Category Lead, Indirect Procurement

To provide an excellent, professional sourcing and procurement service to assigned entities within Air Arabia Group which delivers best value for money, service and quality from the most suitable suppliers.
Act as a middle point between suppliers / vendors on one hand and internal Air Arabia Group management and departments on the other, to ensure satisfactory agreements.
Responsibilities
Assists in implementing company's strategic approach to overall spend, alongside internal stakeholders, advisors, and a wide range of external stakeholders; sets out a clear strategy to Shape & Optimize Cost Categories and keep the strategy updated over time.
Implement supplier management policies to ensure consistent practices and develop strategic supplier relationships; Processes new vendor requests as required and establishes new relationships with subcontractors and suppliers to ensure adequate resources for all projects and to improve pricing and quality of work.
Undertakes procurement activities including administration & documentation to deliver best value for money, quality, and security of supply commensurate with customer's business needs; Ensure the most appropriate procurement processes are applied to meet business needs and transaction costs are minimized.
Keep abreast of business developments within Air Arabia affecting areas of responsibility and work closely with business users to understand their current and future business needs.
Keep abreast of and anticipate developments within relevant supply markets affecting areas of responsibility within Air Arabia and develop plans to capitalize on them.
Keep abreast of current management and procurement techniques and thinking and use and deploy them as appropriate to ensure area of responsibility is at the forefront of modern thinking.
Directs, manages and develops the assigned team members to provide a sourcing and procurement service which meets the current and future needs of business users at least cost.
Responsible for roll out, coordinating and managing the implementation of Procurement Systems including the user training, technical support, system improvements and user compliance with system utilization and administration.
Carries out procurement research through internal customers, suppliers, and other sources of information to obtain feedback and assessment of procurement activities.
Contract Management & Development
Prepare draft contracts / agreements / SGHAs / precedents as required based on the information provided by various departments / Hubs / Subsidiary companies etc.
Liaise with all relevant personnel to collate relevant comments to be included in the contracts / agreements.
If required, liaise with various third parties for finalization of contracts / agreements.
Review, comment & amend various contracts / agreements as & when requested by various departments, departments / Hubs / Subsidiary companies etc.
Draft, evaluate, negotiate contracts, and administer contracts in accordance with company policies and legal requirements.
Negotiate contract terms and pricing with internal managers and external vendors.
On all standard and non-standard contracts, provide redlined recommendations and often negotiate directly with vendor's attorneys or with internal managers until consensus has been reached.
Serve as the point of contact for vendors on contractual matters.
Provide liaison between internal managers, and the vendors to identify and resolve issues as they arise.
Facilitate and negotiate contract variations and amendments in line with approved terms.
Collates performance data for Projects / Commodity spends into agreed reporting formats; produces Management Information reports and necessary analysis to highlight significant performance issues, critical areas, trends, discrepancies, excess, short supply, etc to support management decisions.
Assist in resolving disputes as they arise; Initiate remedial action in the event of contract breach; and Coordinate vendor payments with Finance.
Ensure that obligations to vendors are met in accordance with contractual agreements.
Ensure that signed contracts are communicated to all relevant parties to provide contract visibility and awareness, interpretation to support implementation.
Remain responsible for document control / management of originals and ensure redaction of confidential sections before sending to third parties.
Provide administrative support for all contract management activities such as contract termination, suspension, claims, variations, close-outs and extensions.
Qualifications (Academic, training, languages)
Bachelor Degree in Management or equivalent combined with necessary experience.
MCIPS or equivalent.
Have excellent communication skills.
Can show a history of career progression and ambition to grow further.
Excellent business writing and reporting skills.
Proficient in Microsoft Office (Excel advanced level).
Detail oriented, comfortable with numbers, charts and data sheets.
Fluent in English Language (Arabic is a plus).
Work Experience
5+ years of experience in a procurement / Purchasing role in any industry handling technical procurement and / or professional services sourcing within a reputable international company or within a demanding, fast evolving environment.
This includes experience of working within an ecommerce business; of which 2+ years of experience in supervising / managing small purchasing team in direct / indirect procurement environment is preferred.
Capable of driving process improvement and internal control in line with adopted standards.
Sourcing and supplier management process skills.
Experience in managing and negotiating with key vendors, strategically agile, with strong commercial acumen and exceptional negotiation skills in managing large, complex, preferably service-oriented contracts, large outsourcing based development contracts in an Airline / Airport environment or other relevant sophisticated blue-chip, service or FMCG organisation.
Experienced in initiating and managing contracts of technical nature.
Demonstrates skills in handling financial transactions with accuracy.
Cooperative team player; possesses very good organizing and time management skills.
Capable of preparing / extracting reports from different sources of data and identifying shortages.
Multi-task oriented, responds to multiple assignments easily and promptly.
Organized and demonstrates high attention to details.
Willing to support and provide alternate solutions in ad-hoc scenarios and unplanned situations.
Dependable, self-motivated, takes ownership and acts proactively.
Displays energy and enthusiasm.
Capable of working under pressure and tight timeframes without compromising quality.
Employs a balance of technical expertise, and interpersonal relations to interact with senior level stakeholders and external providers as well as execute new initiatives that support company's objectives.
Demonstrates the ability to contribute and successfully deliver against set KPIs.
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