Head of Supply Chain Officer at the United Nations World Food Programme

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to end global hunger.  Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

WFP is seeking individuals with experience working in culturally sensitive, remote, and complex environments, to fill the position below at the P5 level, based in Maiduguri, Nigeria:

Job Title: Head of Supply Chain Officer

Ref.: 16-0022426
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Level: P5

Job Description

• Under the general supervision and guidance of the Deputy Country Director or the designate, the Head of Supply Chain Officer, P5 will partner with the key supply chain functions to ensure an integrated supply chain approach to meeting the food assistance needs of beneficiaries.

Job Responsibilities
The Head of Supply Chain Officer will be responsible for the following key duties:

• Formulate and/or contribute to the development of the global logistics and supply strategies ensuring that operational realities of the service, country or region of assignment inform planning.
• Define the service, country or regional logistics strategy and policies, in line with global logistics, supply chain and WFP strategies and policies, to ensure timely and cost effective availability of the resources required, directly or indirectly, to meet the food assistance needs of beneficiaries.
• Provide oversight on all matters related to logistics services arising in the region to ensure compliance with established rules and regulations and assist in the implementation of corporate standards, with special emphasis on quality control, loss prevention and cost effectiveness.
• Provide technical advice, guidance and support to country offices and/or manage all logistics activities and resources within the area of assignment to ensure compliance with wider logistics and supply chain strategies, policies and procedures, and provide specialist advice and guidance to WFP’s partners and governments, building capacity to connect to markets, manage food systems and deliver food assistance to those in need in highly challenging environments.
• Provide leadership in specific technical areas of competence: supply chain, inter-agency services, logistics cluster and air operations.
• Develop and maintain strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in UN agencies, NGOs, governments and the private sector to share knowledge and resources and ensure coordinated delivery of food assistance and to support efficient and effective logistics operations.
• Design and formulate project and budget proposal and concept of operation in support to WFP food assistance interventions.
• Lead and oversee the negotiation, conclusion, and management of complex transportation contracts with service providers, including clearing and forwarding, port services and the monitoring of their performance in a way that best safeguards WFP interests.
• Monitor and oversee accurate and timely reporting to ensure wide view of logistics activities that enables visibility, informed decision-making and consistency of information presented to a wide range of stakeholders.
• Use market analysis and research to recommend actions to management to improve supply chain performance.
• Represent WFP with high profile strategic partners to advance and maintain WFP’s reputation as the global service provider of humanitarian logistics services.
• Lead, motivate and develop large teams of professionals to enable high performance and promote staff learning and development, oversee the design and implementation of learning initiatives for logistics staff and the monitoring of impact of these programmes.
• Contribute to preparedness actions, providing technical recommendations and guidance and monitoring the management of specific logistics risks to enable WFP to quickly respond and deploy food and resources at the onset of the crisis.
• Take responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men.
• Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.
• Other as required.

Qualifications & Experience Required
Education:

• Advanced University degree in Transport Economics, Engineering, Supply Chain, Logistics, Business Management or other related field.

Experience:

• At least Ten (10) years or more (of which five are international) of postgraduate progressively responsible professional experience managing supply chain operations is required.
• Management experience and technical leadership skills in a complex environment is required.
• Managed supply chain/logistics operations in an international environment is required.
• Evaluated of performance data, forecasting requirements, inventory and quality control, freight management and knowledge of UN rules and regulations is desirable.
• Managed highly complex operations in a conflict or post-conflict environment is desirable.

Technical Skills & Knowledge:

• Managed complex logistics operations, including coordination with internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience setting logistics policy goals and measuring operational success against the goals.
• Defined supply chain strategies on a Country/Regional office level.
• Led complex transportation contracting and operations to support emergency programs.
• Experience responding to challenging situations regarding air/sea/surface transport.
• Negotiated supply and transportation arrangements with multiple third parties.

Competencies:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Effective action management to plan, coordinate and prioritize multiple tasks;
• Excellent cognitive capacity and problem solving skills;
• Outstanding teamwork, leadership and interpersonal skills with ability to work patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Excellent partnership skills to build strategic relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders;
• Ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavour through technical leadership in a broad range of operational areas.

Language:

• Fluency in oral and written English
• Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages).

Terms and Conditions

• Selected candidate will be employed on a fixed-term contract with a probationary period of one year and eligible for the Rest and Recuperation (R&R) scheme.
• He/she will be required to travel abroad sometime to remote and difficult locations.
• WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package, including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, travel and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent children, pension plan, and medical insurance. For more details please visit: icsc.un.org

Application Closing Date
30th September, 2016.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Application Procedures

• Candidate should click on the link above
• Step 1: Register and create your online CV.
• Step 2: Click on “Description” to read the position requirements and “Apply” to submit your application.

Note

• You must complete Step 1 and 2 in order for your application to be considered for this vacancy.
• Qualified African national and female applicants are especially encouraged to apply.