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. Role Purpose: Leads the bank’s 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. Key responsibilities: - 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. Required Skills & Experience: - 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. Qualifications & Certifications (Preferred) - 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. Ready to join us? Apply today and take the next step in your career.

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• Procurement Director

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