Support Service Specialist (Manager) – P4  

The Position:

The Head of Pillar 4 – Support Services position is located in the UNFPA Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU). The position reports directly to the Chief, SCMU. The Head of Pillar 4 – Support Services will work closely with other SCMU colleagues, other HQ Business Units, the Regional Offices and the Country Offices and with a number of external partners.

The Head of Pillar 4 – Support Services will support the Chief, SCMU, to ensure that critical infrastructure aligns with the UNFPA SCMU’s Terms of Reference (TOR). This encompasses overseeing financial management, inventory control, human resources, ICT, general administration, and liaison with the Host Government.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA occupies a unique position in the sexual and reproductive health commodity ecosystem as a critical player in supply chain management, a leading public procurer of sexual and reproductive health commodities, a trusted partner to national governments, and one of the few organizations with the scale and partnerships necessary to build accountability for last mile delivery. 

The UNFPA Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU) is self-funded and was made operational in January 2022. It is tasked with ensuring that UNFPA is able to effectively and efficiently support the delivery of life-saving reproductive health products and other programme supplies to the end user when and where they are needed. To achieve this, it is important to strengthen the capacity of governments and implementing partners to ensure coordination, end-to-end visibility and accountability on all supply chain and logistics management related activities, in particular for programme supplies, across all UNFPA programmes. 
 

Job Purpose:

The Head of Pillar 4 – Support Services plays a critical leadership role in strategically guiding effective resource utilization and ensuring the highest standards of support function excellence to facilitate the SCMU’s TOR. The position will provide strategic oversight and management of a dedicated Pillar.

Qualifications and Experience:

Education:  

Advanced university degree required.  An advanced degree in Commerce, Accounting, Finance, Public Administration, Business Administration, International Development, Public Policy, Supply Chain Management, Risk Management, or other related fields is an added advantage. Specialist training or qualification on United States and/or European Union funded Grant Management and Grant Compliance, Anti-Corruption, Due Diligence, Accountability, and/or Enterprise Risk Management would be an added advantage.

Knowledge and Experience:

• A minimum of seven (7) years of relevant, progressively responsible experience in operations management area, particularly in budget; financial management and general administration. Candidates should demonstrate experience in the below key areas, with the understanding that these experiences may overlap:
• At least three (3) years of hands-on experience working with diverse and senior level stakeholder groups or multi-stakeholder partnerships in development and/or complex humanitarian operating environments in low-resource countries. Candidates must demonstrate a deep understanding of the unique challenges and regulations specific to these contexts. This field experience is required.
• Additionally, at least two (2) years of experience in managing operations with funding from Donors such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Union, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) or the United Nations system or equivalent, with an understanding of their compliance and reporting requirements.
• Experience in Results-Based Management is a requirement.
• Demonstrated expertise in change management, with a strong track record in guiding teams through significant organisational changes. 
• Experience in managing a team, particularly within a remote and/or matrix organizational structure is required.
• Strong interpersonal skills and capability to develop and maintain broad diversified partnerships is required.
• Professional written and spoken presentation skills, including for the development of reports, presentations, and the ability to synthesize complex supply chain documents for both technical and non-technical audiences is required.
• Experience using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is required.
• Basic knowledge of the principles and operational aspects of sexual and reproductive health commodities in global development and humanitarian setting is an asset.

Languages: 

Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

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