Senior Emergency Supply Chain Specialist

Position type: Full time permanent 37.5 hours per week with occasional evening/weekend working – flexible hours considered (Previous Applicants need not apply)

Location: Truro, Cornwall (hybrid) or remote working (UK) with regular travel to Truro at least 4x per year)

Travel: Work away from home, UK or overseas. Travel predominantly includes emergency responses, deploying to support in-country programmes, business trips, attending/delivering training. You may be required to work away from home circa 30% of your time in any calendar year.

Who are we looking for:

It is expected that the Senior Emergency Supply Chain Specialist (SESCS) will have significant prior experience in humanitarian supply chains, at international, regional, and local level and will have extensive experience in delivering aid in an emergency context. The SESCS is an enthusiastic team member and a creative problem-solver with a keen eye for detail. They see opportunities in challenges and have outstanding interpersonal skills. This role would be ideally suited to someone with humanitarian emergency response experience both at an HQ, regional and field level. This role is suited to someone who has experience in mentoring junior colleagues and who is looking to progress their career and take on line management responsibilities, whilst also working directly on delivering emergency response programmes. The role will be starting at a time where ShelterBox is going through significant change with a Business Systems Transformation taking place across the organisation to improve our ways of working. This will allow us to be more effective in the face of mounting humanitarian needs and we therefore look forward to welcoming candidates who remain flexible and open to change.

Role purpose

This role will be a core member of the Supply Chain Team, within the International Programmes Directorate and will report to the Programme Supply Chain Manager. The SESCS will work closely with the Supply Chain Managers, Emergency Team, Regional Directors and Programme Managers and it is expected that the SESCS will be assigned to work mainly on the Emergency Responses and line manage Emergency / Supply Chain Specialists or Junior Supply Chain Specialists. Although other regions and countries may also require support at times. The SESCS will engage in numerous tasks and projects encompassing the entire supply chain, from global and local scoping, tactical planning, and strategic supply chain management, to negotiation, procurement, and readiness. The goal of the SESCS is to assist ShelterBox aid recipients by managing humanitarian supplies to provide aid and support to disaster-stricken areas, both from a distance and on-site.

Duties will include but not be limited to:

• Lead and coordinate the design and implementation of the supply chain for an assigned Emergency Response or Programme. This includes assessing and selecting supply options/route; supporting tax free importation and customs clearance; developing last-mile logistics solutions including in-country freight and warehousing; supporting the sourcing of operational services and goods at a local, regional, and global level; advising and reviewing partner procurement; and supporting CVA modalities to ensure high quality, timely responses.
• Responsible for tendering international freight requests to ensure best value, service, and accountability for movement of relief supplies. Including overseeing shipping of aid items by air, sea, road, or rail and arranging the preparation and provision of relevant shipping documentation.
• Establish, develop, and lead on good supply chain relationships with freight forwarders, suppliers, other humanitarian actors, relevant government departments and logistics coordination mechanisms (Logs Cluster) at both global, regional, and field levels.
• Work with the Emergency Team and wider International Programmes Department to set up partnerships with other organisations.
• Provide line management and support to Emergency / Supply Chain Specialists/Junior Supply Chain specialists. Provide supervision to staff and volunteers during deployment and/or when providing on call remote support.
• Support with developing and delivering supply chain training for internal and external audiences.
• Be able to deploy and be the focal point for supply chain activities, setting up and overseeing the timely delivery of aid items and assistance. Possessing the ability to separate from the main team along with some team members and assume the role of a team leader for that subgroup.
• Be part of a roster and provide an out-of-hours first point of contact for supply chain activities for emergencies and deployed teams.
• Support ShelterBox to seek out new trends, innovations, and best practice in supply chain within the disaster relief sector. Be a champion for supply chain improvements within the International Programmes Department.
• Support the development of Supply Chain approaches, tools, templates policies and procedures to ensure more effective and efficient emergency responses.
• Identify, mitigate, and record supply chain risk in emergency responses and programmes and escalate when required.
• Contribute to delivering emergency preparedness activities.
• Play an active role in driving forward modifications in how we operate to enable ShelterBox to achieve our sustainable supply chain targets which include a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
• In collaboration with Global Supply Chain Manager support the management of prepositioned inventory including monitoring appropriate inventory levels, supporting tactical and strategic replenishments.
• Maintain excellent information management of supply chain activities, to ensure accurate record keeping and accountability and transparency of aid.
• Provide regular reporting and briefings for internal and occasionally external use.
• Ensure adherence to ShelterBox procedures and policies including those relating to safeguarding, code of conduct, safety, and security.