MANAGER, PROCUREMENT

CARE is an international NGO with local staff and community partners in more than 90 countries. We create local solutions to poverty and inequality and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis. These solutions have a broad range, from clean water to access to education; from microfinance to ensuring that everyone has nutritious food; from agriculture and climate change to disaster response. CARE puts women and girls at the center of everything we do because they have proven to be the best hope for creating lasting change in the world. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for over 70 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE Package® of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and fight with CARE.**”**

The main purpose of this position is to deliver the strategic and operational goals of CARE South Sudan’s procurement function. The position holder needs to ensure the unit provides efficient, effective, and quality management of procurement services. This includes technical support and mentoring to the various locations and Field Office staff. Regular analysis is required to inform workflow processes and subsequent improvements.

The incumbent is also responsible to ensure goods and services are sourced in a transparent manner, considering value for money and in compliance with CARE, donor and government regulations. The post holder is responsible for ensuring collaboration and coordination with Country program teams and other departments for effective program implementation. S/he will be required to keep up to date with developments in the sector, including best practice examples in-Country and Internationally to ensure the Country Office (CO) is well aligned with changes in the market

Leadership and management of the Country Office procurement function

• Ensure that CARE South Sudan is provided with the procurement management, analysis and support necessary to accomplish its strategic objectives.
• Lead the procurement department in effective and efficient procurement planning and management of resources.
• Ensure proper staffing/recruitment to enable the procurement team to manage CARE South Sudan’s resources efficiently and work with the program team to assign procurement department staff to support each project appropriately.
• Manage the procurement team towards high standards of performance through clear roles and responsibilities, on-going feedback and appraisals. Pro-actively address performance issues through timely constructive feedback and coaching.
• Ensure field office staff are technically supported and mentored to fulfill all procurement services.
• Lead the continuous improvement of procurement function of the Country Office to bring efficiency and effectiveness

Procurement Management, Planning and Reporting

• Support various teams to prepare annual procurement plans, consolidate procurement plans received from various teams (programs, program support and Field offices) and monitor its implementation.
• Develop and deliver capacity building plan based on Country specific procurement periodic assessments.
• Prepare and submit monthly procurement and supply chain management report to DCD Ops and provide weekly procurement status reports to relevant staff.
• Ensure that procurement data are timely analyzed and used for budget holders for accurate/informed decision making.
• Inform wider workflow processes through regular reporting and analytics for continued business improvement

Strategic sourcing of goods and services

• Analyze industry trends and evolving technology to proactively identify supply-based issues, minimize risks, ensure continuity of supply, and identify emerging vendors in the markets;
• Maintain market information for effective use of costs/prices for proposal development and day to day operation.
• Develop differentiated purchasing strategies for goods and services;
• Lead the identification of vendors (vendor pre-qualification), periodic evaluation/assessment for effective delivery so that the CO has effective/optimal mix of vendors

Policies, Procedures and Systems

• Develop and implement policies, procedures and operational systems that will ensure smooth running of CARE South Sudan’s procurement system and the delivery of an excellent standard of customer service by the procurement team.
• Maintain up to date knowledge of relevant CARE, donor and government of South Sudan procurement specific policies, procedures and statutory requirements, including keeping abreast of any changes (e.g. in tax laws, labor laws, etc..) and ensuring they are strictly adhered to.
• Monitor the relevance of existing policies, procedures and systems in order to identify areas for improvement, striving for greater efficiency; take corrective actions as appropriate, referring to leadership and accountable managers.
• Ensure that all required internal controls are in place and followed and continuously identify ways of strengthening systems to minimize fraud related risk.
• Ensure that all offices in the Country office have well constituted procurement committees so that there is consistent application of decision making within all committees.

Customers Service Excellence

• Ensure coherence in the procurement function (within procurement and across functions) to have positive impact on efficiency and value addition to the CO.
• Establish and maintain effective relationship with customers for improved service delivery.
• Conduct periodic customer surveys and use the outcomes for process improvement.
• Develop effective partnerships with peer agencies for customer service benchmarking and improvement.

Country Office Compliance/risk management

• Work with the Partnership and Sub-Grant teams (with procurement role or function) to train partners on prudent procurement processes and principles as well as applicable donor regulations
• Ensure detailed understanding and application of the procurement policy across the Country office.
• Ensure proper understanding and adherence to donor and CARE policies, Procedures, rules and regulations in all offices and that all procurement documents are professionally documented, have complete and accurate support documentation and are appropriately filed. Ensure that updated and complete procurement files are maintained in all offices.
• Identify, analyze and report compliance risks in procurement flows, implement strong procurement controls, identify procurement red flags and implement internal and external audit corrective action plans.
• Ensure all procurement activities are conducted in an ethical manner.
• Provide support to programs to ensure effective procurement management in sub awards and adherence to donor rules and regulations.
• Ensure that procurement data are timely analyzed and used for senior management and budget holders for accurate/informed decision making.

QUALIFICATIONS

1. Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field (Business Administration, Procurement/ purchasing, Logistics) or equivalent.
2. Relevant professional qualification in Procurement and or Supply Chain Management (CIPS qualification or equivalent is preferred)
3. Minimum of 4 years of relevant procurement management experience, 2 years of which should be in an international organization in a similar role dealing with both local and overseas procurement
4. Good understanding of various donor policies and procedures relevant to procurement
5. Knowledge of local markets, as well as International procurement regulations
6. Excellent analytical, negotiation and communication skills
7. Demonstrated integrity and of positive attitude
8. Ability to take initiative where appropriate to deal with difficulties encountered in daily work
9. Ability to adapt or change priorities according to the changing demands of the job
10. Customer oriented – internal and external