Procurement & Client Services Manager

Organization description

The Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM) strengthens, develops, and manages secure, reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable global supply chains to improve the health and well-being of people in low- and middle-income countries through increased access to quality and affordable health products. We help governments, non-profit organizations, and humanitarian agencies to achieve their public health goals through cost-saving procurement, efficient logistics, pharma-grade storage, last-mile delivery solutions, and real-time data tracking. PFSCM demonstrates its commitment to customer satisfaction and service excellence by upholding an ISO 9001:2015 certified Quality Management System that underpins all our processes, systems, and services.

PFSCM is a subsidiary of one of the leading international health consultancy organizations in the US — JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI). In addition to our project management headquarters in Washington D.C., in the U.S., and our operational facility in Woerden, in the Netherlands, we have access to 50 other JSI offices around the world.

Within PFSCM’s global structure, approximately 120 seconded staff members from more than 50 countries contribute to the impact achieved through PFSCM’s services. PFSCM’s diversity of thought and culture allows us to engage fully with our clients and each other. We believe we can achieve our mission by upholding our purpose- and results-driven cultural style. We do this by creating an environment where staff can demonstrate our cultural values of collaboration, learning, proactivity, problem solving, and outcome orientation on a daily basis.

Overall responsibilities

The Procurement & Client Services Manager will provide effective and efficient operational principal recipient (PR) services, procurement, order fulfillment, and customer service solutions specific to procurement and order fulfillment requirements of our clients and their principal recipients as well as PFSCM strategies. This role is primarily responsible to cultivate strong relationships with PRs while contributing to PFSCM’s international product fulfillment strategy and for client relations in line with shifting demand patterns, complex global supply chain requirements, and supply chain risks requiring emergency, ad hoc, or long-term solutions, in coordination with the other Procurement & Client Services Managers, Supplier Engagement, Logistics, and Sourcing & Supplier Contract colleagues.

The Procurement & Client Services Manager is expected to act as a key counterpart to the Global Fund’s PR Services Unit and principal recipients to understand and respond to their priorities and concerns, and to be able to provide a bird’s eye view of the status and progress of requisitions and purchase order transactions specific to their category or region. The Manager fosters collaboration across PFSCM Units; and develops and maintains effective relationships within the organization and with external stakeholders in order to manage processes, monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), clarify specifications, develop requirements, and order products.

The Procurement & Client Services Manager is expected to identify continuous improvement opportunities and to ensure client demands and contractual obligations are met for the procurement and/or fulfillment of the assigned products and/or countries. This position is a key contributor to the design and implementation of the PPM Project Strategy. The Manager is expected to lead in technical expertise in operational procurement and order fulfillment systems with proficient managerial capabilities.

The Procurement & Client Services Manager directs and manages the product and/or country(ies) portfolio within the PPM Client Services Team and is responsible for Unit performance on key performance indicators and staff management, development, support, and coaching of the specialists.

