Procurement Operations Lead

Job Title: Procurement Operations Lead

Location: Midrand South Africa (Officebased; no hybrid model)

Reporting To: Chief Financial Officer

Role Purpose

• This is a procurement transformation leadership role not a demand planning or transactional procurement officer role.
• The Procurement Operations Lead is responsible for designing building and embedding a fully centralized procurement function. The role requires a handson yet senior commercially strong procurement leader who has previously implemented structure driven transformation and operated effectively in regulated environments.
• This leader will move the organization from a decentralized fragmented procurement model into a unified mature and highperforming function aligned with global governance systems and standards.

Key Responsibilities

1. Procurement Transformation & Operating Model Design

• Design and embed a centralized procurement operating model.
• Lead the transformation from a decentralized structure to a unified professional procurement function.
• Build procurement governance frameworks policies controls and reporting standards.
• Own and lead the Ariba implementation integration and adoption across the business.
• Implement SAP/Aribabased processes data structures and compliance controls.

2. Strategic Sourcing & Commercial Value Delivery

• Lead strategic sourcing/recruitment initiatives across categories and business units.
• Deliver measurable cost savings and value through sourcing strategy supplier consolidation and contract optimization.
• Perform commercial negotiations at senior levels with local and international suppliers.
• Drive supplier performance quality and reliability improvements.

3. Governance Compliance & External Representation

• Build and enforce robust procurement governance audit readiness and S2P compliance.
• Represent the Procurement function to auditors regulatory bodies external partners and global stakeholders.
• Participate in budgeting forecasting and business case development with Finance and Supply Chain leadership.
• Serve as the South African representative in global procurement routines including MPRs.

4. People Leadership & Procurement Team BuildOut

• Build restructure or redesign the procurement team to support the new operating model.
• Recruit coach and develop highperforming procurement professionals.
• Create future leadership capabilities and ensure a pipeline of talent.
• Drive engagement performance management and a culture of continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Bachelors or postgraduate degree in Business Supply Chain Commerce or a related field.
• Professional certifications (CIPS CPSM PMP Lean Six Sigma) advantageous.

Experience

• 5 years in procurement or supply chain leadership (multinational experience preferred).
• Must be hands-on operationally engaged and willing to work at both strategic and execution levels.
• Ideally from a Pharmaceutical or Medical background.
• Proven experience Leading Sourcing/Recruitment Strategy and delivering cost savings.
• A capable people leader who can still operate handson.
• Experience implementing SAP and/or Ariba at a local or regional level as well as process transformation.
• Experience building restructuring or transforming a procurement team or function.
• Strong governance background with experience establishing processes policies compliance structures and audit fundamentals.
• Ability to lead change influence across functions and drive transformation.
• Commercially strong with excellent negotiation and valuedelivery capability.
• Experienced in building structure where none exists.

In essence: This is a Procurement Transformation Manager role.

Nice to Have

• Experience working with African markets in a multinational environment.
• Prior experience consolidating a supplier base or implementing category management.

Core Competencies

• Business Competency
• Customer orientation
• Attention to detail and deadline focus
• Results orientation
• Problemsolving ability
• Continuous improvement
• Assertiveness
• Strategic Competency
• Leadership Competency
• Professional Competency
• Social & Intercultural Competency