Country Purchasing Manager

ABOUT CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL

Children International Inc., herein referred to as CIM, based in Manila and Children International (Bicol) Inc., herein referred to as CIB, based in Bicol, are both affiliates of Children International, a global development organization, headquartered in Kansas City, USA, herein referred to as CIKC.

Children International's vision is to bring people together to end poverty for good. Our mission is to connect people around the world in the fight to end poverty. Working together, we invest in the lives of children and young people, build the healthy environments that they need to thrive, and support them to create a lasting change in their own lives and in their communities. In line with our program's strategic direction, Children International is committed to providing all children and youth with dynamic, engaging, and interesting learning opportunities to support their journey to become successful individuals and active citizens.

Children International's work is made possible by generous and caring sponsors, donors, corporations, more than 4,000 dedicated volunteers and approximately 1,200 employees.

The two locally registered entities CIB and CIM boast of a dedicated team of over 100 staff and 200+ volunteers each. The organization operates offices and programs that support close to 50,000 young people across different communities in Manila and Bicol.

THE CAREER OPPORTUNITY (MORE ABOUT THIS ROLE)

The Country Purchasing Manager position holds a pivotal role in assuring the two Agencies' ability to implement programs and meet commitments to both beneficiaries, sponsors, and donors through an innovative sourcing strategy, compliance to minimum standards, efficient distribution chains, and strategic partnership & alliances. This role reports administratively to the Agency Director and technically to the Regional Controller – Asia, CIKC.

As an innovative leader, you'll cultivate a high-performance culture aligned with CI's values. You'll champion engagement, well-being and development of your direct teams and promote accountability, collaboration, and adherence to our policies, including child safeguarding.

Your role involves driving problem-solving, maintaining and leveraging stakeholder relations, enabling effective communication workflows, and promoting continuous improvement. We seek a passionate advocate for children, possessing operational expertise, skill in vendor and other stakeholder management, and an interest in community development. If this excites you, you might just be who we're looking for.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THIS ROLE

1. Strategic Sourcing and adherence to CI Framework & minimum standards
   • Champion and ensure that CIM and CIB's Procurement, Logistics, as well as Asset Maintenance and Management strategies and plans, are aligned to the Global "CI Framework" and executed in line with global performance expectations.
   • Participate in the annual planning and budgeting process in line with defined goals and ensure reporting and accountability for its results.
   • Develop and drive implementation of a comprehensive annual purchasing plan and linked detailed monthly procurement plan.
   • Review, validate/update and drive implementation of the organization's operational policies and internal controls, including the purchasing manual and support the management in maintaining an environment of transparency and accountability.
   • Ensure timely and accurate documentation and reporting to Regional Controller, Agency Directors, and other leaders, including monthly/quarterly/annual progress and update reports, critical assessments, reflections, recommendations, and strategies for improvements.
   • Drive data integrity and ensure quality record keeping including inventory of goods, their safekeeping, and disposal.
   • Undertake annual orientation and quarterly procurement and distribution planning sessions with the purchasing committee. Update and guide the purchasing committee in their meetings, deliberations, and review its recommendations.
2. Supply chain & distributions
   • Prioritize all departments and teams, particularly the operating core, as essential internal customers. Ensure high customer satisfaction by delivering logistics, materials, and resources in a timely, quality-focused, and cost-effective manner, aligned with the agency's needs. Strive to achieve 100% of the expected outcome indicators.
   • Identify opportunities for improvement in quality and process speed, minimize losses while optimizing costs, for all kinds of purchases and procurements, general services, infrastructure/facilities management, financial management, transportation, and travel expenses with the organizations.
   • Supervise and coordinate in-kind donation import processes.
3. Vendor management & stakeholder partnerships
   • Lead vendor engagement and management. This includes, undertaking regular market research to identify potential new vendors and/or vendor movements, pricing trends, and supply conditions in line with Agency needs. Develop negotiation strategies and lead the negotiation meetings with vendors. Supervise the drafting and signing of purchasing and vendor contracts, in close communication with the Agency's legal advisor.
   • Ensure effective record/database upkeep of vendor/contractor credentials and accreditations as well as signed contracts.
   • Support the Agency Director to advance local vendor presence in the region. Collaborate with the Agency Leadership to plan and execute key stakeholder activities to identify, build and nurture strategic alliances with relevant partners/vendors.
4. Facilities, assets and fleet management
   • Track and ensure timely renewal of contract/business licenses/Insurance Policies when required.
   • Manage the electronic purchasing management system and make sure all purchases are duly reflected through the same. Provide capacity building/training and support to internal users on the system so that requests and follow-ups happen smoothly.
   • Lead in the development of adaptive fleet & mobilization system to maximize Agency's vehicles and other available safe & efficient transport options.
5. Team Leadership & Development
   • Maintain a close relationship with the accounting team, handle purchase and bid documents whenever they are requested for internal or external audit and control processes. Follow up and respond to any issues identified during agency audits (both internal or external audits).
   • Recruit, lead and develop an effective and efficient team within the Purchasing department, aligned to CI Values. Manage performance of direct team members through establishing clear accountability, coaching, and development.
   • Encourage continuous improvement initiatives and lead change within the Purchasing department to effectively adapt and integrate to the Child Path model, new operating model and as needed in the future to other complex, ever-changing work environments.
   • Collaborate with the agency Leadership team to identify, evaluate, and mitigate the risks associated with the organization.
   • Develop and enable a learning culture by ensuring constant learning and capacity building of team members throughout the implementation cycles, as well as partner with global teams and other stakeholders to share best practices, learnings.
   • Demonstrate behaviors aligned to CI values consistently.
   • Collaborate with regional and global CIKC functions, to provide one-off or ongoing support as needed by both agencies.
   • Enable seamless information flow, break down silos, and stimulate effective collaboration across stakeholders within the global organization, agency as well as the community, maximizing collective impact for our children, youth, and families.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND KEY SKILLS

