Chain Supplier Specialist, Regional At Plan International

Date: 02-Oct-2021

Location: Home office must reside and have work permit in any of the following countries ; Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Paraguay,Brazil, Bolivia.

Company: Plan International

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

role PURPOSE

This is an opportunity to grow Supply Chain performance and expertise in countries where Plan operates and evaluate impact of our support to Countries and RH, as much as strengthening the Global Hub systems that enable best in class Supply Chain management in Countries.

The Supply Chain Specialist acts as a Country Business Partner for all global Supply Chain projects’ implementation but is also the main point of contact to drive regional Supply Chain excellence and strategies appropriate to context. She / He can deliver strategic inputs and directions to Country Offices and RH.

This is a pivotal role in developing Supply Chain awareness and efficiency in a regional pool of Countries, driving processes and systems improvement as much as ensuring that adequate capacities and capabilities are in place within our Country Offices and RH. To drive this, the Supply Chain Specialist is strongly engaged with Countries’ staff to ensure alignment, compliance and performance in systems application and usage.

This position will ensure legal compliance for consultancy and services contracts at Regional Hub level aligned to global policies and local regulations.

Dimensions of the Role

Supply Chain management in the scope of this position will include:

• Technical processes across Operational Planning, Procurement, Assets, Inventory and Warehouse Management, Distribution, Fleet, Gifts in Kind in both Humanitarian and Development contexts
• Systems usage support and development (tools & templates, procedures, policies)
• HR structure definition support in Country Offices
• Staff capacity building
• Legal and corporate policies compliance at local and regional hub level

The postholder must have the ability to strategically engage and orientate a Country towards continuous improvement, realigning processes and systems, supporting the definition of appropriate HR structures, quantitative performance management through the usage and analysis of information systems (either Excel tools, SAP or ERP), in the aim to level all his/her Countries from the portfolio at the same maturity.

This role will give the post holder an opportunity to engage regularly and for extended periods of time, with country office and programme unit staff across the functions described above. This will be in both an emergency response context and in a gap filling, project development or management role during non-emergency periods. There will also be opportunities to support key projects being undertaken by the Global Logistics and Procurement Team.

Budgets – The postholder may have budgetary responsibility when deployed to an emergency response or gap filling role.

Staff – The postholder may be given line management and leadership responsibility of logistics and procurement operations during an emergency response or gap filling role.

Stakeholder Engagement – Internally, the postholder will engage across functional and geographical boundaries at an operational and tactical level. Externally there will be engagement within and outside the sector to further Plan’s L & P operational objectives, including INGOs, UN agencies, partners and suppliers.

Geographical boundaries: The Supply Chain Specialist works with a regional portfolio of Countries in Region of the Americas where Plan operates.
Our current Operations in this are in: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Domenican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Perú, El Salvador, Panamá and Venezuela.

Legal: Ensure legal and corporate policies compliance

Accountabilities

Country Business Partner

1. General management and coordination

Build a strong and trustworthy relationship with the Logistics and Procurement Teams in Countries, up to the Director of Operations and Country Directors, seeking engagement and partnership.

1. Operational support

Operational support is given within a framework of continuous evaluation of all the Supply Chain areas of a CO, deep-diving into deep rooted issues and ensuring CO is empowered to deliver sustainable recommendations.

C. Capacity building

• Support staff selection and recruitment processes, as much as onboarding and induction
• Actively engage in the development and coordination of Regional Community of Practice, supporting the development of agenda and running the sessions
• Continuously upskill Countries and RH staff, engaging them in developing solutions to their Supply Chain challenges
• Deliver capacity building and training through the Community of Practices, micro learning, workshops, webinars or in-country training, as much as using the L&P Planet page to share appropriate information, Workplace or any other digital platform
• Support the L&P Team in rolling out necessary systems in Country Offices, as much as advising on appropriate methodology to do so

Supply Chain excellence and compliance

Be a Supply Chain regional expert and focal point for a regional pool of Countries and RH

• Map, assess, control and support improvement of Supply Chain processes adherence in Country Offices and RH, using a structured Supply Chain evaluation framework for either Emergency or Development projects
• Develop and maintain a Country coordination and knowledge management system, ensuring a feedback mechanism from Country Offices and RH is in place, enabling proactive identification of gaps and risks
• Proactively report on ongoing activities (country / region), challenges, successes to a varied range of stakeholders, as much as a delivering a regional overview and identification of strategic development

Emergency preparedness and response

Remotely or during deployment, the Supply Chain Specialist ensures emergency response is in line with policies and procedures, compliant with donor regulations and sustainable for post emergency. He / She reviews the appropriate definition and improvement of ER management systems, analysing and addressing gaps as much as supporting the appropriate HR capacity:

