Burundi Procurement Associate at One Acre Fund

Description of the Organization

One Acre Fund - TUBURA is an agricultural NGO working in East Africa to support farmers with small land areas. We offer each of our members a package of services such as local delivery of agricultural inputs on credit and training with the aim of increasing harvests and incomes. Established in Burundi in 2012, we are a fast growing organization, which now has over 684 employees nationwide. As of 2020, we serve over 290,000 households in 7(?) provinces: Muramvya, Gitega, Kayanza, Mwaro and Ngozi. For more information visit our website:  http://www.oneacrefund.org .

Job Description

Procurement teams manage more than $1 million in spend annually across more than 1,300 transactions and purchase all operational goods and services on behalf of more than 290,000 smallholder farmers.

We are looking for someone to help us improve process efficiency, save more than 5% of purchasing cost, implement process/system improvement projects and build capacity of our Program teams.

The candidate will be under the management of the Global Procurement Manager, will directly supervise the purchasing operations for different departments of the program. He/she will contribute to providing an exceptional purchasing service for the benefit of our farmers of over one million people in East and Southern Africa.

Professional development

One Acre Fund invests in the development of management and leadership skills. Your manager and a global support team dedicate a lot of time to your professional development. We provide ongoing, concrete feedback through mentoring and regular career reviews in the form of management advice. We also hold regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to create truly exciting roles. Due to our rapid growth, we constantly have new senior roles opening up and plenty of opportunities in different functions.

Eligibility

One Acre Fund can sponsor the visa for this position. However, nationals of (or those with extensive professional experience or work experience in) our countries of operations are preferred.

Manage the purchasing process for the Burundi team:

• Driving execution excellence through excellent processes and capability building.
• Coach procurement staff to build leadership and role-specific skills.
• Leverage local talent pools to recruit top talent with growth potential.

Reduce costs:

• Save more than 5% each year across the entire value chain.
• Create a culture of cost savings across the procurement team and its partners.
• Use forecasting to improve efficiency, reduce procurement cycle time, and lower unit costs through greater economies of scale.
• Lead cost saving projects.

Tighten the control environment:

• Increase efficiency by implementing loss and fraud prevention tactics and seamless processes.
• Improve quality assurance and inventory management processes at the Program level.
• Oversee fraud prevention controls and activities.

Excellence in execution  

• Deliver requested items to customers on time, with correct specifications and at prices consistently below market.
• Coordinate quality assurance activities and implement best practices.
• Maintain accurate purchasing data across all systems.
• Manage strategic projects focused on efficiency and cost reduction for the organization.
• Work closely with internal teams to reduce overall spend. 
• Maintain transparency and compliance in the procurement process. 

Process improvement

• Review existing processes, policies and systems to identify and implement improvements that save time and money. 
• Implement standard practices to improve efficiency, effectiveness and customer service.
• Support strategic sourcing initiatives.

Strategic support for transportation and warehousing

• Partner with the logistics team to align warehousing and transportation capacity, quality and costs with program growth and priorities.
• Review existing transportation and warehousing processes, agreements, service delivery and gaps, and conduct critical assessments of what could be improved to promote sustainability and achieve program objectives.
• Co-design and implement process improvement initiatives and/or projects aimed at improving the efficiency of transportation and warehousing operations.

Supervision of import processes

• Work with colleagues in government relations, logistics and global supply chains to plan, initiate and oversee import processes for strategic products, including seeds and quality of life products.
• Resolve issues as they arise to ensure timely delivery of imported products.
• Maintain communication with stakeholders and alignment on import progress.

Stakeholder management  

• Represent the purchasing team to internal customers and suppliers.  
• Negotiate and manage contracts with suppliers
• Ensure professional and timely communication with internal customers  

Management    

• Manage a team of 5+ people while providing support to the team's day-to-day operations and professional development.  
•  Train the team to identify quality and high-level suppliers and negotiate the best prices and conditions. 
• Set clear, well-documented expectations for all team members and hold staff accountable to these rigorous expectations.
• Identify and address team development needs.
• Set short and medium term (0-12 months) team and project goals with the support of a manager.

Team and culture

• • Ensure all staff are connected to the mission and feel motivated to serve our farmers every day.
  • Monitor team morale, plan for and mitigate any changes that may create disagreements among staff.

Medical coverage, paid annual leave, comprehensive benefits

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