1. A graduate's degree, in administration, logistics, procurement, industrial engineering, or any other relevant discipline, with a minimum of 10 years of work experience of which the past 2 have been in a similar leadership role.
2. Experience in effective planning and budgeting, managing multiple priorities and driving timely and quality-focused delivery in line with deadlines.
3. Experience in end-to-end project management including identifying and designing workflows and procedures that would enhance efficiency and mitigate risks.
4. Excellent interpersonal and relationship-building skills, proven experience in tactfully building and leveraging partnerships with vendors and other internal stakeholders (staff and volunteers) as well as demonstrating respectful treatment of others and comfortable working across cultures and diverse environments.
5. Proven leadership and people skills including recruitment, coaching, performance improvement, and conflict management with the ability to inspire, influence, empower diverse teams and build a culture reflective of CI values and expectations of high performance.
6. Strong analytical skills, with the ability to gather and systematically synthesize complex or diverse information, identify trends, and suggest improvements, innovations.
7. Tech-savvy with good computer skills and experience in different learning and communication platforms and MS Office applications.
8. Learning mentality characterized by listening, humility, and openness/courage to change.
9. Fluency in English and Filipino with strong verbal and written communication and presentation skills.

ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES

1. Strictly observe confidentiality and strong ethics regarding all beneficiary information/financial and other organizational data.
2. Comply with and ensure adherence to the organization's policies, safety and security protocols, child safeguarding norms and guidelines by self- and all stakeholders both internal and external.
3. Promote diversity and inclusion, value other cultures, and demonstrate respect while relating with all organizational constituents irrespective of their race, color, faiths, gender, sexual orientation, oldness, caste, disabilities, experiences, beliefs, and ethnicity.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENT

This role is field-based, and the incumbent has to be comfortable and willing to travel locally within the Philippines to different field sites often. There may also be a requirement to travel internationally from time to time.

OVERALL DECISION MAKING & SUPERVISION

1. This position requires "Complex decisions requiring independent actions and a high degree of initiative to resolve issues."
2. This position is "monitored on results and feedback from collaborators."

JOB INFORMATION

Department: Purchasing

Reports to: Administrative reporting to Agency Director with Technical Reporting to Regional Controller – Asia and Africa, CIKC

Grade: 9

Engagement: Two-year fixed employment contract.

Location: Flexible between Manila or Bicol

Children International and all its partners firmly support the principle and philosophy of equal opportunity for all individuals, regardless of oldness, race, caste, gender, sexual orientation, creed, disability, or any other protected category pursuant to applicable national, state, or local law. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff, volunteers, and associates to share this commitment.

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