• Operational management:
  • Provides functional leadership and support within emergency response settings, including the assessment, design, start-up, budget management, and implementation of emergency supply chain activities for multiple projects.
  • Provides rapid and high-quality technical input in project operational planning, enabling fast and effective delivery to meet humanitarian needs, as well as ensuring that they are in line with donor guidelines and operations manual regarding implementation and reporting
  • Rapid response workforce planning including recruitments, intensive training and situational, supportive management.
  • Lead and/or oversee the rapid scale of procurement activities including the identification of international and local sourcing options, management of downstream supply pipeline, contracting of goods, services and works suppliers, and liaising with Global Hub procurement team and whilst always providing assurance, implementation and appropriate controls.
• Provide oversight, coordination, advice and implementation (when required) of
  • inventory and warehouse management across multiple projects including GIK management which may include setting up of temporary warehouses and transit hubs, renting of warehousing space, contingency stock management and the receipt of donations.
  • Fleet management and transport operations for emergency response including co-ordinating with existing country office operations to identify needs, acquire and utilise a variety of modes to meet the emergency response requirements needs safely and effectively.
  • asset management for all emergency response assets including; donor liaison, disposal plans asset verification, compliant purchasing.
  • office and staff accommodation, and other premises in fast changing and volatile environments.
  • emergency response distributions, including multi-partner planning, site set up, security, local authority liaison, and material resource planning.
  • Coordination and reporting including Logistics Cluster engagement and civil-military liaison in an emergency response, as much as collaboration with other response team members (e.g. market assessment and infrastructure/supply chain assessments
• Sustainability of operations
  • Deploy to conduct real time evaluations as needed
  • Review of end-to-end emergency response supply chain processes: map and assess supply chain emergency preparedness and response capability (HR, systems, operations), analysing gaps and recommending for measured improvement, supporting implementation of those.
• As required, you may also be asked to oversee or perform duties relating to IT, comms (VHF, HF and sat phones), security and safety management, customs, importation and government liaison and supporting and working with local partners.

Team support and Subject Matter Expertise

• Support the L&P Team in GH in developing fit for purpose systems and training materials
• Whilst you are a regional specialist in every function within the Supply Chain, be a Subject Matter Expert on either (depending profile):
  • Assets management,
  • Inventory, Gifts in Kind & Warehousing,
  • Distribution / Transport,
  • Fleet management,
  • Emergency Preparedness and Response,

providing technical expertise, being a process owner and delivering a global support for high scale process and systems improvement, training and troubleshooting.

• Specially for the Emergency Preparedness and Response SME:
  • Provide support to the Disaster Risk Management Team in developing appropriate Logistics management systems and tools
  • Support the development of the Emergency Roster pool members, ongoing training / capacity building and selection for deployments
  • Support the management of the preparedness stock and strategy

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge**

Essential

• Bachelor degree in administration or related area, with post-grade in logistics or related area.
• Spanish speaking, English proficiency.
• Experience in strategically coordinating and mentoring a portfolio of Countries
• Strong capacity in Excel, Word and Power Point
• Strong analytical skills, problem solving, data driven, and solutions oriented
• Performance and continuous improvement oriented
• Autonomous, proactive in defining and suggesting of areas of improvement
• Strong negotiating and influencing skills to achieve operational outcomes, applying a breadth of approaches, styles and techniques to achieve desired outcomes.
• Proven interpersonal skills (role model in motivating, developing and supporting others), including performance and change management
• Effective communicating and collaborating across cultural, geographical and structural boundaries, engaging positively and constructively with colleagues.
• Strong project management and organisational skills results oriented and comfortable making decisions and taking appropriate risks.
• Ability to build and maintain strong working internal and external relationships and represent Plan in a professional and competent manner
• Experience of leading emergency response supply chain function(s) at a country level, in disaster response contexts.
• Experience in start-ups and implementation of donor grant projects, knowledge of donor rules and regulations.
• Experience and knowledge of humanitarian Supply Chain management, with a technical background across all aspects of supply chain management: Planning, sourcing, procurement, assets, inventory / GIK & warehousing, fleet, logistics, distribution, staffing.
• Experience of contributing to market and rapid needs assessments, contributing to emergency response and project plans.
• Knowledge and experience of risk and fraud identification and management, including short- and long-term mitigation strategies.
• Experience of delivering logistics and procurement training in a variety of methods.
• Ability to work and provide effective leadership in complex and stressful situations, equally comfortable working in leadership, management and hands-on roles in rapidly changing contexts.
• Knowledge and experience of working with an ERP (e.g. SAP) or other supply chain management IT solutions would be an advantage.
• Demonstrable understanding of, and commitment to humanitarian principles, humanitarian response work and child protection standards.
• Demonstrable understanding of, and commitment to, equal opportunities, gender and diversity.

Desirable

• One additional Plan language to a working level would be a strong advantage (e.g. French and Portuguese language at working level/).
• Knowledge and/or experience of non-traditional, non-direct supply chain delivery modalities, including working with local partners and working with markets and cash-based delivery would be an advantage.

Type of Role: Fixed Term

Grade: E

Closing Date: October 17th 2021

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.