The company is selling solutions and products in Africa mainly in the areas of housing, water, energy, agriculture, technology, education and health and is procuring materials and engaging with thousands of subcontractors and suppliers in the volume of hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
The VP of strategic Purchasing will have to establish and adapt new corporate procurement strategy and procurement policies, procedures, processes, management and evaluation of suppliers, the control systems and lead the tenders committee as well as the procurement information systems.
Overseeing the business operations of the procurement department primarily involves successfully, efficiently and economically acquiring materials and engagements with suppliers which are essential to the company’s operation. The procured supplies may be for making products the company sells, or they might be supplies necessary to the operation of machines or other such business operations. The VP must also ensure the supplies are high quality as well as cost-effective for the organization’s procurement budget.
VP Strategic Purchasing general responsibilities include:
- Actively develop, maintain and lead a world-class procurement operation
- Effectively engage with leaders across organization to align priorities, drive business results and understand how procurement can most effectively deliver value across the full supply chain
- Define and implement strategies, policies, processes and tools to optimize cost savings and procurement efficiencies.
- Establish contract quality and performance metrics, and use data to actively track and hold vendors accountable to defined standards
VP Purchasing Qualifications:
- 10+ years of direct procurement leadership experience in a global, fast paced, innovative company with similar scope of overall purchasing spend
- Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent, and relevant direct work experience required
- Demonstrated success in all aspects of the purchasing process
- Seasoned ability to build credibility/confidence and be seen as a trusted advisor and expert across a wide range of leaders, including internal stakeholders, customers and vendors
- Strong business and financial acumen, including advanced problem solving skills, critical thinking, analytical capability, judgement and customer focus
- Team player with strong interpersonal skills and ability to foster positive team engagement
- Unquestioned integrity with confidence and executive presence
- Solid, well-rounded communication skills (verbal, written, presentation and facilitative)
- Familiarity with Priority – an advantage
- Languages – Excellent English is a must, additional languages – especially Portuguese is an advantage