Procurement Planning Assistant / Specialist

We're Hiring: Procurement Planning Assistant / Specialist

Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior

Work Arrangement: Fully Remote

About Us

We are a globally focused organization committed to improving procurement efficiency, supply availability, supplier performance, and cost management across diverse markets.

Our teams collaborate across Procurement, Supply Chain, Demand Planning, Inventory, Operations, Finance, Logistics, Warehousing, Technology, and external suppliers to ensure materials, products, equipment, and services are sourced and delivered according to business requirements.

The Role

We are seeking an analytical and organized Procurement Planning Assistant / Specialist to support procurement planning, purchasing requirements, supplier coordination, purchase-order management, material availability, lead-time monitoring, and procurement performance.

The ideal candidate will translate demand and inventory requirements into practical procurement plans, monitor purchase orders and supplier commitments, identify supply risks, coordinate replenishment activities, and support continuous improvement across procurement and supply-chain operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Support daily, weekly, and monthly procurement-planning activities.
• Review demand forecasts, inventory levels, open orders, consumption trends, and operational requirements to identify procurement needs.
• Develop and maintain procurement plans aligned with approved demand, inventory targets, budgets, and supply requirements.
• Monitor material and product requirements across warehouses, distribution centers, projects, production sites, stores, and other operational locations.
• Identify purchasing requirements based on reorder points, minimum and maximum stock levels, safety stock, lead times, and expected demand.
• Prepare or support purchase requisitions and purchase orders according to approved procurement procedures.
• Coordinate with Procurement teams to ensure purchase orders are released on time.
• Monitor open purchase orders from order placement through supplier confirmation and delivery.
• Track supplier order acknowledgements, committed quantities, promised delivery dates, and changes to supplier schedules.
• Follow up with suppliers regarding outstanding purchase orders and expected delivery dates.
• Identify delayed, partially fulfilled, or at-risk purchase orders.
• Escalate supplier delays and supply risks that may affect inventory availability or operational continuity.
• Maintain accurate procurement schedules, purchasing trackers, order reports, and planning databases.
• Coordinate with Demand Planning teams regarding changes in demand and potential procurement impacts.
• Coordinate with Inventory Planning teams regarding stock levels, replenishment requirements, shortages, excess inventory, and safety-stock needs.
• Work with Warehouse and Logistics teams to align inbound deliveries with receiving capacity and operational requirements.
• Coordinate with suppliers and logistics providers regarding shipment readiness, pickup schedules, and expected arrival dates.
• Monitor inbound shipments and incorporate updated delivery information into procurement plans.
• Support procurement planning for seasonal demand, promotions, new-product launches, projects, and business expansion.
• Develop procurement plans for new products or materials where historical purchasing data is limited.
• Support product phase-out and end-of-life purchasing decisions to minimize obsolete inventory.
• Review supplier lead times and identify changes that may require adjustments to procurement parameters.
• Monitor minimum order quantities, order multiples, packaging requirements, production constraints, and other supplier purchasing conditions.
• Analyze supplier capacity and availability constraints where relevant.
• Support sourcing and procurement teams with supplier capacity information and purchasing requirements.
• Monitor critical, strategic, long-lead-time, or high-value materials and products.
• Establish appropriate escalation processes for critical procurement risks.
• Support contingency planning for supplier disruptions, shortages, transportation delays, and unexpected demand changes.
• Analyze historical purchasing data, consumption patterns, supplier performance, and procurement trends.
• Identify opportunities to consolidate purchases and improve purchasing efficiency.
• Support order-frequency and purchasing-quantity analysis to balance inventory, supplier requirements, and procurement costs.
• Monitor procurement spend against budgets, approved plans, contracts, and purchasing targets.
• Support purchase-price analysis and identify significant price changes or purchasing variances.
• Coordinate with Finance regarding procurement budgets, commitments, accruals, and invoice-related issues where applicable.
• Review supplier invoices and purchasing records for discrepancies where required.
• Support three-way matching between purchase orders, receiving records, and invoices where applicable.
• Investigate quantity, price, delivery, or documentation discrepancies with relevant teams.
• Maintain accurate supplier, item, pricing, lead-time, and purchasing master data.
• Review and update procurement planning parameters in ERP or procurement systems.
• Identify incorrect, outdated, duplicate, or inconsistent procurement master data.
• Use ERP, procurement, inventory, supply-chain planning, and business-intelligence systems effectively.
• Develop procurement dashboards and reports covering open orders, supplier performance, spend, delivery status, and supply risks.
• Prepare daily, weekly, and monthly procurement-planning reports.
• Track procurement KPIs and provide analysis of significant changes or exceptions.
• Monitor supplier on-time delivery, order fulfillment, response times, lead-time adherence, and service-level performance.
• Support supplier performance reviews and corrective-action activities.
• Coordinate with Procurement and supplier-management teams regarding recurring performance issues.
• Participate in supplier meetings and planning reviews where appropriate.
• Support supplier onboarding and maintain accurate supplier documentation where required.
• Assist with procurement documentation, contracts, purchase records, approvals, and audit trails.
• Ensure procurement activities follow approved policies, authorization limits, ethical standards, and internal controls.
• Support procurement audits and provide required purchasing documentation.
• Identify opportunities to improve procurement workflows through automation, analytics, electronic purchasing, and system integration.
• Support process standardization and continuous-improvement initiatives.
• Participate in root-cause analysis for procurement delays, supply shortages, purchasing errors, and recurring supplier issues.
• Develop and track corrective and preventive actions.
• Maintain clear planning documentation, assumptions, decisions, and operational handovers.
• Perform other procurement planning and supply-chain responsibilities as required.

