Role Summary

This role owns end-to-end commercial procurement across two distinct markets: Corporate and Professional Services sourcing for India, and the full procurement mandate (store fit-out, operations, corporate, and professional services) for the Middle East (UAE and KSA). It is a largely autonomous role requiring the postholder to run the full procurement lifecycle - sourcing, negotiation, contracting, vendor management, and governance - with minimal hand-holding, across a fast-moving omnichannel retail environment.

Key Responsibilities:

Sourcing & Vendor Selection:

- Run RFQs, reverse auctions, and competitive bids across categories including store fit-out & BOQ, MEP/HVAC AMCs, signage, visual merchandising & print, IT/AV/CCTV/security systems, corporate services, professional services (legal, executive search, compliance, e-signature platforms), logistics,

and recruitment/HR platforms

- Identify, evaluate, and onboard vendors across India, UAE, and KSA, accounting for local market dynamics and regulatory context

Negotiation & Commercial Structuring:

- Lead commercial negotiations on pricing, contract terms, and SLAs

- Build and apply should-cost / zero-based costing models to validate vendor quotes, challenge pricing, and reverse-engineer supplier margins

- Benchmark rate cards and normalize pricing across vendors and geographies

Vendor & Category Management:

- Drive vendor consolidation initiatives across multi-category, multi-geography spend (e.g., audit services, compliance services)

- Manage ongoing vendor performance, relationship health, and contract renewals

- Maintain category strategies for both India (Corporate/Professional Services) and Middle East (all categories)

P2P Governance & Process:

- Define and maintain procurement policy, including PO thresholds and approval workflows

- Develop and own regional Procurement SOPs (e.g., Middle East Procurement SOP)

- Ensure procurement process compliance across store operations and corporate functions Contracts & Legal Coordination

- Review and negotiate contract clauses (commercial, indemnity, escalation/surcharge clauses, etc.)

- Coordinate with legal vendors and internal legal teams on M& A-related and other high-stakes contracts Stakeholder Management

- Act as the primary procurement point of contact for Legal, Finance, Retail Operations, HR, IT, and Store Design/Projects teams across India, UAE, and KSA

- Translate business requirements into sourcing strategy and vendor solutions independently Reporting & Analytics.

- Track and report cost savings, vendor scorecards, and category spend analysis

- Present should-cost/negotiation analysis to leadership to support decision-making.

Required Skills & Competencies :

- Strategic sourcing & category management across both indirect corporate spend and retail-specific categories (store fit-out, signage, VM, facilities)

- Negotiation skills - commercial and contractual, with a track record of measurable savings.

- Should-cost / zero-based costing - ability to build cost models from first principles to validate or challenge vendor pricing

- Financial and commercial acumen - comfortable reading BOQs, quotes, margin structures, and cost breakdowns

- Vendor management - end-to-end relationship ownership, from onboarding to performance management to consolidation

- Multi-geography procurement experience - ideally India + Middle East (GCC), with awareness of regional vendor landscapes and regulatory differences.

- Process/governance design - ability to define P2P policy and SOPs from scratch

- Contract literacy - comfortable negotiating and reviewing legal/commercial contract terms.

- Autonomy & stakeholder management - this is a solo function; the person must be self-directed and able to manage multiple senior stakeholders without a large team behind them

- Analytical tool proficiency - strong Excel/analysis skills; familiarity with automation or AI-assisted procurement tools is a plus given ongoing digitization of the function.

Qualifications & Experience

- 8-10+ years in procurement/supply chain, with meaningful exposure to indirect procurement, vendor consolidation, and zero-based costing

- Experience in retail, omnichannel, or fit-out-heavy environments preferred

- Prior exposure to Middle East (UAE/KSA) procurement or vendor landscape strongly preferred given regional scope

- Bachelor's degree required; MBA or equivalent preferred