Context
Médecins Sans Frontières is an independent, international medical and humanitarian organization that provides care to people in need, people affected by natural or man-made disasters, and victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and without regard to race, religion, creed or political affiliation (MSF Charter).
GIS at MSF has been developed as a service to MSF operations since 2013. In January 2021, the GIS services was transformed in an Intersectional Centre of Expertise & Services serving effectively the full Movement. The GIS Centre is coordinated out of Geneva and organized as a network of internal and external partners spread out across France, Austria, and Czech Republic, etc.
MSF’ GIS core mission is to support informed decision-making through better spatial comprehension, enhancing the focus of health services around patients, and increasing the impact and efficiency of MSF’s regular and emergency interventions. GIS Service team aims to provide an inter-MSF operational support system, thanks to a framework of dedicated tools and services, that is reliable, agile, adapted to emergency contexts and needs, timely, and efficient.
Mission
The position is a mainly managerial function, dealing with a technical area (humanitarian GIS) in an operational context.
The Head of GIS Services will manage and lead the GIS Services team which provides GIS services ensuring end user need matching. As such, (s)he will oversee the prioritization of clearly expressed needs and will ensure that the solutions provided by both Service and Product teams are responding to needs, delivered on time, within budget, adhere to high-quality standards and meet the internal customer expectations. (S)he will ensure that the GIS on Offer is responding to the evolution of operational challenges and needs and are correctly advertised and supported to ensure good adoption of GIS solutions.
As part of the GIS Centre Management Team [GCMT, composed of the Director and the two heads of service] (s)he will contribute to the definition of GIS policies, strategies, and action plans, ensure their implementation for his/her Service stream, and is accountable towards the GIS Centre’ Strategic Committee (its Board).
Responsibilities
(S)he conducts the policy of the GIS Centre: contributes to the definition and implements the policy, manages her/his budget, manages the internal, partnered and external teams (Chambery; Geneva, Prague, Vienna/ Salzburg) + ensure functional management of GIS advisor network.
(S)he is expert of very high level in their field (geomatics) and accountable for the Service stream which includes:
- GIS Products & services on offer definition, evolution and promotion.
- Overall prioritization of accurate GIS Products & Services requested to Products teams to answer MSF operational needs.
- Accompaniment and support to end users support.
- Managing GIS Services Stream, providers and budget.
As manager of the Service stream
- (S)he is accountable for overall prioritization of needs and quality of services
- (S)he is accountable for the GIS Products & services on offer definition and evolution
- (S)he is accountable for GIS services & products quality and end users support
- (S)he is accountable for GIS products and services adoption withing the MSF Movement
- (S)he is responsible for Budget management
- (S)he is responsible for Providers management
Your Profile
Education
- University degree in computer science, information systems, engineering or related field or equivalent experience.
- Post-graduate diploma / certificate/ proven experience in humanitarian GIS or data management, and project management is a strong asset.
Experience
- 5 to 10 years of work experience in humanitarian/GIS humanitarian is required.
- 3-5 years of work experience as service manager
- Experience in an international and multicultural environment.
Skills/ Technical competencies
- Outstanding analysis and synthesis skills
- Excellent understanding of the humanitarian sector and the application of GIS within the sector
- Strong capacity to capture the end users needs and good sense of support
- Knowledge of GIS systems is an asset
- Knowledge of various business areas
- Capacity to lead internal and external project team
- Vendor management
- Project management certification (PMP, Prince2, Hermes) or recognized project management curriculum is an asset
- Agile methodology knowledge is an asset
Languages
- Fluent in English and French (oral and written), both are mandatory.
Personal Abilities
- Strong capacity to manage expectations
- Outstanding capacity to deliver
- Very strong oral and written presentation skills
- Autonomous and very well organized
- Charismatic and capacity to convince
- Excellent team player/team leader
- Quality and results oriented
- Flexible
- Pro-active
- Committed to MSF values
Terms of Employment
- Full-time position 100% (40h/week)
- Open-ended contract
- Working place: Geneva
- Ideal start date: July 15th, 2024
- Gross annual salary (for 100%): from CHF 118’776.- to CHF 133’272.- (salary commensurate with equivalent experience and internal salary grid)
- Paid vacation: 25 days per year, prorate temporis, plus any Swiss public holidays falling within the contract period.
- Pension plan: pension contribution covered 3/4 by MSF, 1/4 by staff member
- Relocation package if moving from a different country to Switzerland.
How to apply
Candidates submit their application following the requirements: CV 2 p. max. – letter of motivation 1p. max. – in French or English.
Deadline for application is April 1st, 2024.
We reserve the right to close the position early if we consider the number and quality of applications received to be sufficient.
The applications will be treated confidentially.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
Only applications submitted on our recruitment platforms will be considered.
Please note that we do not wish to use the services of recruitment or placement agencies.
At MSF, we are committed to an inclusive culture that encourages and supports the diverse voices of our staff members. We strive to create workplaces where teams of people with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, perspectives, ideas and experiences work together for the social mission of MSF to create better outcomes for our patients and the communities we work with.
We welcome applications from individuals of all genders, ages, sexual orientations, ethnicities, background, religions, beliefs, ability status, and all other diversity characteristics.
MSF does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of discrimination or harassment, including sexual harassment. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo reference checks.