Location: Cairo, EgyptIn fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.Thales has built a presence in Egypt for over 40 years and has today over 100 employees. Thales in Egypt is part of our Middle East business that has 1,800 people across Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, KSA, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and UAE.Together We delivered fare collection and control and communication systems for the first metro line in Africa, Metro Line 1 in Cairo. Since then we have continued to bring growth and security and safety to the country by upgrading these transportation systems as well as providing solutions for customers in air traffic management, air defence and Navy.JOB OBJECTIVE:The Category Buyer supports several procurement categories under Segment A (IS/IT & Support Services) for the Middle East & Africa region.Work in close relation with the Project Procurement organizations and the relevant stakeholders.Accountable for end to end performance of the acquisition process, via the management of the RFI &/or RFP's including supplier selection exercises and the deployment, implementation and monitoring of agreed category strategies.ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES:Support project buyers to negotiate and coordinate signatures of segment-related purchasing contracts / frame agreements.Ensure that the PPM (Procurement Project Manager) and Tactical Buyer receive all required information to raise the Purchase Orders in accordance with the purchasing delegation rules Procurement Competitiveness Capture:Monitor the markets for defined categories including key players, newcomers, economic evolutions, market or regulation constraints, innovations and technology in order to support the development of the most up to date category strategies to the businesses.Identify new solutions/providers for the given category in order to ensure innovation/competitiveness.Provide business intelligence on Suppliers Market for Qatar and other countries if any and their related connections with Thales’ competitors and customers Governance.Ensure appropriate governance is applied using KPI's and root cause corrective actions.Performance management of the panel in line with global procurement instruction for the given category set out by the Global Category Manager.Ensure that supplier competitions follow the governance process and are balanced and fair in order to improve business and customer performance.Ensure that global procurement ‘Tool Box’ of templates, tools and standards are adopted and utilised.Ensure that THALES procurement tools are fully used.Based on the performance management of the supply base identify the suppliers who require focused development actions and ensure that the Supplier Development Team have the required support / leverage in order for these actions to be successful.Work Experience Requirements:4-5 years' experience in IT Procurement.Experience working in project/program, design / product development with cross functional teams.Demonstratable experience in negotiation projects &/or categories is desirable.Business, Procurement, Supply Chain or Engineering degrees are desirable.Technical Skills:Ability to implement operational supply chain strategy.Contractual knowledge especially of framework agreements, Liability & insuranceAbility to lead negotiation including import / export considerations.Understanding of the market for the categories under his/her control but also ability to understand the customer’s needs and program issues.Good knowledge of a best practice acquisition processSoft Skills:Capability to work within cross functional and international multi organizational teams (teamwork)Open minded (listen, share ideas etc.) and able to bring added value and new ideasAbility to take initiatives with a good capacity of analysis and of synthesisAbility to prioritize tasksAbility to represent Thales and to demonstrate Thales valuesGood written and verbal communication skillsFluency in English is must, French is preferred.At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working. Great journeys start here, apply now!