Sr. Category Specialist

Role Details – Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Conduct strategic and operational procurement activities to support various FM projects;
• Procure, expedite and schedule deliveries of materials and sourcing equipment, goods and services;
• Perform procurement activities across multiple FM categories of spend, search for better deals and find more profitable suppliers;
• Identify, gather, analyze and summarize purchase requirements and demand;
• Preparation of sourcing strategies and sourcing processes;
• Involved in the creation & implementation of sourcing strategies in compliance with the legal, internal policies, good practices and business goals;
• Manage bidding and tendering activities for goods and services related to projects;
• Manage price negotiation and finalization for commercial supply agreements / contracts and letters of intent in close alignment with procurement services
• Analyze supplier offers and quantify total costs of ownership (TCO)
• Develop and manage supplier relationships including supplier performance
• Regular reporting of sourcing/negotiation strategies and outcome, sourcing recommendation and benefits.
• Actively participating in improvement of procurement processes and governance
• Conduct regular market analysis and benchmarking exercises, identifying market trends and monitoring related developments

Job Dimension – (E.g. Revenue & Budget size, Sales Volume etc.)

• Responsible for approx. AED 50-100Mn annual spend

• Target Budget Savings as defined by department head and/or function on an annual basis.

Other Context (if applicable):

• Interactions with internal business clients regularly on execution of sourcing initiatives
• Communication of progress and outcomes of category strategies and sourcing initiatives to the Category Manager
• Ongoing engagement with key internal and external customers
• Externally represent the MAF Procurement Team function, liaising between business clients and suppliers.

Functional/Technical Competencies:

• Facility Management or direct related procurement knowledge required
• Good technical knowledge of FM related scope.
• Demonstrate procurement planning and strategy development within the region.
• Good experience with savings tracking and measurement.
• Strong understanding of Category Management, governance design and category performance management.
• Experience with compliance management.
• Supply market research and supplier analysis
• Supplier Costing Models & Total Cost of Ownership analysis and supplier analysis
• Supplier evaluation, registration and on-boarding
• Experience with eSourcing tools - eRFx eAuctions

Personal Characteristics and Required Background:

• Understanding and practiced best-in-class procurement processes, systems and practices
• Customer focused & takes time to understand the needs of the business partnering, influencing and negotiation skills
• Understanding of SAP Ariba, Microsoft AX, Oracle, eRFx

• Strong conceptual, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills.
• Relationship building skills with a customer service.
• Planning and organization skills to effectively establish the priority and scheduling of work tasks.
• Well-developed negotiating and management skills to foster continual improvement and cultural change enable effective implementation of plans across the organization.
• Integrity, judgement and professionalism.

Minimum experience

• At least 3 years’ experience in contracting or category management

Minimum Qualifications/education

Preferable Bachelor’s degree.

Preferable professional Procurement qualification (e.g. MCIPS).