Country Director at Pamela Steele Associates (PSA)

Pamela Steele Associates (PSA) is a niche management consultancy with a mission to ensure that no patient in developing countries suffers due to lack of essential medicines. Founded in 2013, PSA is headquartered in Oxford, UK and has regional offices in India, Kenya, and Nigeria. Working with governments, NGOs and the United Nations, we Research, Train and provide Technical Assistance, deploying technical specialists to transform health and humanitarian supply chains in collaboration with client teams.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Country Director

Vacancy reference: 082018/CDN
Location: Abuja
Contract Type: Fixed Term - 2 Years (Possibility to extend))
Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week, this is a full-time role
Reports to: Regional Representative

Who we are Looking for
You will have passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world. The Country Director will:

• Lead by example in developing a working environment defined by integrity and hard work;
• Encourage and incorporate input from others;
• Promote joint project achievement through individual and team efforts;
• Demonstrate integrity and ethical behaviour at all times.

Job Purpose
Supply chain management systems for medicine and other health commodities face numerous on-going challenges across developing countries in the West African region. Characteristic challenges include inadequate forecasting, insufficient funds, delays in funding disbursements and long lead times. In addition to these complexities, donor-funded programmes typically have their own supply chain systems operating in parallel with the national government health supply chain.

Duplication of effort across the health supply chain is thus commonplace, and the resulting inefficiencies impact on an already resource-constrained region. Individual national responses have been designed and implemented with varying levels of success, because the underlying roots of these challenges and complexities (weak human capacity across all health supply chain levels) have not been prioritised targets for development interventions.

PSA is seeking a Country Director to lead the delivery of PSA’s Technical Assistance in Health & Humanitarian Supply Chain in Nigeria. The Country Director will be responsible for the strategic leadership and oversight of PSA operations in Nigeria, including directing the Supply Chain Transformation Programme (where PSA is a Technical Partner), human resource management and talent development, financial and asset stewardship, resource acquisition, and administrative operations.

The Country Director is expected to demonstrate progress in achieving the measures of the Country Results Framework. They will lead in managing the programme and operations in Nigeria and in continuously developing them to keep them relevant, and make them more effective, efficient and innovative. They will function as PSA’s most senior representative in Nigeria, and will be accountable for PSA’s profile and reputation, ensuring that they are strong and reflect the organisational Values, Operating Principles, and Mission to stakeholders.

The Country Director is the interlocutor connecting global priorities with country-specific plans, and is expected to work in close consultation and coordination with regional and global teams to fulfil the duties/responsibilities of the position. They will lead and direct new business development, including representation of the organization at events as required, development of key business relationships and partnerships, monitoring and analysis of developments and trends in the sector, and strategic planning for upcoming opportunities with numerous clients.

They will also provide programmatic and logistical support to the team by institutionalising a business development process, supporting proposal and project systems, contributing to proposal development, and meeting other portfolio needs as they arise.

Key Responsibilities

• The Country Director will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the COO
• The incumbent will facilitate the implementation (through the project teams) of health supply chain transformation projects in Kaduna, Niger States and other new projects in Nigeria.

