Procurement Lead
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Full timeHybrid
Job description
ABOUT EKTIS
Ektis is a boutique financial services consulting firm operating at the heart of the GCC's financial ecosystem. We partner with banks, fintechs, development finance institutions, and public-sector clients to solve their most critical challenges - spanning strategy, commercial growth, risk, payments, and transformation.
Role Overview
The Procurement Lead owns how the firm buys. This is an internally facing role based in Saudi Arabia, reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, and covering procurement across the KSA and UAE entities.
The firm spends a growing share of its money with third parties. Technology licences and cloud, subcontractors and associates, professional services, marketing, travel, office and facilities. Today that spend is managed capably but informally, and it is reaching the size where informality starts to cost real money and create real risk. This role exists to put proper structure around it without slowing the business down.
The centre of gravity is hands-on delivery rather than policy writing. The successful candidate will be running live sourcing exercises, negotiating contracts, building the supplier base and setting up the process at the same time. There is no team to inherit and no established procurement function to maintain. There is a business that needs one built, and a CFO who wants it built properly.
The successful candidate will be measured on delivered savings and avoided cost, the commercial quality and risk position of the contracts the firm signs, the speed at which the business can buy what it genuinely needs, and the strength of the supplier base and procurement discipline they leave in place.
Key Responsibilities
1. Sourcing and category management
- Own end-to-end sourcing across all third-party spend, from requirement definition through market approach, evaluation, negotiation and award
- Build a clear view of the firm's spend by category, supplier and entity, and use it to prioritise where procurement effort creates the most value
- Develop category strategies for the material areas of spend, in particular technology and cloud, subcontractors and associates, professional services and facilities
- Run competitive processes proportionate to the value and risk involved, and resist unnecessary process on low value purchases
2. Contracting and commercial negotiation
- Lead commercial negotiation on price, terms, service levels and exit, and hold the line on the terms that matter
- Own the firm's supplier contract templates and standard terms, working with legal counsel on drafting and with the CFO on commercial position
- Maintain a complete contract register with renewal dates, notice periods, commitment levels and owners, so no renewal happens by default
- Support client-side commercial work where subcontractor and associate arrangements underpin a client engagement, in particular flow-down of client terms
3. Supplier management and performance
- Build and manage the supplier base, including onboarding, due diligence, segmentation and performance review
- Run structured reviews with strategic suppliers and hold them to what they committed to
- Manage supplier risk, including financial standing, information security posture, data protection obligations, insurance and continuity
- Resolve supplier disputes and performance failures early and commercially
4. Process, governance and controls
- Design and run a procure-to-pay process that is simple enough for a firm of this size to actually follow
- Own procurement policy, approval thresholds, delegation of authority and segregation of duties, aligned to the wider financial control framework
- Ensure procurement supports rather than obstructs delivery, with clear routes for urgent and low value purchases
- Maintain audit-ready records of sourcing decisions, approvals and contracts across both entities
5. Compliance and regional requirements
- Ensure procurement practice meets Saudi and UAE regulatory and tax requirements, including VAT treatment, withholding tax on cross-border payments, Zakat considerations and supplier registration and documentation
- Ensure compliance with Saudi in-country content and local supplier requirements where they apply to the firm or to client contracts
- Apply appropriate anti-bribery, conflict of interest and sanctions screening in supplier selection and onboarding
- Work with the technology function on data protection and information security obligations flowed down to suppliers
6. Cost, budget and reporting
- Give the CFO clear line of sight on third-party spend, committed cost and forward commitment
- Track and evidence savings, cost avoidance and margin protection in a way the finance team recognises
- Support budgeting and forecasting with credible input on supplier cost and contract commitments
- Challenge demand as well as price, and be willing to question whether something needs buying at all
Required Experience and Background
- 8 to 12 years in procurement, sourcing or commercial roles, including ownership of significant categories end to end
- Proven record of running competitive sourcing and negotiating contracts personally rather than overseeing others doing it
- Strong experience of indirect spend, particularly technology, professional services and subcontracted labour
- Working experience in Saudi Arabia, with practical understanding of regional supplier markets, tax treatment and documentation requirements
- Experience in professional services, consulting or another people-led, project-based business is preferred, including familiarity with subcontractor and associate models
- Comfortable building a function from a standing start in an evolving business rather than running an established one
- Exposure to UAE entities or GCC multi-entity operations is an advantage
Qualifications
- Degree in business, supply chain, finance, engineering or a related discipline
- Professional procurement qualification such as CIPS is welcome but not essential
- Working knowledge of procurement and contract management systems
Language Requirements
- English fluency required
- Arabic reading, writing and speaking skills strongly preferred
Personal Attributes
- Commercially sharp and genuinely comfortable in a negotiation, without treating every supplier as an adversary
- Pragmatic about process, understanding that the right level of control for this firm is not the level of control at a large corporate
- Confident holding the line with senior stakeholders who want something bought quickly
- Organised and detail accurate, because contracts and renewal dates punish the disorganised
- Straight with suppliers and colleagues alike, and trusted to raise a problem before it becomes expensive