Manager, Procurement & Contracts

About This Role

About the Company

Founded in 2005, Acwa Operations, formerly NOMAC (First National Operations & Maintenance Company), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Acwa. We operate and care for power and water assets that millions of people rely on every day, delivering safe, reliable operations and maintenance services across electricity generation and water desalination.

About the Role

To execute the contract/procurement process for the assigned materials/services for all AFS plants and business to ensure that contract/procurement requirements are met in line with AFS’s policies and procedures, whilst ensuring customer requirements are met in the most timely and cost-efficient manner. Despite the Manager designation, the responsibilities are centered more on managing the end-to-end process rather than leading a team.

Responsibilities

• Prepare the RFQ/RFP in coordination with internal stakeholders to ensure complete coverage of the requirement both technically as well as commercially.
• Conduct the pre-selection of the bidders in coordination with line Management to ensure the best partners are selected for further assessment.
• Analyze proposals from the suppliers including total costs, direct labor hours, overhead rates, proposed bills of material and equipment, and estimated profits for the purpose of determining price reasonableness, in order to assist the negotiation process.
• Assist in the pricing and contract negotiations with vendors to ensure minimum risk, whilst ensuring NOMAC receives superior commercial and contractual terms.
• Prepare contract documents, using company-approved template agreement including Non-Disclosure Agreements, Master Agreements, Statements of Work, Service Level Agreements, and Amendments, to ensure compliance with NOMAC’s contracting guidelines.
• Execute the contract approval process by obtaining required approvals prior to execution, according to company policy.
• To ensure that Contract is firmed up with the suppliers based on standard AFS Contract template.
• In case of any deviations to the terms, coordinate with legality to have the deviations agreed and formalized.
• To create Outline agreement in SAP for all the concluded contracts and ensure Purchase orders are raised in SAP duly linking the outline agreement.
• Maintain contractual records and documentation such as receipt and control of all contract correspondence, supplier contact information sheets, contractual changes, status reports and other documents to ensure the documents are up to date to minimize the possibility for agreement variations and disputes.
• Collect the required information from the internal stakeholders and finalize the specifications and requirements for the preparation of RFQ’s to be provided to the potential list of suppliers.
• Coordinate the procurement or Contract cycle for assigned materials and services under the supervision of the Head of Supply Chain - AFS to ensure the procurement needs are met in a timely and cost optimized manner.
• Administer terms of purchase in conjunction with relevant stakeholders and legal to ensure all the procured materials and/or services are delivered as per the purchase order (PO) / Contract to take any corrective measures in case of noted deviations and ensure that AFS’s interest are always protected.
• Carry out analysis of quotations, comparison statements (with emphasis on price, quality, delivery period, terms of payment, etc.), market knowledge and previous contractor evaluations and provide input to the Procurement Manager for decision on the suitable suppliers.
• Conduct negotiations of quotations with the vendors to ensure that AFS gets the best value for the money they are paying to the vendors.
• Coordinate internal meetings with relevant stakeholders for assigned purchase orders to enable the approval or modifications of requests for the preparation of purchase orders.
• Enter the information into the system for the generation of a purchase order, and obtain proper approvals, so that the PO can be generated in a timely manner.
• Ensure timely order acceptance from the vendors.
• Ensure timely expediting with the vendors to enable timely delivery of materials and services.
• Implement and coordinate relevant invoice processing activities in liaison with finance, to ensure vendors receive their payments as per the contract terms.
• Take responsibility for PO amendments, including end user inputs.
• Support the Vendor Development Officer to analyze vendor performance based on the inputs of internal customers and achievement of the contract obligations to identify the most suitable vendors for any potential work involvement with the Group in the future.
• Provide the support for periodic vendor performance evaluation.
• Support the process of identifying new suppliers in order to expand the company’s preferred supplier database by conducting market research and updating supplier background and credentials, to ensure the Group’s supplier database is timely and comprehensively updated with the background information.
• Keep abreast of market information about suppliers, dealers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s) etc. to develop good network of suppliers that can be contacted for critical requirements.
• Follow up with the suppliers for the timely delivery of the materials and provide feedback to the buyers in case of any expected delays to enable prompt corrective actions.
• Based on the information provided by the Purchasing function, prepare schedules and coordinate with suppliers/logistics service providers to arrange for delivery of supplies or parts by making appropriate arrangements to ensure timely and accurate delivery of materials as per the planned schedules.
• Implement contingency plans, in case of delays, to ensure the operation / maintenance schedules are not disrupted due to material unavailability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree holder in Engineering, Materials Management, Logistics and distribution or equivalent.

Required Skills

• Good ability to find vendors in the UAE and KSA market related to materials/services in the Power Industry.
• Ability to look at improvements as well as manage the daily operations at the same time.
• Ability to work efficiently under pressure.
• Should have the quality of taking complete responsibility of the task and willing to go beyond his present role to ensure timely deliverance of this responsibility
• Working knowledge of the SAP system
• Knowledge of law/regulations and contracts including terms and conditions.
• Ability to understand the material or service with a sourcing perspective.
• Planning and organizing Skills
• Ability to develop relationships with new vendors
• Attention to detail
• Process orientation
• Team Player with ability to work with multicultural teams.
• Good negotiation skills.
• Awareness of Quality, Occupational health and safety and environment management systems.
• Understanding of procurement related risks and its possible mitigations.