UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to a Future

How can you make a difference

UNICEF Supply Division (SD) works to ensure equitable and inclusive access to essential supplies and services for children and their families, in development, humanitarian and fragile contexts. These supplies are critical to saving lives, supporting children’s health and education, and protecting them from abuse, exploitation, and neglect. As the UN’s largest end to end supply chain entity, UNICEF leverages its global reach, market influence, supply chain expertise and partnerships with governments, civil society, private sector, industry, and other stakeholders to meet children’s needs and protect their rights around the world.

SD focuses on three result areas to maximize impact, scale, and effectiveness: strategic procurement; supply preparedness and response in humanitarian and fragile contexts; and supply chain optimization. To facilitate and accelerate progress toward these results, SD employs three change strategies: financing for supply and services, supply chain digitalization and supply chain localization.

Procurement centres are responsible for the supply operation, including strategic market intelligence, forecasting, procurement, delivery, innovation and analysis of product groups and procurement strategies. The contracting function leads in expertise on the supply landscape, markets, value for money and interaction with global partners to increase access and sustainable supply which can be accessed by government buyers. The incumbent provides support to optimization projects and is responsible for technical assistance and knowledge management, including knowledge sharing via communication pieces on key products/markets and publication of information.

Ensures all procurement activities for pharmaceuticals for project countries are in compliance with the UNICEF Financial Rules and Regulations, SD Manual, and all other applicable procurement procedures.
Manages procurement of materials; including proposal of supply strategy and procurement modality: LTA's, Regional Procurement, Direct Order, LPA etc.
Issues international tender invitations to acceptable suppliers, evaluates quotations, clarifies offers, and negotiates with suppliers as appropriate.
Makes recommendations for finalization of purchases, adjudicates offers in consultation with Technical Unit and QA centres. Prepares and defends submissions to CRC. Establishes supply arrangements.
Conducts contracts management to ensure supplier compliance to LTA’s and purchase order terms and conditions.
Works closely with project countries and partners providing procurement input for project planning, design, work plan and procurement coordination and integration, including development of long-term forecasting of quantities.
Ensures adequate and coordinated planning of procurement and demand of pharmaceuticals, manages specific procurement projects for pharmaceuticals in the project countries, including for evaluation or scale up.
Reviews and provides recommendations for Local Procurement by Field Offices.
Reviews material specifications and requirements with the Technical and QA Centres to ensure completeness and appropriateness.
In partnership with Technical and QA centres, evaluates suppliers with respect to delivery performance, product acceptability, and commercial acceptability.
Establishes work plans and priorities, monitors achievements and evaluates performance of support staff.
Any other duties or assignments as requested by the supervisor

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Download File Contracts Specialist_ P3_CSC

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Business Administration, Public Health, Procurement, Supply Chain Management and any other related fields.
Work Experience: Five years of progressively responsible professional experience including at least three at the international level.
Experience in procurement / contracting of pharmaceuticals.
Experience in commercial activities with the public or private sector in developing and industrialized countries.
Experience from analytical work and negotiations.
Experience and ability to manage and monitor the effective use of financial and material resources.
Experience in use of computer applications, including internet navigation and various office applications.
Skills: Skills in tendering, vendor management, negotiation, demand planning, quality assurance, and project management. Ability to supervise and direct a team of support staff.
Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.
Project management certification and/or health product supply management certification
Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, fraud, corruption and other forms of serious misconduct.UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference, safeguarding and background verification checks. These checks may include verification of academic credentials and employment history, screening against relevant United Nations misconduct databases, and requests for misconduct disclosures from current and former employers, professional associations, other relevant organizations and participating organizations under inter-agency safeguarding initiatives, including the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS), where applicable.Appointment, selection and continued engagement are subject to the satisfactory completion of all required checks. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information and consent to enable UNICEF to undertake these checks.Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments are conditional on the selected candidates willingness to comply with current or future vaccination requirements, should UNICEF mandate it for personnel. Failure to comply with such requirements, where applicable and without a duly approved medical exemption from the relevant UN authority, will result in the cancellation of the selection or may lead to other administrative measures, including separation from service.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

Contracts Specialist (Medicines), P-3, Temporary Position, 364 days, Supply Division, Copenhagen, Denmark, #00138800