General Category lead

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

This is a leading institution in the UAE that is building a digital-first, AI-enabled financial services organisation from the ground up. This is a unique opportunity to join at an early stage and help shape the people, operational, and service foundations of a business with significant institutional backing and long-term ambition. If you're passionate about HR operations, payroll excellence, and creating exceptional employee experiences, we'd love to hear from you.

Role Purpose:

Owns category planning, business requirements, RFP content and supplier onboarding for the bank’s general-spend categories, including marketing and customer-growth services. Partners with the Procurement Operations Lead, who leads sourcing, to ensure supplier solutions are fit for purpose, controlled, and ready for mobilization and ongoing operations.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain category strategies, demand forecasts, specifications, and supplier-market insight for professional services, facilities, real estate, corporate services, marketing, travel, banking operations services, business process outsourcing and third-party processing, and other general spend.
• Define business requirements, scopes of work, service levels, evaluation criteria, and implementation expectations for RFPs; work with the Procurement Operations Lead, who owns the sourcing process and commercial procurement activity.
• Lead business stakeholder engagement throughout RFPs, coordinate subject-matter input, and lead the business evaluation of supplier proposals in accordance with the approved procurement process.
• Provide category intelligence, demand forecasts, and fit-for-purpose requirements to the Procurement Operations Lead to support supplier selection, commercial negotiation, and contracting.
• Own the business-side supplier onboarding and mobilization plan after appointment, including service acceptance criteria, stakeholders, controls, operational handover, and early-life performance monitoring.
• Work with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Facilities, Finance, and business stakeholders to ensure that service requirements and onboarding arrangements meet applicable control, data-protection, and operational needs.
• Monitor category performance, demand trends, service quality, and stakeholder feedback; identify opportunities to rationalize demand, improve specifications, or refresh requirements for future RFPs.
• Maintain category documentation, RFP requirements, evaluation records, and onboarding evidence in line with procurement and third-party governance standards.
• Use approved analytics and AI-enabled tools for demand analysis, supplier-market insight, requirements development, and onboarding tracking, with human validation of outputs.

Required Skills & Experience:

• 8+ years in category management, business procurement, or supplier management within banking or financial services, including senior leadership of a general category management team.
• Deep expertise across indirect and 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.

Qualifications & Certifications (Preferred)

• Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, or a related field preferred.
• Procurement certification preferred.
• CBUAE Fit & Proper requirements and any applicable controlled-function eligibility criteria, where required.