Solving Complexity with Clarity: Zoheb Shah on Procurement, Public Value, and the Future of Transport in Auckland
With a career spanning defence, telecommunications, and now public transport, Zoheb Shah has built a reputation as one of the region’s most forward-thinking procurement leaders. As Senior Manager, Procurement at Auckland Transport, his work sits at the intersection of commercial strategy, community outcomes, and operational excellence.
From leading award-winning procurement programmes, including the Bus Services Re-Tender, recognised as Public Procurement Project of the Year at the CIPS ANZ Excellence Award, to shaping technology partnerships, sustainability frameworks, and digital transformation initiatives, Zoheb brings a detective-like curiosity to every challenge.
In this feature, he reflects on his career journey, the critical role procurement plays in delivering reliable and sustainable transport, and the innovative mindset behind his upcoming book, The Procurement Detective.
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Auckland Transport Career Journey & Leadership: Can you share your career journey and what led you to your role as Senior Manager, Procurement at Auckland Transport? Which experiences have most shaped your approach to procurement leadership within public transport?
After working in the Justice sector, I unexpectedly found my way into procurement, a profession that felt part detective work, part strategist. My career has since spanned an energising mix of private and public sectors, including defence, telecommunications, and now transport. Each role strengthened my understanding of procurement as a strategic value driver rather than a compliance function.
In defence, I learned the importance of resilience, risk management, and tightly managed supplier partnerships across everything from catering services to critical systems. At Spark, I led one of Australasia’s most complex B2B relationships, balancing commercial outcomes with long-term partnership. At Vodafone, I supported a transformation that repositioned procurement as a digital-first enabler of business performance.
These experiences shape the lens I bring to Auckland Transport (AT), where public transport requires a balance of commercial acumen and community focus. At AT, I’ve had the privilege of leading award-winning procurement initiatives that modernised processes, embedded sustainability, and delivered meaningful impact for Aucklanders.
Procurement’s Role in Service Delivery: How does procurement contribute to delivering resilient, sustainable, and reliable transport services and projects at Auckland Transport?
Procurement underpins AT’s ability to deliver an effective, efficient, and safe land transport system for Auckland. Our role is to create the conditions for success by building strong supplier partnerships, ensuring transparency, and embedding resilience into every commercial arrangement. In complex service areas such as bus and ferry operations, this means bringing together commercial, operational, financial, and sustainability teams so that projects progress cohesively and deliver as one organisation.
Sustainability is a core priority, with low-emission fleets, greener infrastructure, and social outcomes integrated directly into our procurement frameworks. But procurement’s impact goes beyond process efficiency, it’s about scanning the market, anticipating risks, and providing strategic insight so the organisation can adapt early and confidently.
Ultimately, our focus is on public value. Reliability, safety, and service continuity are what Aucklanders experience every day, whether they are driving, walking, cycling, or using public transport. Procurement’s role is to safeguard that experience by ensuring our suppliers, contracts, and commercial strategies are aligned with AT’s mission to keep transport accessible, dependable, and trusted.
Recognition of Excellence: Congratulations on Auckland Transport’s Bus Services Re-Tender winning Public Procurement Project of the Year at the CIPS ANZ Excellence in Procurement Awards. Could you tell us more about the scale and impact of this project, and why the “whole-of-business movement” was so important to its success?
The Bus Services Re-Tender was one of Auckland Transport’s largest and most complex commercial undertakings, covering a multi-billion-dollar service portfolio. Winning Public Procurement Project of the Year at the CIPS ANZ Awards recognised not only the scale of the work but the way it was delivered. This was never a routine procurement exercise, it became a true whole-of-business movement involving finance, operations, commercial, sustainability, and procurement working as one integrated team. At its height, it felt less like a project and more like an ecosystem: dozens of interdependent workstreams, each critical to achieving the right outcome.
We developed evaluation criteria that balanced price, quality, sustainability, and social outcomes, rewarding operators that demonstrated proven reliability and a commitment to community value. Internally, we redesigned our processes to remove duplication, strengthen governance, and create clear evaluation templates that suppliers and evaluators could trust.
A project of this magnitude will always carry complexity. The goal is not to eliminate that complexity, but to harness it, to govern it, structure it, and turn it into transparent and defensible outcomes. This award reflects what is possible when collaboration, discipline, and purpose sit at the centre of public procurement, setting a new benchmark for the sector.
Balancing Value and Priorities: How does procurement balance cost management with the need to maintain quality and continuity across priority projects and services?
Balancing cost management with service continuity is one of the core challenges in public procurement. For us, it extends far beyond securing the lowest price, our focus is on maximising public value. Every dollar spent must ultimately contribute to outcomes Aucklanders experience daily: a transport system that is convenient, well-connected, accessible, and reliable.
To achieve this, we apply holistic evaluation methods that consider more than cost alone. A key mechanism is the Price Quality Methodology (PQM), which places a notional price on quality. This approach creates a quality premium, recognising that suppliers with stronger performance capabilities often deliver greater long-term value, particularly where reliability, sustainability, and social impact are critical.
