British Council Hiring for Procurement Manager – Travel at Abu Dhabi Full Time

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Location: Abu Dhabi, Middle East and North Africa, AE

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

Role Purpose

Lead on the development of strategic procurement for Travel category for the British Council for MENA to maximise efficiency and ensure compliance and control risk.

To lead and promote cross country procurement activities in Travel and ensure consideration of collaboration of opportunities is undertaken on regional large-scale procurement work.

Main Accountabilities

• Contract manage the Travel service provider contract ensure its delivering value year on year. 
• Assist with the role out of the travel solution for MENA across all 17 countries.
• Understand the individual needs of each country and current practices and align new solution to serve each country effectively.
• Understand the travel requirement in each of the 17 countries and creatively find solutions that support the country challenges whilst delivering regional proprieties aligned to global direction.
• Using central spend analysis data and local knowledge, manage and forecast spend to deliver tangible financial savings and efficiencies through value-add procurement activities. In partnership with operational teams create strategic sourcing plans relevant to travel category. Advise Regional Head of Procurement and Operational business leads on efficiency savings in travel best practice principles.
• Understand the needs of each business unit/ project and ensure procurement activities address this, partnering where possible with other regions and assist in peer review of other clusters.
• Develop, monitor and review procurement key performance indicators and service performance indicators, ensuring that corporate procurement policy is implemented in the respective category.
• Develop business knowledge including understanding the British Council’s strategic direction and ensuring this is reflected as appropriate in the Category Strategies so that supplier services are aligned to and support delivery
• To be an expert source of knowledge and provide advice to colleagues in the Travel arena.
• Support the implementation and use of e- procurement technology(concur) to increase operational efficiency, delivering the implementation of agreed payment method.

Contract

• Work with contract templates and guidance notes to amend contract to reflect the goods or services sought
• Understand legal standing on procurement contractual terms and their impact on countries, projects and operational impact.
• Understanding of working with different jurisdiction in MENA for multi country contracts and work with UK legal team and local in country lawyers where required
• Develop a qualitative and quantitative measurement and feedback system for suppliers and ensure regular reporting to support the supplier management process.
• Perform quarterly supplier surveys and communicate findings including undertaking periodic reviews of SLAs to ensure that service levels are updated in line with evolving business requirements.
• Be accountability for SLA performance vis-à-vis country services
• Support/lead contract negotiation for major regional contracts and ensure fair and logical evaluation of bids to ensure best value for money
• Lead contractual and commercial change negotiations through to implementation of contract change.
• Responsible for managing and forecasting spend with suppliers on behalf of the business, and conduct half yearly value for money reviews and implement improvements
• Undertake training (ends users) 
• Develop a guide on how to book travel according to travel policy

Line Management

• There is no direct line management for this role at present, however as the function evolves there may be the need to provide line management. There is the occasional support to other management team to provide line management in the event of covering leave.
• Demonstratable Experience of managing a category for a minimum of 24 month
• Previous experience of contract Management and Supplier Relationship Management
• Building relationships with internal stakeholders and identifying innovative ways of working with suppliers
• Analytical, evaluative, with keen attention to detail and the ability to meet deadlines
• Category management to be travel

Further Information

• Role title: Procurement Manager – Travel Req ID: 37382
• Number of positions: 1
• Pay Band: 7/F
• Contract type: 12 months fixed term local contract (maternity cover)/ As per local regulations
• Location: Flexible within MENA
• Closing date and time: 2 May 2023 (23.59 Gulf Standard Time)

Please note that there is no relocation support provided for this role. All  applications should be submitted only in English.  It is advisable to apply in advance to avoid any technical issues at the last moment.

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement

The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.

We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.

Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our ‘ASK HR’ email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.