Senior Contracts Associate, GS7, Temporary Appointment, 364 days, Service Contracting Center, Outposted to Budapest, Hungary #00137404

Organizational Context

UNICEF works in over 190 countries to save children’s lives and defend their rights. The Service Contracting Centre, part of UNICEF Supply Division, aims to bring efficiencies and improve compliance in procuring services across various divisions, acting as a source of expert knowledge.

Job Purpose

The Senior Contracts Associate will provide high-level transactional, procedural, and administrative support for service contracting activities. This role involves managing complex cases, evaluating difficult situations, and adapting procedures to resolve them, ensuring timely and efficient output compliant with UNICEF rules and regulations. The associate will independently research, adapt, and evaluate irregular cases, recommending improvements to process delivery and design. This position is crucial for supporting procurement strategy and planning, managing procurement processes, administering contracts, monitoring supplier performance, ensuring governance and compliance, and providing procurement analytics and reporting.

Responsibilities

Support procurement strategy and planning by contributing to annual supply plans, conducting market research, analyzing procurement data, and developing sourcing strategies for value for money and sustainability. Manage procurement processes including RFQs, ITBs, RFPs, supplier evaluations, bid analysis, negotiations, and the establishment of Long-Term Arrangements (LTAs). Collaborate with stakeholders to develop procurement requirements, Terms of Reference (TORs), contracting strategies, and timelines. Administer contracts and purchase orders by preparing award recommendations, processing them in SAP/ERP systems, and ensuring compliance with policies. Monitor supplier and contract performance through contract management, supplier evaluations, and amendments. Ensure governance and compliance by maintaining integrity, transparency, audit-ready documentation, and adherence to UNICEF guidelines. Provide reporting and procurement analytics by maintaining dashboards, tracking KPIs, preparing reports, and advising management on status, trends, and risks. Support knowledge sharing and capacity building through training, process improvement, SOP development, and promoting best practices.

Work Experience

A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in supply chain management or a commercial context (contracting, procurement, supply) is required.

Skills

Cost analysis, Market assessment, Risk identification, Managing complex documents, Policy compliance, Communication skills, Presentation skills, Service contracting, Procurement strategy, Contract administration, Supplier performance monitoring, Procurement analytics

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