Consultancy, Inventory Management Module Project, Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU), Copenhagen, Denmark

The Position:

The consultancy is located within the Inventory Control and Accounting team, under Pillar 4 Support Services of the Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU). 

The SCMU provides essential support, coordination, and oversight for all SCM activities driving UNFPA programmes. It facilitates a synchronized approach to supply chain and logistics management, providing the organization with a demand-driven, resilient, and holistic system applicable to both development and humanitarian environments.

The Inventory Control and Accounting Team is tasked with the scoping, testing, and deployment of a new country office management solution. This involves defining and validating the processes and controls necessary to ensure that the new inventory management platform operates effectively and remains fully aligned with the Policy and Procedures on Management of Programme Supplies.

The Inventory Control and Accounting Team also provides technical leadership during the rollout of this new solution, offering guidance to field offices on the downstream requirements of the Policy and Procedures on Management of Programme Supplies. The team supports the implementation and roll out of this technology transformation in Quantum ERP, ensuring the new solution enhances performance management reporting across the organization.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s strategic plan (2026-2029), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

The UNFPA Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU) is self-funded and was made operational in January 2022. It is tasked with ensuring that UNFPA is able to effectively and efficiently support the delivery of life-saving reproductive health products and other programme supplies to the end user when and where they are needed. To achieve this, it is important to strengthen the capacity of governments and implementing partners to ensure coordination, end-to-end visibility and accountability on all supply chain and logistics management related activities, in particular for programme supplies, across all UNFPA programmes.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose:

The purpose of this consultancy is to manage the scoping, rollout and project documentation of the new management solution to strengthen compliance with the Policy and Procedures on Management of Programme Supplies. The project aims to ensure that the transition to the new system maintains the highest standards of accuracy and completeness for UNFPA inventory records. The consultant will report to Inventory Control and Accounting Team Lead, under the overall supervision of the Pillar 4, Support Services.

You would be responsible for:

The consultant will be responsible for the end-to-end project management and coordination of the new country office inventory management solution. The scope of work encompasses the following key pillars areas:

Project Management and Governance

• Project Roadmap & Planning: Develop and maintain a comprehensive project plan, including key milestones, resource allocation, and timelines for the scoping, testing, and rollout phases.
• Stakeholder Coordination: Act as the primary focal point between the SCMU, FB, ITSO and other relevant stakeholders to ensure business requirements are translated into technical specifications.
• Progress Reporting: Prepare regular status reports and executive briefings for Inventory Control Accounting Team Lead and others, highlighting project risks, mitigation strategies, and achievement of KPIs.

Scoping and Documentation

• Functional Scoping: Conduct business process mapping to define the functional requirements of the new solution, ensuring alignment with the Policy and Procedures on Management of Programme Supplies.
• Technical Documentation: Draft and finalize comprehensive project documentation, including Business Requirement Documents, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and system configuration logs.
• Gap Analysis: Identify and document functional gaps between current legacy systems and the new solution, proposing workflows to bridge these discrepancies.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Validation

• UAT Framework Design: Develop detailed test scripts, scenarios, and success criteria to validate the accuracy of inventory transactions and accounting controls.
• Testing Oversight: Coordinate and lead UAT sessions with pilot country offices, capturing feedback and managing the defect-resolution process with the technical team.
• Data Validation: Oversee the data migration strategy, ensuring that legacy inventory records are validated for accuracy and completeness before being transitioned to the new environment.

Rollout Coordination and Training Materials

• Deployment Strategy: Design and implement a phased rollout plan for global country offices, considering regional capacities and infrastructure constraints.
• Capacity Building Materials: Draft and design user manuals, "How-to" guides, quick-reference checklists, and multimedia training assets (e.g., webinars, video tutorials) tailored for field-based inventory focal points.
• On-site & Remote Support: Provide technical support and guidance to country offices during the "Go-Live" phase to ensure a smooth transition and immediate compliance with recording requirements.

Post-Implementation Review and Compliance

• Compliance Audit: Conduct post-rollout validations to verify that the system effectively enforces controls as per the Policy and Procedures on Management of Programme Supplies.
• Continuous Improvement: Collect and analyze user feedback to recommend future system enhancements and ensure the solution remains responsive to changing humanitarian and development contexts.

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:  

• An advanced degree (minimum Master’s degree or equivalent) in Supply Chain Management, Information Systems, Finance, Business Administration, or a related discipline is required.

Knowledge and Experience: 

• A minimum of 2 years of progressively responsible experience with ERP systems and Business Intelligence tools, specifically in the context of functional scoping, system testing (UAT), or software rollout projects is required.
• Professional experience in a data analysis or financial function, with a demonstrated ability to provide technical support and guidance to decentralized country offices.
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to think critically and logically when mapping business processes and identifying system gaps.
• Demonstrated ability to multi-task, prioritize project milestones, and work effectively under pressure to meet deployment deadlines.
• Strong writing and communication skills, with experience in drafting technical project documentation, user manuals, and training materials.

Languages: 

• Fluency in English is required; a working knowledge of any UN language is an advantage.

Required Competencies: 

Values:

• Exemplifying integrity, 
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system, 
• Embracing cultural diversity, 
• Embracing change

Core Competencies: 

• Achieving results,
• Being accountable,
• Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,
• Thinking analytically and strategically,
• Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request, to support their participation in the recruitment process. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more.

Disclaimer:

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements. 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts. 

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.