Category Associate Manager

Majid Al Futtaim invites you to join us in our quest to create great moments for everyone, everyday We are the leading shopping mall, residential communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, serving over 560 million visitors a year. For the past two decades, we have shaped the consumer landscape across the region, transforming the way people shop, live and play, while maintaining a strong sustainability track record and the largest mall in the world to attain LEED Gold EBOM Certification. We have over 40,000 team members in 15 international markets representing over 100 nationalities - all keeping the customer at the heart of everything we do. If you enjoy being BOLD, PASSIONATE and TOGETHER, then Majid Al Futtaim is the destination for you.

**Role Details - Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities**:

- Responsible for the implementation of sourcing strategies on a project level in compliance with the legal, internal policies, good practices and business goals
- Responsible for managing sourcing activities for new project development and achieving agreed milestones and key development timelines
- Providing on-going oversight of cost reduction based on technical and commercial intelligence improving the cost
- Meeting or exceeding annual sourcing goals and savings targets for the MAF spend
- Managing price negotiation and finalization for commercial supply agreements / contracts and letters of intent in close alignment with procurement services
- Mapping, analysing and interpreting data on current spend patterns, identifying cost drivers and opportunities
- Analyse supplier offers and quantify total costs of ownership (TCO)
- Developing and managing supplier relationships including supplier performance
- Actively participating in improvement of procurement processes and governance
- Regular reporting of sourcing/negotiation strategies and outcome, sourcing recommendation and benefits.

**Job Dimension - (E.g. Revenue & Budget size, Sales Volume etc.)
- Responsible for approx. AED 100Mn annual spend
- Target Budget Savings as defined by department head and/or function on an annual basis.

**Other Context (if applicable)**:

- Internal interactions with the Group Category Lead to support implementation strategy and pipeline
- Interactions with internal business clients regularly on execution of sourcing initiatives
- Communication of progress and outcomes of category strategies and sourcing initiatives to the Group Category Lead
- Ongoing engagement with key internal and external customers
- Externally represent the MAF Procurement Team function, liaising between business clients and suppliers.
- Performs any additional adhoc duties as and when requested by the Line Manager and/or Head of Department.

**Functional/Technical Competencies**:

- Fit out, construction or direct related procurement knowledge required
- Good technical knowledge of construction and fit out related materials
- Demonstrate procurement planning and strategy development within the region.
- Good experience with savings tracking and measurement.
- Good 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**:

- Preferred experience in a direct Procurement organization dealing with multiple contract types covering Fit Out, Construction, Real Estate and Engineering.
- Understanding of 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 5 years’ experience in contracting or category management, with 2 years’ experience in a relevant managerial role, in Fit Out and/or Construction and very good understanding of engineering

**Minimum Qualifications/education**

Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, finance, or in a related field, based on the categories managed and a professional Procurement qualification (e.g. MCIPS).