Associate Director - Commercial Procurement

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Location: Dubai United Arab Emirates

Reports To: EMEA Procurement Director

Direct Reports: 34

Role Summary:

The Associate Director Commercial Procurement is a commercially-focused regional leadership role supporting Abbotts Nutrition Generic Pharma Clinical Diagnostics and Cardiovascular Medical Devices businesses across EMEA.

Based in Dubai this role also acts as the Global Procurement Regional Lead for the Middle East & Africa engaging with country and regional leaders to ensure third-party strategy enables business growth. The role works closely with Sales Marketing and Commercial Operations to deliver value speed and quality through key external partnerships including marketing agencies commercial enablers such as nursing call centres and digital customer platforms distribution and supply-chain continuing and direct sales via distributors and outsource sales force functions.

What Youll Do-

Marketing & Commercial Enablement

- Partner with Marketing teams to optimize A&P spend across media digital and creative services.
- Lead sourcing and contracting of marketing agencies and service providers ensuring speed quality and value for money.
- Support Revenue Growth Management (RGM) by aligning third-party contracts with pricing strategy portfolio architecture pack/channel mix and promotional planning.
- Contribute to the measurement and reporting of marketing ROI including agency scorecards and campaign analytics.
- Apply lean principles to accelerate marketing workflows reduce rework and improve speed-to-market.

Commercial Operations Partnership

- Act as a strategic partner to Commercial Operations in sourcing and optimizing key sales-enabling services including:
Nursing and patient support programs
Call centre services
Prescription and order processing
Customer-facing digital tools and platforms
- Collaborate with Commercial Ops leadership to ensure that third-party providers support business continuity patient experience and service quality.
- Provide input into partner selection contracting and KPI frameworks for outsourced services.
- Identify opportunities to streamline service models reduce operating costs and improve responsiveness through external partner strategy.

Go-to-Market Support: Distributors & Trade

- Support business teams in structuring distributor agreements that align with commercial strategy and trade terms.
- Contribute to channel strategy and market access planning ensuring that third-party distributors are contractually and operationally aligned.
- Coordinate with dotted-line teams managing distributor relationships to ensure sourcing decisions support execution needs.
- Provide input on performance KPIs and contract terms to drive distributor accountability and value delivery.

Distribution & Supply Chain Support

- Lead third-party engagement for warehousing inventory management and logistics services supporting commercial execution across MEA.
- Ensure external providers are selected contracted and managed to meet service-level compliance and cost objectives.
- Partner with Supply Chain and Commercial teams to align service models to demand planning product availability and market readiness needs.
- Identify opportunities to simplify distribution networks reduce cost-to-serve and improve inventory visibility through strategic supplier partnerships.

Global Procurement Representation & Regional Leadership

- Serve as the Global Procurement lead for Middle East & Africa representing third-party strategy in regional governance forums market planning and leadership reviews.
- Ensure sourcing strategies are aligned with local needs while leveraging global scale and consistency.
- Act as a connector across business units to enable shared solutions and cross-divisional synergy.

Value Creation & Business Problem Solving

- Lead value and efficiency initiatives across A&P commercial services and SG&A third-party categories.
- Apply structured problem-solving to resolve friction points and design smarter external engagement models.
- Ensure contracts and supplier relationships support business performance agility and compliance.

Team Leadership

- Manage and develop a team of 34 professionals across the region.
- Build a high-performance team culture focused on commercial fluency business impact and strategic partnership.

Required Qualifications-

- Strong background in Commercial Marketing Strategy or Commercial Operations; experience in procurement is welcome but not required.
- Deep understanding of customer-facing and commercial service models (e.g. patient support call centers digital enablers).
- Familiarity with A&P spend categories and marketing agency/vendor ecosystems.
- Financial and strategic literacy in areas like pricing gross to net and trade execution.
- Experience working across Middle East & Africa markets in a regional or cross-functional role.
- Lean or structured problem-solving training (A3 RCA value stream mapping) preferred.
- Fluent English required; Arabic and/or French preferred.
- Based in Dubai with travel across EMEA and will engage with global procurement teams

Follow your career aspirations to Abbott for diverse opportunities with a company that provides the growth and strength to build your future. Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to employee diversity.

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