Key Performance Indicators

• Procurement plan adherence
• Purchase-order accuracy
• Purchase-order cycle time
• Purchase-order completion rate
• Supplier on-time delivery
• Supplier lead-time adherence
• Supplier order confirmation rate
• Supplier fill rate
• Purchase-order backlog
• Overdue purchase orders
• Critical-order fulfillment rate
• Procurement response time
• Requisition-to-order cycle time
• Order-to-delivery cycle time
• Material availability
• Procurement-related stockout rate
• Supply disruption rate
• Procurement forecast alignment
• Purchase quantity accuracy
• Minimum-order-quantity compliance
• Procurement spend versus budget
• Purchase-price variance
• Procurement cost savings
• Cost avoidance
• Supplier performance
• Supplier SLA compliance
• Supplier response time
• Supplier quality performance
• Supplier documentation compliance
• Invoice discrepancy rate
• Three-way-match accuracy
• Procurement master-data accuracy
• Lead-time data accuracy
• Item and supplier data completeness
• Inbound delivery accuracy
• Procurement exception rate
• Exception resolution time
• Expedite frequency
• Emergency purchase rate
• Procurement risk identification lead time
• New-product procurement readiness
• Product phase-out procurement performance
• Procurement reporting accuracy
• Procurement process compliance
• Corrective-action closure rate
• Procurement productivity
• Process improvement completion
• Inventory impact of procurement decisions

Ideal Candidate

The successful candidate should have strong experience in procurement planning, purchasing, supply planning, inventory planning, sourcing coordination, supply chain, or materials management, preferably within manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, wholesale, construction, engineering, distribution, or other procurement-intensive environments.

The candidate should demonstrate:

• Strong understanding of procurement planning and purchasing processes.
• Experience analyzing demand, inventory, supplier lead times, purchase orders, and material requirements.
• Strong understanding of replenishment, reorder points, minimum order quantities, and purchasing parameters.
• Experience managing or monitoring purchase orders from creation through delivery.
• Strong supplier coordination and follow-up capabilities.
• Ability to identify supply risks, delayed orders, shortages, and procurement exceptions.
• Strong analytical, numerical, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent attention to detail and data accuracy.
• Experience using ERP, procurement, inventory, supply-chain planning, or purchasing systems.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel and procurement reporting tools.
• Ability to analyze purchasing data, supplier performance, lead times, and procurement costs.
• Understanding of inventory, logistics, warehousing, and supply-chain processes.
• Experience working with Procurement, Finance, Inventory, Logistics, Warehousing, Operations, and suppliers.
• Strong understanding of procurement controls, approvals, documentation, and audit requirements.