At the same time, we understand that numbers alone cannot capture the full picture. That’s why we rely on experienced subject-matter experts across disciplines to interpret context, assess risk, and apply informed judgement. Procurement therefore becomes the balancing mechanism, safeguarding financial stewardship while ensuring the operational and community outcomes Auckland depends on remain uncompromised.
Digital Transformation & Transparency: How are you leveraging digital tools and procurement strategies to improve resilience, efficiency, and transparency for customers and stakeholders?
Digital tools only create value when they are orchestrated to serve customers and stakeholders. Procurement’s role is to ensure technology investments are not just “shiny objects” avoiding the shiny object syndrome, or a collection of disconnected systems creating the Frankenstein effect. In transport, digital transformation must translate into real public value: reliable disruption alerts, smoother journeys, clearer information, and greater trust in the network.
At Auckland Transport, we are continuing to build the orchestration required to fully connect our digital tools, platforms, and data flows. With AI, machine learning, and automation opening new possibilities, from predictive fleet maintenance to enhanced customer information systems, the priority is to ensure these technologies integrate seamlessly rather than operate in isolation. Procurement plays a critical role in scanning the market, filtering out noise, shaping commercial models, and securing supplier partnerships that add resilience rather than complexity.
A good example is our collaboration with Ansarada. Their secure data room platform has supported several of our major procurement programmes, including the Bus and Ferry RFPs, making evaluation more efficient, auditable, and collaborative. Combined with the rollout of a new contract management system, these digital partnerships are helping us create a more connected, transparent, and trusted procurement environment across AT.
Alongside this, I’ve been developing the C.O.R.E. Framework, designed to reimagine procurement’s role in digital transformation. C.O.R.E. stands for Collaboration, Orchestration, Resilience and Enablement, positioning procurement as the integrator of people, processes, and data. It acts as a control-tower lens, enabling organisations to make decisions that are coherent, future-focused, and genuinely value-creating.
Technology & Supplier Partnerships: From integrated ticketing systems to new digital platforms, how does procurement support the successful implementation of technology while managing supplier relationships and risks?
For organisations with traditionally cautious approaches to risk, procurement’s role is shifting from transactional buying to architecting connected, future-ready digital ecosystems. A foundational step is benchmarking global best practice. For example, I’ve been engaging with Dubai’s RTA to understand how their digital twin pilot, developed collaboratively with industry partners, accelerated innovation while reducing implementation risk. These insights are valuable as we consider targeted local pilots in Auckland.
Today, success isn’t just about mitigating supplier risk; it is about enabling co-innovation. Procurement must champion commercial frameworks that evolve beyond static SLAs, promoting data transparency and interoperability through open data platforms. This shift transforms supplier relationships from opaque, “black box” arrangements into transparent, accountable, and innovation-driven partnerships.
To progress safely and strategically, we use these partnerships to test and validate new technologies through controlled pilots, for example, developing a digital twin of a key transport corridor. These structured trials allow us to learn quickly, refine collaboratively, and prove value before scaling across the network.
This approach ensures that procurement not only manages risk but actively enables the innovation that will shape Auckland’s transport future.
Driving Sustainability Through Procurement: With growing demand for green and climate-resilient transport, how does procurement help embed environmental and sustainability outcomes in supplier selection, contracts, and performance frameworks?
Procurement is one of the strongest levers we have to deliver climate action, social impact, and community value. At Auckland Transport, sustainability is embedded into every major sourcing activity through our Sustainable Procurement Action Plan, which guides how procurement contributes to Auckland’s transition toward a regenerative, low-carbon economy.
In bus services, for example, contracts require operators to accelerate the shift toward low- and zero-emission fleets, directly supporting AT’s target of reducing emissions by 50% by 2031. We also embed waste-diversion KPIs, typically 65–75%, and require adherence to AT’s Supplier Code of Conduct and Sedex membership to uphold ethical, responsible business practices across supply chains.
Sustainability is also people-centred. Through the Kake Mai supplier diversity programme, we support Māori- and Pasifika-owned emerging suppliers by facilitating partnerships with head contractors on our Physical Works Supplier Panel. This creates genuine opportunities for capability building, participation, and long-term economic impact.
By setting clear criteria, deeply interrogating supplier responses, and monitoring delivery through the AT Sustainability Data Portal, procurement ensures that environmental and social outcomes are delivered alongside cost, quality, and reliability, strengthening Auckland’s transport system for the future.
Risk Management in Complex Environments: What role does procurement play in embedding risk management and resilience into Auckland’s transport projects and supplier partnerships?
Risk management sits at the heart of procurement’s contribution to infrastructure and service delivery at Auckland Transport, and it begins long before a contract is awarded. Early market engagement allows us to surface potential vulnerabilities, from supplier capacity constraints and market volatility to cost escalation and delivery risks, so mitigation strategies can be built into project design from the outset.
