Senior Procurement Officer

Background Information/Objectives

The Water and Land Resource Center (WLRC)

WLRC is an autonomous research-for-development entity and its overarching goal is to generate knowledge that informs to sustainably transform the water and land resources management of Ethiopia and Horn of Africa. Over the years, WLRC has secured grants and implements projects that focus on IWRM, ILM, Climate, Resource Governance, Livelihoods improvement and knowledge management systems development and use. For details, please visit https://wlrc-eth.org/. 

Recently, WLRC  in collaboration with MOWE has secured and launched another five-year project that centers on Integrated Water Resource Management in the Abbay, Awash, Rift Valley, Omo-Gibie and Tekeze Basins. The project is known as Basin Management Support for Resilient, Inclusive Growth and Harmonized Transformation (BRIGHT) for the National Integrated Water Resource Management Programme of Ethiopia. 

The BRIGHT project

BRIGHT is aimed to improve water management in Ethiopia by promoting sustainable and equitable water use for agriculture, industry, and domestic needs in the five basins Abbay, Awash, Omo-Gibe, Rift Valley Lakes, and Tekeze and sub-basins. The Ministry of Water, through its basin administration offices, is responsible for promoting and achieving integrated water resources management in its basins. The focus of the BRIGHT project lies on capacity building, an operationalization of the Basin Administration Offices and of MoWE at large to achieve better water management in the selected basins. Activities of the project are organized under six work packages, namely:

• WP1: Project Management and Coordination;

• WP2: Inception Phase; 

• WP3: Enhancing IWRM capacity of the MoWE, Basin Administration Offices and Regional Bureaus; 

• WP4: Supporting establishment of basin information system for IWRM and generating additional evidence to fill knowledge gaps in the selected river basins;

• WP5: Supporting the preparation/revision of basin plans and facilitating implementation by supporting priority and high impact IWRM projects in target basins; and

• WP6: Supporting establishment of climate-smart IWRM learning sub-basins in the target basins.

All of these packages support institution building.

The project is financially supported jointly by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) and the European Union (EU) and substantial in-kind contributions by WLRC and The Ministry of Water and Energy of Ethiopia (MoWE). 

WLRC is looking for a well experienced competent Senior Procurement Officer who will responsibly handle project related procurements as described in duties and responsibilities below.

Duties and Responsibilities of the Senior Procurement Officer

• Support the preparation and implementation of the annual procurement plan with budget and timetables.

• Effectively negotiate with suppliers on a wide variety of commodities and services for the best overall value to the project

• Coordinate issuance of purchase orders in accordance with the project policies and procedures

• Contribute to the supply chain management efforts up to and including logistical support from the ordering point through the follow-up, expediting, and delivery of the required goods and/or services

• Understand and ensure compliance with legal guidelines, contracting principles, sourcing and price/cost analysis requirements

• Oversee logistical management of the project inventory and commodities required for operations to the project’s office locations. Collaborate with local partners on property disposition as needed.

• Conduct cycle inventory reconciliation and conduct planned inventory and post spraying inventory exercise and maintain an updated asset and inventory records for the project.

• Ensure timely reporting on stock status to program implementation staff and help program implementation staff plan stock replenishment in various locations.

• Develop and submit weekly and monthly reports to supervisor on logistics and procurement for submission to office.

• Support the Project Manager to provide technical assistance as required to build capacity of local partners, grantees and project staff related to procurement.

• Manage and track the procurement goods and services for the project and grantees in compliance with approved procurement plans to ensure best value and within required lead times for a variety of requirements in Ethiopia. Obtains technical input on specifications, costs, and quality.

• Ensure the timely and documented delivery of any goods or services.

• Provide leadership of overall property management and inventory control, reports, custody control documents, reconciliations for both expendables and non-expendables according to EU rules and regulations. Conduct regular reviews of project and grantee inventories and work with the office on property disposition.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Business Management or related fields

• Minimum 10 years of experience at professional level directly related to the procurement function

• Proven experience on and knowledge of EU procurement procedures, rules, and regulations.

• Strong oral/written communication skills in English and ability to communicate effectively at multiple levels internally and externally, with customer-focused support.

• Ability for self-motivated and self-directed analytical and creative thinking for rapid solution(s).

• Proven ability to work under pressure, and with multiple concurrent demands.

• An outgoing personality and a team player with service-oriented attitudes.

• Performs other duties as required by the office.

How To Apply

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

• A cover/Application letter 
• Up-to-date CV with copies of academic credentials and related testimonies;
• Names and addresses of three references;
• Application files shall be compiled as one PDF file and sent as e-mail attachment to: Jobs@wlrc-eth.org, for any queries, please contact our HR office at:0116612236