Senior Manager, Country Demand Planning

at  Gavi the Vaccine Alliance Secretariat

WORK EXPERIENCE

• At least 8 years professional experience in supply and demand planning roles within pharmaceutical (vaccine preferred), global/public/social health, or FMCG sectors;
• Experience managing quantitative study or other applied data intensive projects in a public health, supply chain management, or financial context;
• Familiarity with international or public sector organisations is preferred;
• Demonstrated excellent stakeholder management and communication across various functions, sectors.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Trusted track record in developing and executing complex projects in a planning or forecasting context;
• Good understanding of vaccines (preferred) or similar sector, and its supply and demand considerations;
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; with demonstrated ability to deliver high quality work independently within tight deadlines;
• Exceptional statistical and problem-solving skills; a logical thinker with intellectual curiosity and the ability to think strategically, as well as delve into operational details;
• Effective relationship-building skills both within and outside the organisation;
• Ability to influence and work with diverse stakeholders;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work collaboratively with colleagues from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds;
• Ability to work successfully and flexibly in a fast-paced international, multicultural, multi-partner environment;
• Desirable: familiarity with programmatic and institutional environment.

THE ROLE

This role manages the Country Demand Planning sub-team of the Vaccine Forecast and Grant Operations (VFGO) Team. The role is responsible for ensuring effective vaccine demand planning support is enabling robust judgment-making on grants to procure vaccine doses. It ensures that actions are informed by quality vaccine quantification inputs and reviews, and these actions are communicated accurately into final grant processing steps. The role also contributes to the regular monitoring of vaccine programme grants, inspiring improvements in information and reviews that allow insights on tracking against plans and early warning on situations which may require grant revisions or action by other members of the Gavi secretariat. The role will take the best from current Core and COVAX process and develop one integrated set of country planning and monitoring processes. The role will manage Gavi Secretariat expertise on country vaccine dose approvals and deliveries, and contribute to developing related information assets that support actions in this area.
This role partners closely with Country Programmes Delivery teams, as well as other country supporting functions in Immunisation, Financing & Sustainability, and Health Systems & Immunisation Strengthening to ensure country teams are receiving the support necessary to effectively manage vaccine dose aspects of grants. The role also engages closely with the Funding Design & Review and other teams involved in grant review and approval processes. In addition, the role collaborates with external organizations, including UNICEF Supply Division and other partners actively engaged in country-level vaccine demand planning, quantification, and monitoring.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage VFGO’s support to country teams with vaccine demand planning and quantification to enable effective judgment-making on vaccine dose grant approvals;
• Manage the team’s execution of its key vaccine grant enabling functions, ensuring quality dose quantification inputs and scrutiny are provided into the processes for new programmes, renewals, revisions, product switches, co-financing waivers, and similar activities;
• Design and implement regular country and segment-level monitoring reviews with country teams, enabling the tracking of vaccine grants against plans, reviewing approval levels and consumption, and identifying programmes potentially requiring actions and grant revisions;
• Review vaccine dose approval requests and support the troubleshooting of special country-level planning and approval challenges, including requests for exceptions;
• Identify country-level issues related to vaccine grant quantifications and approvals, in collaboration with UNICEF SD. Manage the monitoring, reporting and triaging of issues to ensure timely responses;
• Ensure efficient and accurate translation of vaccine dose conclusions in the handover to final grant approval and processing steps;
• Contribute to designing and implementing appropriate linkages from country demand planning and grants actions into broader vaccine forecasting efforts;
• Continuously improve the team’s internal country demand planning and grant action processes, methodologies, tools, and documentation providing business leadership to deliver improved analytics and understanding of country vaccine consumption utilising new data sets and AI;
• Engage in wider initiatives to streamline and strengthen relevant country demand planning and approval processes spanning Secretariat and partners;
• Develop and manage relationships with Country Programmes Delivery teams and relevant external partners to identify areas for support, collaboration, and improvement;
• Represent VFGO in meetings with partners and countries on topics related to Gavi vaccine demand planning, dose quantification, and vaccine grant approval processes;
• Manage integration of COVAX (C-19) vaccine forecasting related activities into Gavi Core, taking the best of both processes to create an optimal country planning, forecasting, approval, and monitoring model for Gavi.