace environment.

Profile & Qualifications:

• 7-10 years with Container Terminals, Ports, Shipping, Logistics in Procurement,Operation, Commercial capacity would be preferred.
• Expert English spoken & written communication skills. French/Arabic would be an advantage.
• Strong understanding of ports and terminals operations, liner shipping operations.
• Strong negotiations skills and experience of dealing with different types of negotiations.
• Experience with Category Management & Supplier Relationship Management.
• Demonstrated project management capability; ability to deal with ambiguity in a highlydynamic and complex environment.
• Strong analytical & problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and ability to build analyticalmodels. Comfortable with analyzing and drawing inference from large data sets.
• Excellent stakeholder management and confident communicator; ability to exerciseimpact without direct authority and possessing conflict resolution skills.
• Finance knowledge to draw meaningful conclusions from P&L accounts and financialstatements of company reports.
• Legal knowledge related to commercial contracts, concession agreements, etc.
• Attention to detail to ensure accuracy. Data based decision making approach.
• Structured and pro-active mindset with ability to think outside the box and be creative.
• Strong Microsoft Office suite skills – Excel, PowerPoint. Knowledge of PowerBI,dashboards on excel would be an added advantage.
• Ability to travel internationally in line with business requirements.