Category Lead

Job Purpose

• 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. 

Key Result Responsibilities

• Develop and implement procurement strategies to deliver ongoing cost reductions and process simplification. Taking responsibility for financial performance against plan and proactively develop a pipeline of innovative initiatives that reduces Indirect spend.  
• Draft, evaluate, negotiate contracts, and administer contracts in accordance with company policies and legal requirements.
• Ensure that signed contracts are communicated to all relevant parties to provide contract visibility and awareness, interpretation to support implementation.
• Assists in implementing our strategic approach to overall spend, alongside internal stakeholders, advisors, and a wide range of external stakeholders; sets out a clear strategy to Shape & Optimise Cost Categories and keep the strategy updated over time. 
• Implement supplier management policies to ensure consistent practises and develop strategic supplier relationships.
• Assist in setting up and maintaining company quality control program 
• Supervises and handles Stores and Inventory control activities (as assigned) ensuring the adequacy and timeliness availability of needed material and products in accordance with business requirements and quality standards.  
• 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 minimised 
• Collates performance data for the Commodity spends into agreed reporting formats; produces Management Information reports and necessary analysis to highlight critical areas, trends, discrepancies, excess, short supply, etc to support management decisions. 
• 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. 
• Liaise regularly and collaborate with appropriate members of the Procurement function at Air Arabia Airline Hubs and subsidiary companies (Cozmo, SAS etc.) to ensure consistency of approach 
• 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 capitalise 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. 
• Benchmarking supplier performance and Negotiation.
• Serves as the point of contact for vendors on contractual legal matters; liaises with internal managers, and vendors to identify and resolve issues. 
• Drafts, evaluates, contract terms from legal aspects, administers contracts in accordance with company’s policies and legal requirements. 
• Provides 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 preferred.
• 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, Internet and Web Search (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.
• 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 organization. 
• 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.