A core mechanism is our Value Risk Assessment (VRA), which evaluates projects on value, complexity, and risk, categorising them from low to very high. The VRA determines the level of governance required, including cross-functional sign-offs from procurement, finance, safety, and probity. This ensures that risks are formally identified, assessed, and endorsed before any sourcing activity begins.
We then carry these controls through the contracting phase by embedding clear performance measures, KPIs, and monitoring frameworks, while designing contracts with enough flexibility to adapt as conditions evolve. Procurement’s role is to make risk visible, governable, and actionable, strengthening resilience across supplier partnerships and giving AT the confidence to deliver essential transport outcomes for Aucklanders, even in complex or unpredictable environments.
Collaborative Partnerships: How does procurement at AT work with operators and industry partners to design contracts and partnerships that encourage accountability, innovation, and service quality?
Strong partnerships form the backbone of effective public transport delivery, and procurement’s role extends far beyond enforcing contract terms. At Auckland Transport, we focus on creating structured, value-driven relationships that incentivise accountability, foster innovation, and elevate service quality across the network.
Our aim is to position AT as a true ‘customer of choice’. To achieve this, we embed Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) practices aligned with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) frameworks, strengthened through collaboration with State of Flux. Supplier segmentation enables us to identify our most strategic operators and partners, and for these priority suppliers, we are preparing to roll out Joint Business Plans (JBPs). These JBPs establish shared objectives, define governance mechanisms, and set clear metrics for performance, risk, and value creation.
Governance forums, performance scorecards, and ongoing dialogue ensure transparency and accountability for both AT and its partners. In specific contexts, open-book arrangements help deepen trust and reinforce joint responsibility for outcomes.
By balancing commercial discipline with collaboration, procurement acts as the connector between AT’s strategic objectives and supplier capability. The result is a partnership ecosystem designed to deliver reliable, safe, and sustainable services that Aucklanders can depend on every day.
Advice for Emerging Leaders: What advice would you give to professionals looking to build a career in public-sector procurement, especially in complex, multi-stakeholder environments like transport?
Public-sector procurement is both demanding and deeply meaningful, and my biggest encouragement is this: be relentlessly curious. Curiosity keeps you learning, about markets, suppliers, risk, technology, and the broader forces shaping public services. In a world where digital tools evolve at speed, professionals need to understand not just what a technology is, but how it strengthens the category they are procuring. Depth of understanding will always outperform trend-chasing.
Secondly, avoid narrowing your experience too early. The strongest procurement leaders are shaped by breadth just as much as depth. My own career has spanned defence, telecommunications, and transport, across both direct and indirect categories, and that diversity has been invaluable. In environments defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), adaptability becomes one of your greatest assets.
Lastly, remember that public procurement is fundamentally purpose-driven. It’s not only about contracts and commercial outcomes, it’s about delivering value to communities. Lead with integrity, balance commercial discipline with empathy, and keep sight of the fact that procurement, when done well, improves lives. That sense of purpose is what will sustain you, guide your decisions, and shape you into a leader who lifts both the profession and the communities you serve.
The Procurement Detective: Thought Leadership in Practice: You’re also writing a book, The Procurement Detective. Can you tell us about the concept behind it, and how it reflects your approach to procurement leadership and problem-solving?
I’ve always been a writer at heart, poetry, short stories, even a feature-length film script at school. Writing was my way of finding rhythm and narrative in complexity. When I discovered procurement, I realised it had the same creative DNA: intrigue, evidence, patterns, puzzles. It never felt like a linear process to me, it felt like a mystery waiting to be solved.
One of my earliest mentors in the Defence Force had previously worked as a private investigator. His method of dissecting problems, following unconventional leads, and piecing together evidence sparked something in me, the ‘procurement detective’ mindset. From then on, I saw procurement through a noir lens: part investigation, part strategy, part storytelling.
The Procurement Detective brings those worlds together. It blends practical tools with narrative, using classic detective archetypes, Sherlock Holmes included, to make procurement engaging, human, and accessible. It isn’t a theoretical manual, but a practitioner’s guide written with curiosity, clarity, and a touch of intrigue.
My goal is simple: to bring procurement alive on the page, practical, memorable, and genuinely useful for anyone leading, learning, or transforming in this profession.
In Association with:
Ansarada is a global provider of AI-powered virtual data rooms and deal management solutions, supporting organisations through critical transactions and projects. Trusted by leading enterprises, advisors, and governments, Ansarada helps teams manage mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, procurement, and strategic initiatives with confidence by combining secure technology, intelligent insights, and proven best-practice playbooks.
At Lite Civil, we are proud to be a 100% Māori-owned company. Our roots are deeply embedded in our community, and our projects reflect our commitment to enhancing the infrastructure and sacred spaces of our people. From vital upgrades to marae to significant developments in Māori infrastructure, each venture is more than a construction project; it’s a step towards communal well-being and cultural preservation.
