Director of Procurement & Vendor Management

We're excited to be partnering with a leading institution in the UAE that is building a digital-first, AI-enabled financial services organisation from the ground up. This is a unique opportunity to join at an early stage and help shape the people, operational, and service foundations of a business with significant institutional backing and long-term ambition. If you're passionate about HR operations, payroll excellence, and creating exceptional employee experiences, we'd love to hear from you.

Leads end-to-end procurement, category management, and vendor lifecycle management function. Establishes an AI-enabled, controlled capability that sources launch-critical services and governs third-party and outsourcing risk from Day 1.

• Design and implement the procurement and vendor-management target operating model, policies, delegations, source-to-pay processes, and supporting technology.
• Lead category-management resources and set category strategies, sourcing pipelines, and savings and value targets across the spend portfolio.
• Direct major sourcing events, including RFP design, evaluation, negotiation, and contracting for launch-critical services.
• Establish a vendor-lifecycle framework covering due diligence, risk-tiering, onboarding, contract management, performance reviews, issue escalation, and exit planning.
• Own outsourcing governance, including materiality assessments, the outsourcing register, regulatory notifications, and critical-third-party oversight.
• Embed third-party risk management with Risk, Compliance, Information Security, and Finance across financial, operational, concentration, data-protection, and continuity risks.
• Define and report procurement KPIs, including savings, cycle times, contract coverage, vendor performance, and risk metrics.
• Act as senior escalation point for strategic vendor performance failures, commercial disputes, and contract renegotiations.
• Champion approved AI, analytics, and automation in source-to-pay activities, including spend analytics, contract intelligence, and vendor monitoring.

• 12+ years in procurement, sourcing, or vendor management within banking or financial services, including senior leadership of a procurement and vendor management team.
• Deep expertise in category management, strategic sourcing, complex contract negotiation, vendor lifecycle management, and third-party risk.
• Proven record building procurement policies, source-to-pay processes, vendor-governance frameworks, and outsourcing controls in a regulated environment.
• Strong knowledge of relevant CBUAE outsourcing expectations and applicable third-party risk and information-security standards.
• Exposure to AI-enabled procurement tooling, spend analytics, contract intelligence, and advanced supplier analytics.

• Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, engineering, or a related field; relevant postgraduate qualification preferred.
• Professional procurement certification (for example, CIPS or CPSM) preferred.
• CBUAE Fit & Proper requirements and any applicable controlled-function eligibility criteria, where required.