Back Consultancy - Supply Chain Planning

Are you a Supply Chain Planning specialist and interested in humanitarian work?

If yes, this opportunity is for you!

We are looking for candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles. We select our candidates on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

Currently, we are looking for a candidate to support us in Rome, Italy, but we are also building a roster of candidates for other upcoming opportunities.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the largest humanitarian organisation delivering food assistance to over 90 million beneficiaries in 80 countries on a yearly basis. With over 5000 trucks, 50 ships and close to 100 planes on the move every single day, WFP, together with its partners, operates a global network to deliver life-saving food assistance to the most hard-to reach places.

This year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 to the World Food Programme for its efforts to combat hunger and its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas.

SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING IN WFP

Humanitarian operations are becoming increasingly complex to manage. Our colleagues in the field constantly have to deal with large amounts of disparate information and address new issues.

With a strong focus on end-to-end planning, visibility and optimization, the Supply Chain (SC) Planning unit works intensively with colleagues in the field, regional bureaux and HQ to make sure everyone has a holistic view of the operation, from Logistics to Pipeline and from Nutrition to Donor Relations. Once everyone agrees on what’s going on, we use analytics to anticipate issues down the line, and support Country Offices (COs) to develop SC plans and if-scenarios to address them. Through this proactive approach, COs can make more integrated, evidence-based decisions that improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.

Our planning approach is rooted in cross-functional collaboration, and supported by a range of advanced analytical tools, such as the Supply Chain Management Dashboard, Optimus and Foundry. For many years this planning support was provided by a team in HQ, but we have now started taking our planning expertise to the field, with several planners already deployed to major operations (Yemen, Syria, and Ethiopia) and Regional Bureaux. Additionally, we have started offering our planning expertise as a bilateral service to other NGOs and governments, with a lot of work being done in the health sector in particular.

JOB PURPOSE

With a strong focus on end-to-end planning, visibility, and optimization, the Supply Chain Planning & Optimization unit works intensively with colleagues in the field and the WFP headquarters (HQ) in Rome to provide a holistic view of each operation to all functional areas, ensuring there is alignment both horizontally and vertically across key actors and decision makers. Building on this shared view, analytical tools are deployed to anticipate issues down the line and support the creation of supply chain plans and what-if scenarios. Through this pro-active approach, WFP decision makers can make more integrated, evidence-based decisions that improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. Based on the demonstrated impact of this approach to managing WFP operations, a Supply Chain Planning function is now being institutionalized across the organization, with new positions being created in HQ and in our field offices. These Planners are part of a global planning network, equipped with a suite of analytical tools and processes that were created to support WFP operations, and will be responsible for improving operations at global, regional, and country level.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

The Supply Chain Planning Consultant will support planning activities in WFP’s Head Quarters in Rome, Italy, with a focus on the upstream supply chain, in close collaboration with the Procurement, Shipping and Logistics units. The role will revolve around coordination and analytics (including operational visibility, planning and optimization) in support of the different stakeholders involved in the upstream supply chain of WFP. Specific responsibilities include the following:

1. Lead the creation of analytical tools and associated processes, to support more data-driven, forward-looking and optimal decision making within the upstream supply chain
2. Support the change management and the standardization within the supply chain division to adopt such innovative processes and tools (including training of relevant stakeholders);
3. Promote best practices in supply chain planning and identify further opportunities to improve or streamline WFP processes, tools, and systems;
4. Support strategic and tactical planning analyses to structurally improve the efficiency and effectiveness of WFP operations at global, regional, and country level;
5. Provide regular ‘big picture’ overview/analysis to the upstream supply chain community, showing latest trends and possible alerts/anticipations on potential issues, with proposed mitigations actions and scenarios;
6. Perform what-if scenario analyses to support the resolution of ad-hoc issues and emergencies affecting WFP’s global supply chain;
7. Support conceptual and quantitative analyses of prioritized supply chain improvement projects;

STANDARD MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION

Master’s Degree or equivalent in the area of Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Data Science, Operations Research, or Business Management

Experience

• Minimum of three (3) years of relevant professional experience in the Supply Chain industry.
• Prior experience in SC-related industry is required (e.g. supporting S&OP-type processes, material planning, distribution planning, procurement, shipping, etc.);
• Prior experience in data analytics / operations research for supply chain is required (e.g. statistics, SC network/flow optimization, development of KPIs and visualization dashboards, etc.);
• Experience with consultancy-type activities (e.g. business analysis, process mapping, data transformation and analysis, presenting conclusions to senior management, etc.) is strongly preferred;
• Experience working with government or humanitarian agencies (e.g. UN, NGOs, etc.) is preferred;

Language

• You are fluent in oral and written English
• Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish) is desirable

DESIRED SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Self-motivated and proactive, able to take initiative and work autonomously to achieve objectives;
• Problem-solving attitude, able to structure ambiguous problems and solve them through a mix of quantitative and qualitative analyses;
• Highly numerate, able to rapidly analyse and interpret data;
• Highly developed communication skills, able to use written and verbal mediums to communicate recommendations and influence outcomes;
• Strong time management skills with an ability to plan ahead and anticipate requirements, problems, and obstacles;
• Ability to juggle competing priorities successfully while working under (sometimes) tight deadlines;
• Effective people skills, able to work both individually and in a team in a multi-cultural environment;
• Ability to interact with senior leaders and wide range of stakeholders with credibility and tact;
• Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the World Food Programme.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP:

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.