Advisor II– Health Supply Chain Management

Job Title: Advisor II– Health Supply Chain Management
Reports to: Health Supply Chain Team Lead
Department: Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM)
Location: Open to International Telecommuting

Background:
Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. In FY20, CRS’ activities in over 100 countries assisted local partners in reaching more than 140 million project participants. CRS and its partners served over 90 million people within the health sector through over 150 projects implemented in 44 countries. These projects address one or more of the following service areas: emergency health services, child health, child protection, early childhood development, health systems strengthening, malaria, nutrition, safe motherhood, tuberculosis, and HIV.
Job Summary:
The position holder will be part of the STAR Health team in GSCM. You will advise Regions and CRS’ Country Programs (CPs) on the implementation of CRS’ health products SCM, including but not limited to ensuring CP-level alignment to WHO, donors’, CRS’ and relevant governments’ standards, regulations, policies, and procedures on the management of health products logistics. You will also develop guidance and procedures to support the Region in the design of health SCM operations with proposal development or review, , including quantification and budgeting, in establishing cyclical SCM planning, in-country logistics planning optimization, and performance management. In addition, the Health SCM Advisor will collaborate with the System and Performance unit of the GSCM on the development of digital health solution and serve as an SME for the health SCM solution development the CRS relevant technical assistance, partner support initiative and the last-mile data visibility project.
Specific Responsibilities:

1. Foster and support the deployment of SCM policies / procedures as follows:

   • With the support of KML, serve as the SME to develop the technical components required on the policies and procedures related Health supply chain grants.
   • Serve as SME/technical or deployment advisor on all relevant policy / procedure roll outs
   • Contribute actively to harmonizing and standardizing the best practices in Health SCM across CRS-supported countries. And support the development of tools and procedures tailored to country specificity.

2. Cultivate Heath SCM innovation and transformation as follows:

   • In collaboration with the S&P team, identify metrics to measure the performance of the health supply chains grants. Work with GSCM and Regional Advisors to build the capacity of CP, regional and global staff to use these metrics for decision-making.
   • In collaboration with other GSCM units and stakeholder departments, develop technical assistance tools and programs to help develop the capacity of partners and other interested implementers.
   • Identify gaps in SCM policies, procedures and practices leading to risk and/or constraining growth. Assist with the formulation of new policies and procedures as requested.

3. Serve as the SME to support in collaboration with the S&P team, initiatives in the digital health deployment in SCM, including but not limited to developing initiatives to improve LMIS data quality in Regions and CPs with Health SCM:

   • Support the organization of the HMIS/LMIS comparison exercises across different grants. And identify appropriate interventions to address the identified weaknesses.
   • Contribute to the creation of HSCM end-to-end visibility and serve as an SME to develop a new solution or application to improve data visibility.
   • Provide Technical Health SCM support on the review of opportunities to work towards the optimization of Insight system usage.

4. Promote the professionalization and excellence of field-level Health SCM Teams including the strengthening of local partners:

   • Collaborate closely with Regional Offices (ROs) to provide timely advice, support compliance, and build knowledge of relevant Health supply chain solutions.
   • Help develop viable short- and long-term knowledge management and learning strategies, including training and orientation materials for Health supply chain.
   • Develop tools to support improved planning and execution of Health supply chains and guidance for proposal writing. With KML, develop ways to consistently socialize these tools and embed them into CP, regional, and global practices.
   • Work with RTAs to identify key considerations for organizational structures and staff capacity in the Health Supply chain. Help CPs and advisors to develop JDs, recruit experts, and develop learning pathways for existing staff. Support as requested CP-level SCM staff recruitment and onboarding.
   • Mentor Regional Technical Advisors (RTAs) on Health SCM.
   • Review CRS and donor-mandated health programs’ audit findings and performance gaps/risks and support the Region and CPs to develop proactive solutions to minimize risks and address audit recommendations.

5. Bachelor’s degree in public health, pharmacy, or related discipline. Additional SCM Certification is highly desired.

6. At least five (5) years of international health products warehousing, transportation, and logistics experience in a large corporate or government organization or the humanitarian sector, including experience living and working overseas.

7. Relevant hands-on experience in managing or advising on the transportation, storage, and distribution of health products, particularly in developing countries with specific expertise in assessing policies, systems, and structures in public and/or private health sector relevant for managing effective and efficient access to pharmaceuticals, lab commodities, and other health products, particularly for malaria.

8. Proven understanding of AIDS, TB, and malaria medical products market dynamics and existing global supply challenges and international health products procurement and supply management practices, applicable national and international laws, and recognized standards.

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.