Associate Director APAC Commercial Procurement

AstraZeneca; Petaling Jaya; On-site; MYR 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A global pharmaceutical company is seeking a Regional Category Associate Director in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. This role involves overseeing procurement strategies across APAC, managing supplier relationships, and collaborating with local markets. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of procurement experience and strong skills in data analysis, sourcing, and negotiation. Fluency in Mandarin and English is a plus, and knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry is preferred. This position is full-time with a dynamic and diverse team.

Qualifications

• More than 5 years of procurement category experience is required.
• Fluency in Mandarin and English is preferred.
• Good knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Support category/subcategory strategies across APAC.
• Oversee market/category plan implementation.
• Manage sourcing projects and supplier relationships.

Skills

Procurement category experience

Data analysis

Sourcing and negotiation

Project management

Strong communication skills

Education

Bachelor degree or equivalent qualifications

Tools

Procurement tools

Project management tools

Job description

This role is the Regional Category Associate Director of Indirect in APAC and sits in APAC category management team, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The role is accountable for supporting end to end category strategy in various indirect categories through deep understanding of supply market, engaging with different level stakeholders, and procurement expertise. Meanwhile, to support the strategy buildup and to ensure the strategy sufficiently implemented, the role needs to engage with Global Category Team and coordinate with the countries’ Procurement Managers, GPS, as well as the Business users, to ensure strong and collaborative relationships are built and maintained in APAC.

Indirect covers professional services, HR services and Medical categories.

Key Accountabilities

• Be responsible for the support of category/subcategory strategies for agreed scope of spend across APAC, including the data analysis and supplier mapping, etc.
• Oversees implementation of market/ category plan to ensure that the underpinning process improvement and procurement activities deliver the expected business value in accordance with the strategic plans.
• Strategic or across-markets sourcing projects management. From souring strategy to RFP/ commercial terms generation.
• Supports the Director in strategic relationship management (customers and suppliers) to ensure that Market & Category Strategies are highly aligned to current and future business need and that the supply base is capable for supporting these strategies.
• Works as the procurement business partner of AANZ market to support the daily requirement collecting and relationships maintenance with each local market’ key stakeholders, local CPMs, etc.
• Works with relevant countries’ procurement head to ensure an integrated and customer-aligned AZ APAC category strategy be successfully executed in each local market.
• Coordinates the introduction of new market intelligence to upgrade the category management across APAC region.
• Analyses and offer solutions to the raised issues in procurement audit reports and other supporting functions’ highlights.
• Develops, evaluates or manages internal and external relationships with suppliers and other cross-functional teams.

Required Skills & Knowledge

• Bachelor degree level above or equivalent qualifications
• Solid procurement category experiences for +5 years
• Solid procurement knowledge and skillsets in previous working experience, covering but not limited to data analysis, sourcing and negotiation, PowerPoint and presentation skills, source-to-contract SOP, procurement tools and system, etc
• Fluent in Mandarin and English is a plus
• Good working knowledge of pharmaceutical industry would be a plus preference
• Technical expertise in at least one procurement category ( Professional services, HR services, Medical, etc)
• Project management experiences with solution-oriented mindset, strong analytical skills, strategic thinking, hands on project implementation
• Strong communication skills and ability to influence others
• Sound understanding of Safety, Health and Environment
• Comfort with fast paced and ambiguous situations and proactively diagnose opportunity and add value to the business

Date Posted

01-Oct-2025

Closing Date

30-Oct-2025

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.