Job Summary
- The Head of Procurementis deliberate positioncentral, group-wide function,tightly integrated with — Quantity Surveying / Cost Management.
- The Head of Procurement owns how that cost is committed in the market: how the company buys, from whom, on what terms, at what price, and against what controls.
- The mandate is to establish a procurement structure that defines budgeted spend per construction stage (e.g. foundation, substructure, superstructure, roofing, finishes, FF&E), tracks actual commitments against it in real time, and cascades the same model consistently across every site in the portfolio.
Procurement Strategy, Structure & Governance:
- Design and implement the procurement operating model: establish the policies, procedures, approval thresholds, segregation of duties and delegation-of-authority framework that govern all purchasing across the group, to an audit-ready standard.
- Build category strategies for the major spend areas (construction materials, mechanical/electrical/plumbing, roofing, FF&E, design and engineering consultancy, civil works, logistics and operational supplies), each aligned to business needs, quality requirements and competitive cost.
- Define stage-gated spend budgets for each project (foundation, substructure, superstructure, roofing, finishes, FF&E, externals) so that expected spend per stage is known up front and deviations are visible immediately.
- Cascade a single, repeatable structure across all current and pipeline sites, so procurement is run the same disciplined way everywhere rather than reinvented project by project.
- Constructively challenge the status quo and drive continuous improvement, value engineering and standardizationof specifications across the portfolio.
Sourcing, Tendering & Supplier Selection:
- Lead competitive tendering for materials, works and services — preparing RFQs/RFPs and invitations to tender, structuring scope splits (e.g. architectural, structural, MEP, BOQ), evaluating bids on a total-value basis and recommending award through a transparent, documented process.
- Run market and price bench-markingby location and category (e.g. cement, sand, laterite, reinforcement, roofing) to ensure the company pays competitive, defensible prices and exploits volume leverage across sites.
- Qualify, onboard and rationalizethe supplier base, maintaining an approved-vendor register with due-diligence, capacity, financial-standing and compliance checks.
- Negotiate price, terms and conditions to secure best total cost of ownership while protecting quality, delivery and warranty positions.
- Avoid vendor lock-in by securing portable, properly licensed deliverables (e.g. design files in editable formats) and maintaining alternative qualified sources for critical items.
Contract & Vendor Management:
- Put every supplier and consultant on a proper contract — replacing letters of intent and informal arrangements with governed agreements that meet audit and governance requirements, with clear scope, deliverables, pricing basis and remedies.
- Move payments to milestone / deliverable-based structures (rather than open-ended valuation-based billing), tying disbursements to verified progress and protecting the company’s cash position.
- Manage supplier performance against SLAs and KPIs covering price, quality, on-time-in-full delivery and service; conduct regular reviews, issue corrective actions, and exit non-performing suppliers in a controlled way.
- Develop strategic, long-term partnerships with high-performing suppliers and contractors to lock in capacity, quality and preferential pricing across the portfolio.
- Own claims and dispute prevention by ensuring obligations, variations and acceptance criteria are documented and enforced.
Cost Control & Integration with Quantity Surveying:
- Partner with QS / Cost Management to ensure no project starts on site without a signed-off project cost, and that any post-sign-off change follows the formal change-control and escalation process.
- Track committed and actual spend live against the stage budget for every project, flagging early-warning variances (e.g. spend running ahead of the construction stage reached) before completion.
- Build and maintain the procurement cost dashboard and cash-flow document that give the office real-time visibility of where project cost is going across all sites.
- Drive measurable savings through competitive sourcing, volume aggregation, specification standardisation and value engineering, and report savings delivered.
- Support funding and viability decisions by supplying reliable input-cost data and build-cost benchmarks that inform go / no-go calls on sites and the pipeline.
Supply Chain, Logistics & Materials Management:
- Plan and coordinate material flow to each site so the right materials arrive in the right quantity, quality and sequence — preventing both stock-outs that stall work and over-ordering that ties up cash.
- Establish stores, inventory and goods-receipt controls at site level, including reconciliation of deliveries against orders and protection against defective or short-delivered materials.
- Manage logistics and lead times across geographically dispersed sites, optimizingfreight, consolidation and delivery scheduling.
- Mitigate supply risk through dual-sourcing, buffer planning and proactive management of long-lead items.
Systems, Data, Reporting & Compliance:
- Implement procurement systems and tools (e-procurement / ERP modules, trackers and dashboards) that digitise requisition-to-pay and create a single source of truth for spend data.
- Maintain complete, auditable records of every sourcing decision, contract, order and payment, ready for internal and funder audits.
- Report regularly to leadership on spend, savings, budget adherence, supplier performance, risks and pipeline procurement readiness.
- Ensure compliance with company policy, funder requirements, statutory regulations, anti-corruption standards and ethical-sourcing principles.
Leadership, Team & Stakeholder Management:
- Build, lead and develop the procurement team across head office and sites, setting standards, KPIs and a culture of integrity, method and continuous improvement.
- Act as the trusted procurement advisor to the Managing Director, projects, operations and finance leadership, presenting clear, data-backed business cases.
- Manage relationships with funding partners on procurement matters, ensuring sourcing practices meet their due-diligence and governance expectations.
- Champion change in embedding the new procurement discipline across a business previously run on informal purchasing.
Experience
- 10–12 years’ progressive procurement and supply-chain experience, with at least 5 years in a senior / head-of-function role leading procurement at portfolio or multi-site scale.
- Demonstrable experience in construction, real estate, infrastructure or property development procurement — buying construction materials, civil/MEP works, FF&E and professional/design consultancy.
- Proven track record of building a procurement function from the ground up: establishing policies, processes, controls, vendor governance and reporting where little or none existed.
- Strong record of delivering measurable cost savings and value through category strategy, competitive tendering, negotiation and supplier management.
- Experience managing capital-project procurement against stage budgets, integrated with quantity surveying / cost-control functions.
- Experience operating across multiple, geographically dispersed sites and managing logistics and material flow accordingly.
- Experience working within governed / institutionally funded environments and meeting audit and due-diligence requirements is highly desirable.
Technical Skills & Knowledge:
- End-to-end sourcing lifecycle: category management, RFQ/RFP/tender management, bid evaluation, negotiation and award.
- Contract management and procurement governance, including milestone-based payment structures, SLAs and delegation-of-authority frameworks.
- Cost control and budgeting for construction projects; ability to read and work from BOQs, drawings and cost plans.
- Supplier relationship and performance management (scorecards, SLAs, corrective action, rationalization).
- Procurement systems / ERP and strong data and spreadsheet skills; ability to build and run spend dashboards and cash-flow tracking.
- Sound knowledge of relevant commercial, contractual and regulatory requirements, and ethical / anti-corruption sourcing standards.
Competencies & Behaviours:
- Systems-and-process orientation — follows method and structure over personal relationships; builds repeatable, governed ways of working.
- High integrity and independence — makes objective, defensible decisions and is comfortable resisting undue influence on supplier selection.
- Strong analytical and commercial judgement — thinks logically and presents compelling, data-backed business cases.
- Visible leadership — builds and develops teams and drives change across the organization.
- Diplomatic, persuasive negotiator with excellent written and verbal communication.
- Detail-focused and control-minded, while keeping sight of project timelines and commercial outcomes.
- Results-driven, accountable and able to operate effectively under pressure across many concurrent projects.
Desirable / Advantageous:
- Direct experience in student housing, hospitality, residential or social-infrastructure development.
- Familiarity with institutional funders’ procurement and governance expectations.
- Lean / Six Sigma or other continuous-improvement credentials.
- Willingness and ability to travel regularly to project sites nationwide.