Category Manager (Fleet Support, Infrastructure & Technology) | 6-Month Contract with Possibility of Extension | Dubai

Introduction

Our client, a leading consulting company in the EPCM space is looking to appoint a Category Manager (Fleet Support, Infrastructure & Technology) to join their team on a 6-month contract based in Dubai, with the possibility of extension. The Category Manager (Fleet Support, Infrastructure & Technology) will own the commercial strategy and delivery of fleet-support consumables, infrastructure services, and technology and workforce-enabling contracts.

The role is responsible for converting a high volume of packages into executed contract cover against the readiness programme, with particular emphasis on defining scope where requirements are unclear, closing the boundary between site scope and third-party or EPCM scopes, and ensuring that safety-critical services are contracted with enforceable compliance obligations.

Duties & Responsibilities

Category strategy

• Develop and maintain category strategies across tyres and tyre management, ground engaging tools and wear parts, trays and ancillary equipment, rigging and lifting consumables, site services, and operational technology and simulation.

• Re-base and renegotiate global and regional framework agreements to reflect confirmed fleet composition and revised production profiles.

• Maintain a prioritised pipeline reflecting readiness stream dependencies and target dates.

Scope definition and boundary management

• Work with end users and technical stakeholders to define scopes of work where the requirement is not yet articulated.

• Confirm scope boundaries with EPCM and third-party contractors to prevent duplication or gaps in coverage.

• Drive every open assess-and-confirm item on the register to a documented decision — contract, no contract, or absorb into existing scope.

• Maintain the parked-package watchlist and reactivate procurement when the triggering condition is met.

Sourcing and tendering

• Run competitive tender processes end to end: request for quotation or proposal preparation and issue, clarification management, technical and commercial evaluation, negotiation, and recommendation to award.

• Manage multiple concurrent tenders without loss of process integrity or auditability.

• Negotiate framework agreements, call-off arrangements and rate schedules that reduce transactional load on the operation.

Safety-critical and compliance-sensitive contracting

• Contract for fire suppression, lifting and rigging, and waste management with explicit compliance, inspection, certification and record-keeping obligations built into the agreement.

• Verify that contractor competency, certification and statutory compliance requirements are contractually enforceable and are being monitored post-award.

• Ensure environmental and waste obligations are aligned to permit conditions and the site environmental management system.

Technology and software contracting

• Manage operational technology, software and licensing agreements including data ownership, intellectual property, cyber security, support levels and exit provisions.

• Co-ordinate with Information Technology and Technical Services on renewals, amendments and integration dependencies.

• Protect committed build or conversion programmes through appropriate contractual security and milestone structuring.

Governance and reporting

• Prepare recommendation-to-award papers and executive approval submissions in the approved house format and secure Delegation of Authority approval prior to commitment.

• Manage the post-award lifecycle including performance regimes, rate reviews, variations and renewals.

• Maintain the commercial dependencies register for all owned packages and report monthly into the readiness governance forum.

Desired Experience & Qualification

Essential

• Degree in Commerce, Supply Chain, Engineering or a related discipline.

• Minimum 6 years’ experience in procurement, category management or contract management, preferably in mining, construction or heavy industry.

• Demonstrated delivery of a high-volume tender pipeline across mixed goods and services categories.

• Experience contracting for safety-critical services and a working understanding of the associated statutory and certification obligations.

• Proven ability to define scopes of work in collaboration with technical stakeholders where the requirement is initially unclear.

• Demonstrated ability to prepare approval submissions under a formal Delegation of Authority framework.

Desirable

• CIPS, MCIPS or equivalent professional accreditation.

• Familiarity with mining consumables economics — tyres, ground engaging tools and wear parts.

• Experience contracting operational technology, software licensing or mining technology solutions.

• Experience in African operating environments, including import, customs and local content requirements.

• Experience with SAP, Ariba, Coupa or equivalent source-to-contract systems.

Interested?

Suitable candidates are encouraged to send their updated CV to lebo(at)kwena(dot)net for consideration.