The Country Director’s responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Providing leadership in the development or change-management of transformative initiatives in the country to enable continuous evolution of programmes and their delivery models;
• Maintaining strong, positive working relationships with clients and partners, including the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and other stakeholders;
• Maintaining effective communication with the client, the head office, the public and private sectors, and other donors and cooperating agencies;
• Coordinating with stakeholders in developing the capacity and capability of national and state supply chains;
• Overseeing programme quality in the country, ensuring execution of programme strategy, integrating gender, timely completion of M&E processes, adoption of quality standards and guidelines, and efficient use of global and country resources;
• Strengthening the financial sustainability of programmes and operations through vibrant resource development efforts, strikingly healthy financial ratios, and providing effective budget administration;
• Managing and monitoring PSA’s country operation, including financial and administrative processes, development of technical strategies and work plans, and implementation of technical activities;
• Overseeing the implementation of the fiscal year work plans and PSA Supply Chain Capacity Development (SCCD) interventions, leading technical assistance, and providing oversight and logistical support for all international and local technical assistance activities (primarily on SCCD);
• Directly managing cashflow, expenditure forecasts, local procurement, subcontracts and leases;
• Ensuring financial and legal compliance with donor requirements, PSA corporate policies, Employee Handbooks, Financial Manuals, Nigerian law, etc.;
• Managing short-tern technical consultants, and work with local accounting firms to ensure timely payments to vendors and local staff;
• Reporting to PSA, funders, and the head office, and ensuring timely submission of all deliverables;
• Leading the development and execution of high-quality country strategic plans relevant to the local context but reflecting global priorities;
• Ensuring compliance with statutory regulations related to for-profit companies in the country;
• Leading and overseeing the grants acquisition and management efforts in the country, ensuring long-term health of the company’s portfolio and achievement of annual targets;
• Enforcing the systematic application of business development best practice, including standardised processes, tools, and training to ensure business development is a continuous learning process;
• Proactively planning and organising business development efforts, drafting or contributing to business development and marketing materials, and thoroughly following up on specific opportunities to ensure the team’s process continuously improves and responds to market dynamics;
• Collaborating and communicating effectively with other business development staff across BDU, regional and head offices to maximise the visibility of, and support to, new supply chain strengthening business priorities;
• Promoting increased collaboration and coordination across PSA, related to Business Development and strategic planning;
• Representing PSA’s broad technical capabilities at both informal and formal client and sector events and leverage sector, client, and competitor information to augment market intelligence gathering efforts;
• Effectively managing a small team, including at least one additional Business Development Specialist, and capture/proposal teams, as needed, to ensure smooth proposal development;
• Demonstrating, through work products and reference feedback, an exceptional ability to articulate PSA’s capabilities and value to internal and external audiences;
• Overseeing the recruitment, orientation and performance of senior staff and the development of middle-management staff, encouraging a culture of innovation.
• Performing other tasks as directed by the COO.

Skills, Experience and Knowledge
Essential:

• Advanced Degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management;
• Over 10 years of experience in the supply chain and logistics field and a minimum of 8 years of experience with donor-funded projects, preferably in public health and humanitarian programme management or governance;
• Experience with pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, or supply chain management systems in stable and emergency situations;
• Business development skills and experience in proposal writing;
• Demonstrable technical expertise in project, budget and resource management, and strong management skills in complex programmes with numerous staff members;
• Ability to grow/develop business by attracting local and international resources and building alliances;
• Strategic and systemic thinking for, and proven leadership experience in, independently planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programmes, projects and activities, and in making decisions based on the best information available; Ability to acquire or develop new information;
• Ability to develop personal contacts to negotiate significant or controversial issues involving diverse viewpoints, goals, or objectives; Capability to develop strong personal contacts with MoH and programme heads, other development agency health leaders and international experts, etc;
• Ability to solve problems pragmatically and plan using analytical, conceptual, strategic and forward-thinking capacities;
• Strong leadership skills in fostering teamwork, developing and motivating others, managing change and conflict-resolution; A demonstrable track record in creating partnerships and generating new business and thought leadership opportunities.

Desirable:

• Ability to support the changes needed to improve effectiveness, helping others to manage organisational change;
• Ability to recognise, react and adjust to rapidly changing conditions, and to lead the resources in the appropriate direction with cohesiveness and a sense of urgency;
• Skill to lead and generate large-scale results with minimal resources; highly collaborative and approachable leadership style;
• Ability to mentor and coach PSA team members by providing direction, input, and feedback, and lead the hiring of new staff;
• Ability to manage roles involving many different and unrelated processes and methods, and a broad range of activities requiring substantial depth of analysis;
• Ability to make decisions in an evolving environment, and to resolve or facilitate the resolution of critical problems by applying leadership and negotiation skills;
• Fluent in English, with excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills;
• Proven diplomatic and public relations skills, including the ability to build internal/external collaborative relationships with sensitivity for cultural, ethnic, social and political issues;
• Demonstrable leadership, versatility and integrity;
• Ability to operate successfully with minimal or no supervision, setting own milestones and goals;
• Capacity to be effective under pressure, remain results-oriented, and multi-task;
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel, and PowerPoint;
• Willing to undertake up to 25% international and domestic travel.

Our Package

• Attractive, depending on skills and experience.

Application Closing Date
30th September, 2018.

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