Logistics Officer (Food Technologist) SC 10, Kyiv, Ukraine at World Food Programme (WFP)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability. Our employees reflect a wide range of socioeconomic, cultural and religious affiliations within their countries, including people with disabilities.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the largest humanitarian organisation delivering food assistance to over 90 million beneficiaries in 80 countries on a yearly basis. With over 5000 trucks, 50 ships and close to 100 planes on the move every single day, WFP, together with its partners, operates a global network to deliver life-saving food assistance to the most hard-to reach places.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The current state of humanitarian response in the Ukraine is characterized by increasingly complex and protracted conflict-driven crisis involving a multiplicity of challenges related to Supply Chain and Food Safety and Quality Assurance.  As a result, WFP is working to enhance the food safety and quality assurance capability in the country, following a risk-based approach, including availability and assessment of key infrastructure in place, such as laboratory capacities, inspection, and suppliers. The Ukraine Country Office is therefore seeking a Food Technologist to support Supply Chain activities with responsibilities and expected qualifications described below. This profile will work to assure that FSQ is embedded in all WFP’s assistance modalities and processes in the Country Office, in a particularly challenging  operational context.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Operations:

• Establish and implement protocols and tools relating to food technology issues, such as food safety and quality and food product optimisation, ensuring alignment with WFP procurement and supply chain strategy, policies and plans and food safety and quality guidelines.
• Review and provide advice on the procedures for mitigating and documenting food quality and safety issues e.g. during food transit and storage in warehouses.
• Establish and implement protocols and tools in CO that enable rapid response to situations with food safety concerns.
• Provide technical guidance and input to CO in the design and implementation of medium scale and/or relatively straight forward food assistance programmes, ensuring compliance with WFP food and safety guidelines.
• Build relationships and collaborate with counterparts in key supply chain functions to establish standard operation procedures, protocols and tools that maintain, monitor and verify food safety and quality along the WFP supply chain.
• Build productive relationships and partnerships with counterparts in UN agencies, NGOs, governments, and the private sector to enhance WFP capacity to respond effectively to levels of under nutrition.
• Keep current on emerging developments and cutting edge research on the areas of food safety and quality and/or food product optimization to leverage the opportunities to incorporate industry best practices.
• Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.

Reporting:

• Prepare accurate and timely reports that inform food risk assessment and management, and contribute to a WFP wide view of food technology activities, enabling informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.

Institutional Capacity Strengthening:

• Lead and motivate a small team of staff, providing coaching, training and guidance as required to ensure appropriate development and enable high performance.
• Develop and deliver training modules to WFP staff and external stakeholders on the key areas of food technology, such as quality control, food processing, loss prevention and mitigation, food incident management (FIM) to build local capacity in the processing and/or production of specialized nutritious foods.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced university degree in Food Technology, Health Sciences, Food Control, Nutrition or other related field, or First University degree with an additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Work Experience: A minimum of 5 years working experience with counterparts in supply chain function and experience monitoring and assessing food safety and quality issues. Experience building strong external relationships preferably worked in emergency response capacity and on developing food assistance programmes.

Languages: Fluency (level C) in English and Ukrainian languages.

Competencies:

• Good analytical and problem solving skills; ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan in line with operational requirements.
• Ability to guide team on the principles of matching food types with local needs and capabilities across the supply chain (e.g., storage capacity) to optimize impact of WFP resources. Knowledge of food product optimization and broad knowledge of local regulations, best practices, techniques, and processes to provide technical guidance to country offices in design of food assistance programmes.
• Ability to educate unit/region on the appropriate procedures for handling and communicating risks as they emerge in a timely and safe manner. Willingness to work in challenging environments / field locations.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Position: Logistics Officer (Food Technologist)

Type of contract: SC 10

Duty station: Kyiv, Ukraine

Unit/division: Supply Chain, Ukraine Country Office

Duration: 12 months

Application deadline: 22 July 2022

Your CV must be submitted in English

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.