Assistant Director (Procurement)

Pakistan Single Window (PSW) is recruiting on behalf of the National Agri-Trade and Food Safety Authority (NAFSA), a strategic national initiative aimed at strengthening Pakistan’s agri-trade ecosystem. NAFSA focuses on enhancing regulatory oversight, facilitating trade, and modernizing food safety and trade processes. The selected candidate will join NAFSA’s foundational team and play a key role in developing systems, processes, and institutional capabilities that support these objectives.

Key Responsibilities

- Support the entire procurement lifecycle, including annual procurement planning, requisition validation, solicitation, bid/quote receipt, evaluation coordination, award processing, and contracting. All activities must comply with applicable procurement rules, delegated authorities, and NAFSA’s standard operating procedures (SOPs).

- Prepare and maintain detailed procurement plans and trackers. This includes managing timelines, sourcing approaches (such as RFQ, RFP, or competitive bidding), estimated costs, and ensuring alignment with approved budgets and user department requirements.

- Draft and process all procurement documentation, including bidding documents, RFQs/RFPs, terms of reference/specifications templates, bid opening records, comparative statements, evaluation reports, and award recommendation notes for approval.

- Ensure procurement activities are transparent, time-bound, and fully documented with complete audit trails. Documentation should cover approvals, communications, bids/quotations, evaluation sheets, meeting minutes, and conflict-of-interest declarations where applicable.

- Coordinate with user departments to finalize technical specifications, statements of work (SOWs), evaluation criteria, delivery timelines, and acceptance requirements. Ensure all clarifications are properly documented and consistently communicated to bidders.

- Support contract administration and vendor onboarding processes. This includes issuing purchase orders and contracts, coordinating delivery and installation, managing inspection and acceptance documentation, and maintaining handover and close-out records.

- Maintain comprehensive procurement records and vendor files, including performance history, compliance documents, and any dispute or penalty records. Assist in monitoring vendor performance against contractual deliverables and service level agreements (SLAs).

- Support procurement reporting and analytics by tracking cycle times, savings and value-for-money indicators, pending procurements, contract status, and compliance reporting for management review and audit purposes.

- Coordinate the resolution of procurement-related issues such as delays, non-compliance, or quality concerns through documented correspondence and escalate matters to the relevant approving authorities when necessary.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree (minimum sixteen years of education) in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Finance, Engineering, or a related discipline.

- At least 4 years of overall professional experience, with a minimum of 4 years specifically in procurement. Experience in public sector procurement is preferred.

- Strong knowledge of procurement rules, tendering processes, and contract documentation.

- Excellent documentation skills, coordination abilities, and a high level of integrity.

This role offers the opportunity to contribute to a pioneering national initiative with significant impact on Pakistan’s agri-trade and food safety landscape. The successful candidate will be part of a dynamic team focused on institutional development and process modernization.