Head of Procurement - Direct Material

Want to influence the bigger picture? At Saab, you can realise amazing innovations that keep people and societies safe. Together, we can truly make an impact – and your part matters.

Your Role

At Saab Surveillance, Procurement plays a critical role in ensuring delivery capability, supply resilience, competitiveness, and business performance. As our business continues to grow and evolve, so do the demands on Procurement. We are therefore looking for a Head of Procurement - Direct Material who will lead and develop the Procurement delivery organization at site level, ensuring the right capabilities, leadership, and stakeholder relationships are in place to support both current operations and future business needs.

You will play a key role in strengthening collaboration between Procurement, Production, Planning, Engineering, and Operations while building a high-performing organization capable of supporting increasingly complex products, projects, and customer commitments.

As Head of Procurement - Direct Material East, you will lead the regional Procurement delivery organization from our Stockholm site and act as representative across key stakeholder interfaces.

You will drive supplier performance, cost competitiveness, supply security, quality and sustainability while building strong partnerships across the business and with our strategic suppliers.

You will be responsible for developing people, capabilities, capacity, and organizational performance while ensuring strong collaboration with local stakeholders and business functions. As part of the Procurement management team, you will be working closely with BU Procurement managers, Supply Managers, and other internal and external business stakeholders. You will drive capability development, resource planning, organizational effectiveness, and continuous improvement across the Procurement organization. The role combines people leadership, organizational development, stakeholder management, and operational oversight.

Key Responsibilities

Site Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Represent Procurement in relevant management and leadership forums.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders and ensure Procurement is engaged in relevant decisions and planning activities.
• Drive collaboration and alignment between Procurement and other functions.

Supplier & Procurement Performance

• Drive Procurement performance and relevant KPIs across delivery, cost, quality and supply resilience 
• Ensure effective supplier performance management and support escalation of critical supplier matters.
• Provide leadership and direction to the Procurement organization, ensuring alignment with long-term Procurement strategies and business priorities 

People Leadership & Organizational Capability

• Lead, develop, and support the Procurement delivery organization through managers at site.
• Ensure the organization has the right competencies, capacity, and structure to meet current and future needs.
• Create a culture characterized by collaboration, accountability, learning, and continuous improvement.

Resource & Capacity Management

• Ensure Procurement resources are effectively planned and allocated.
• Balance business demands with available capability and capacity.
• Support prioritization and organizational readiness for future business growth.

Your profile

You are an engaging and people-focused leader who enjoys developing organizations and employees, creating the conditions for success.

You are comfortable balancing operational needs with long-term organizational development and are skilled at building trust and collaboration across functions and organizational levels.

You combine leadership, stakeholder management, and organizational development with a solid understanding of Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, or Manufacturing environments.

We Believe You Have

• Significant leadership experience within Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, Manufacturing, Engineering, or similar areas.
• Experience leading other managers and larger organizational units.
• Strong capability in organizational development and change leadership.
• Experience working closely with Production, Planning, Operations, or other business-critical functions.
• Good understanding of workforce planning, capability development, and resource management.
• Experience from manufacturing, industrial, aerospace, defense, or similarly complex environments is highly beneficial.
• Strong people leadership skills, with a proven ability to lead, develop, and motivate high-performing teams and managers.
• Strong collaborator with the ability to build effective partnerships across the Procurement leadership team and jointly drive performance, priorities, resource allocation, and continuous improvement.

This is a unique opportunity to shape and develop the future Procurement organization. You will be responsible for developing people, strengthening capabilities, building stakeholder relationships, and ensuring Procurement remains a strong contributor to business performance and future growth.

This position requires that you pass a security vetting based on the current regulations around/of security protection. For positions requiring security clearance additional obligations on citizenship may apply.

What you will be part of

Explore a wealth of possibilities. Take on challenges, create smart inventions, and grow beyond. This is a place for curious minds, brave pioneers, and everyone in between. Together, we achieve the extraordinary, each bringing our unique perspectives. Your part matters. Saab is a leading defense and security company with an enduring purpose, to help nations keep their people and society safe. Empowered by its 30,000 talented people, Saab constantly pushes the boundaries of technology to create a safer and more sustainable world.

Saab designs, manufactures and maintains advanced systems in aeronautics, weapons, command and control, sensors and underwater systems. Saab is headquartered in Sweden. It has major operations all over the world and is part of the domestic defense capability of several nations. Read more about us here.