Supply Chain Planning Consultant

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WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded 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.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do, and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: https://www.wfp.org/ and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

ABOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN DIVISION

WFP’s Supply Chain Division (SCO), with over 5,000 trucks, 50 ships and close to 100 planes on the move every single day in over 120 countries and territories, together with its partners, operates a global network to deliver life-saving food assistance to the most hard-to reach places.

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.

In emergencies, WFP gets food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict, and natural disasters. After an emergency, WFP uses food to help communities rebuild their shattered lives. The organization has the global footprint, deep field presence and local knowledge and relationships necessary to provide access to nutritious food and contribute to the lasting solutions, especially in many of the world’s most remote and fragile areas.

Supply chain management is at the core of WFP’s humanitarian response and therefore an area of constant strategic focus. Over 4,500 supply chain staff work around the clock to deliver food assistance to beneficiaries in some of the most complex environments. Empowering our staff with the right expertise and skills is critical to our success. SCO is committed to offer an innovative and effective learning journey to all of its workforce.

WHY JOIN US?

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
• WFP offers an inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment
• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs.

JOB PURPOSE

With a strong focus on end-to-end planning, visibility, and optimization, the Supply Chain Planning & Optimization Branch works intensively with colleagues in the field and 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. Increasingly, the same approach is being applied to support the operations of WFP partners, in particular in the humanitarian health sector.

To maximize the benefits of this data-driven decision-making approach, WFP’s planning efforts need to be supported by a suite of analytical tools and processes. The “Global Upstream Planning” (GUP) is one of these analytical projects, providing an innovative approach to support optimized supply planning decision at a global scale. The purpose of this assignment is to lead the GUP project, including the implementation of the technical solution, as well as the creation and dissemination of regular plans and analyses.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

The Supply Chain Planning Consultant will lead the development and deployment of the GUP project. She/he will also be responsible for the regular provision of global sourcing and delivery plans and related analyses, guiding tactical and strategic decision-making on the upstream supply chain, in close collaboration with the Procurement, Shipping and Logistics units, as well as other divisions.

Specific accountabilities are:

1. Manage and supervise the team of analysts and developers (internal and external) that supports the development and continuous improvements of the GUP project;
2. Manage the organization and prioritization of tasks and objectives within this project team in order to comply with the unit objectives in time and in quality;
3. Coordinate closely with SCO management and other WFP stakeholders (incl INKA, SCOD, TEC, etc.) to ensure project success, resourcing, and compliance with corporate guidelines;
4. Be responsible for the provision of key deliverables related to upstream planning, among others: regular sourcing and delivery plans, global upstream sourcing and delivery network optimization, analyses on strategic stocks;
5. Provide technical expertise in the creation and maintenance of analytical tools and associated processes to provide data-driven forward-looking and optimal decision making within the upstream supply chain;
6. Conduct the change management and the standardization within the Supply Chain Division (SCO) to adopt such innovative processes and tools;
7. Research and promote best practices in supply chain planning and identify further opportunities to improve or streamline WFP processes, tools, and systems;
8. Coordinate with other units inside and outside of Supply Chain in order to collaborate in common projects and build synergies;
9. Report to management on results and progress on the use of such tools and systems.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education

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

Experience

• 8-year experience in SC-related industry is required (e.g., supporting S&OP-type processes, material planning, distribution planning, procurement, shipping, etc.);
• 8-year experience in data analytics / operations research is required (e.g. statistics, SC network/flow optimization, development of KPIs and visualization dashboards, Extract-Transform-Load pipelines, etc.);
• 6-year experience successfully managing teams of experts in the areas of data analysis, programming or engineering is required.

• 6-year experience leading multi-year SC planning projects for large organizations is required.

• 6-year experience with consultancy-type activities (e.g. business analysis, process mapping, data transformation and analysis, presenting conclusions to senior management, etc.) is required;

• 6-year experience with software-development (e.g. proficiency in programming languages, agile methodologies, testing and deploying code, system design) is required;
• 6-year experience in development of optimization algorithms, models and applications (e.g., mathematical programming, meta-heuristics, heuristics, constraint-programming) is required.
• Experience in development of forecasting models based on supervised-learning (e.g., regression analysis, support vector machines, random forests) is preferred;
• Experience working with government or humanitarian agencies (e.g. UN, NGOs, etc.) is preferred;

Knowledge and Skills

• Leadership skills, able to take the lead among peers and teach by example;
• 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.

Language

• Fluency in both oral and written communication in English. Working knowledge of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish is highly desired.

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.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Application deadline: 6 June 2023 (midnight Rome time)

Your CV must be submitted in English

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All employment decisions are made based on organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Qualified female applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply. No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.