Head of Procurement

Confidential; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 240,000 - 480,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential in Abu Dhabi is seeking a seasoned Procurement Strategy and Delivery Planning leader to translate requirements into sourcing strategies and align procurement with development timelines and budgets.

You will partner with Account Leads and multiple departments to ensure procurement supports project delivery, plan activities across design, build, and operations, and liaise with Central Procurement to follow enterprise policies and governance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration or relevant discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive work experience in procurement, with minimum 4 years in a Senior Manager role or higher.
• Minimum of 5 years of procurement experience in the UAE.
• Experience supporting operational readiness and launch of complex entities (e.g., schools, healthcare, large facilities, or multi-site operations).
• Experience managing multi-stakeholder environments, incl. external and internal.
• CIPS certification or working towards certification.

Responsibilities

• Translate corporate and delivery requirements into sourcing strategies aligned with development timelines, budgets, and stakeholder expectations.
• Partner with Account Leads and other departments to ensure procurement activities support project delivery objectives.
• Plan procurement activities for Account projects across design, construction, technology, operations, staffing, and education requirements.
• Contribute to scalable procurement approaches across design, build, launch, and operations stages.
• Act as liaison between Account and Central Procurement ensuring alignment with policies and processes.
• Lead end-to-end procurement processes including market engagement, tendering, evaluation, and supplier onboarding.
• Monitor supplier performance and contract compliance, escalate significant issues through governance channels.
• Manage contract administration, including obligations, payments, renewals, and terminations.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships and coordinate dependencies across workstreams to maintain delivery schedules.
• Support procurement policy development, reporting, dashboards, and management information for leadership.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration or relevant discipline

Job description

Procurement Strategy and Delivery Planning

• Support Director of Operations in translating corporate and delivery requirements into sourcing strategies aligned with development timelines, operational requirements, approved budgets, and stakeholder expectations
• Partner closely with Account Leads and other operational departments to understand requirements and ensure procurement activities support overall project delivery objectives
• Lead planning of procurement activities required to establish Account projects, covering design, construction, fit out, technology, operations, staffing support services, curriculum providers, and specialist educational requirements
• Contribute to development of scalable procurement approaches that can support multiple across different stages of design, build, launch, and operations
• Act as primary procurement liaison between Account and Central Procurement, ensuring procurement activities align with enterprise policies, governance requirements, delegated authorities, and approved processes

Procurement Execution and Supplier Management

• Lead end-to-end procurement processes, incl. market engagement, procurement documentation, sourcing, due diligence, tendering, evaluation, negotiation, contract award, and supplier onboarding
• Monitor supplier performance and contract compliance, identifying risks, issues, and opportunities for improvement and escalating significant matters through appropriate governance channels
• Proactively manage contract management and administration, ensuring contractual obligations, deliverables, payments, and renewals/terminations are effectively managed and communicated throughout contract lifecycle
• Manage strategic supplier relationships, promoting high standards of quality, service delivery, responsiveness, and value for money
• Coordinate procurement dependencies across multiple workstreams to help maintain delivery schedules and operational readiness milestones

Technology-Enabled Procurement Enhancement

• Support continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen procurement capability, processes, and stakeholder experience across portfolio
• Contribute to development of procurement policies and procedures, reporting, dashboards, and management information to support leadership oversight and decision-making
• Leverage market intelligence, supplier insights, and spend analysis to identify opportunities for operational improvement and enhanced value engineering
• Promote use of digital procurement platforms, data analytics, and AI-enabled tools to improve procurement effectiveness and decision-making

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree (B.A.) or equivalent in Business Administration or a relevant discipline

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive work experience in procurement, of which a minimum 4 years were spent in a Senior Manager role or higher
• Minimum of 5 years of experience working in procurement in the UAE
• Demonstrated experience supporting operational readiness and launch of complex entities (e.g., schools, healthcare, large facilities, or multi-site operations)
• Experience managing multi-stakeholder environments, incl. external and internal
• CIPS certified or working towards certification

Preferred

• Experience working in or with government entities and public sector organizations preferred
• Experience working in high-quality K-12 school environments preferred