Specific responsibilities

• Lead the assigned product and/or country(ies) portfolio activities with the Global Fund to ensure that client priorities are understood and incorporated into the Client Services Unit priorities, that there is proactive communication with the PRs and PR Services around their priorities and any challenges to meeting their requests, and appropriate follow up to eradicate blockages.
• Lead the assigned product and/or country portfolio’s order fulfillment strategy in order to meet and exceed the clients’ expectations while following their policies and requirements; and to adequately address known and new supply chain challenges as well as to effectively and rapidly respond to emergency situations while contributing to seamless customer service.
• Provide order management oversight in collaboration with other Procurement & Client Services Managers, Logistics Manager, and Supplier Engagement team to ensure PFSCM maintains visibility of orders from receipt through to delivery, and ensuring that any issues are addressed and communicated to the client prior to escalation. This will be done in addition to the individual teams’ order status reviews.
• Maintain and provide key portfolio knowledge and maintain a client and PR perspective of needs and issues. Represent the Global Fund’s interests within PFSCM and PFSCM’s needs back to the Global Fund.
• Working with the PPM Project Director, other Procurement & Client Services Managers, the Logistics Manager, Supplier Engagement, and Sourcing & Supplier Contracts Unit, contribute to the development and manage a work plan for the effective fulfillment of product/country needs for an effective, agile, and responsive risk mitigation strategy to ensure uninterrupted supply chain operations and business continuity, including supporting overall supplier performance management.
• Manage requisition and purchase order turnaround processes (REQ TA and PO TA) and lead analysis and review of process indicators to proactively spot outliers; and advise and oversee recommendations for resolution, working with the Performance Management & Analytics Unit as appropriate.
• Monitor the prompt client services contribution to incident management regarding complaints and incidents in collaboration with the Client Account Management, Strategic Supply Chain, PPM Project, 4PL, Finance and Accounting, and Quality Units.
• Collaborate with the Product Technical and Sourcing & Supplier Contracts Units on procurement and sourcing strategies to meet the procurement needs and engagement activities.
• Manage client and PR relationships and cultivate a robust, proactive, and structured customer service approach that ensures all client or PR complaints are adequately addressed and resolved in a timely and efficient manner, in consultation with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Oversee data accuracy and ensure that unit data are up to date.
• Actively work to identify and convert client and PR supply chain challenges into PFSCM opportunities by systematizing appropriate solutions.
• Contribute to the PFSCM requisition fulfillment policies, strategies, and procedures to ensure operational requirements are defined and supplier intelligence and capability understood allowing for the safe, timely, and economical delivery of global services.
• Oversee preparation of regular and ad-hoc reporting on any order fulfillment-related status and/or performance; including fulfilling client requirements of data sharing.
• Develop, maintain, and manage to standard operating procedures and work instructions, including continuous improvement reviews and updates.
• Lead and manage the assigned portfolio in full accordance with PFSCM policies, standard operating procedures, and work instructions in collaboration with the senior team members.
• Manage staff and unit performance at a global level and individual level and provide ongoing feedback.
• Develop and maintain an on-boarding training program and regular refresher training for internal teams, new hires, and external stakeholders for alignment on processes and SOPs.
• Perform additional duties as necessary to increase team capacity and maintain performance, working with senior staff and the PPM Project Director.

Qualifications

Professional and Technical Knowledge

• Bachelor’s Degree in procurement, supply chain management, public health, or other related area or equivalent experience. Master’s Degree preferred.
• 8+ years’ of procurement and/or product category experience required.
• Previous management experience required.
• Proven track record in procurement and collaboration with national and international suppliers and stakeholders, including government and the donor community.
• Experience in the international, public health sector and procuring or ordering laboratory or medical equipment and supplies, RDTs, or COVID, Viral Load/Early Infant Diagnostics products is preferred.
• Experience in the international, public health sector is preferred.
• Previous experience working with international donor agencies, preferred.
• Advanced computing skills in standard software systems, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Experience with ERP required.
• Willingness and availability to travel, and perform other duties as assigned.
• Must be eligible to work in the Netherlands. It is important for the applicant to be a resident in the Netherlands, have valid work authorization, and be willing to travel to the office periodically.

Leadership/Strategic Thinking

• Strong leadership and proven ability to recruit, direct, train, and manage a team of personnel.
• Strong action management including the ability to manage project in the most cost efficient manner; resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgement, and the ability to make sound decisions under pressing conditions.

Interpersonal skills/Communication

• Strong interpersonal skills with client relations and customer service experience and an ability to work across disciplines and in diverse locations internationally.
• Strong negotiation skills and contracting and service-level agreement management experience with suppliers.
• Experience successfully managing external relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders in multi-cultural environments and in diverse locations internationally, including governments and the donor community.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. English fluency required, including speaking, writing, understanding, and reading. French/Spanish language skills is a plus.

Priority Setting, Problem Solving, & Detail Orientation

• Strong organization skills with an eye for details, ability to plan, prioritize, and implement day-to-day operations in a timely manner in a fast moving, dynamic and time-bound environment.