Role Overview
The Logistics & Supply Cell Advisor supports MSF Ubuntu programmes by providing operational, technical, and systems support across logistics and supply chain domains. The role helps ensure that programmes have coherent, context-adapted, reliable, and operationally relevant logistics and supply systems enabling safe, effective, and accountable humanitarian operations.
The position acts as a technical advisor and operational partner to field teams and coordination structures, supporting implementation, adaptation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of logistics and supply practices in line with MSF Ubuntu orientations and MSF standards.
The role combines field accompaniment, systems strengthening, quality assurance, technical coordination, and capacity building, while working closely with partner ODs and MSF technical platforms to ensure coherence, complementarity, and efficient use of expertise and systems.
This position may also assume delegated country-level representation responsibilities for MSF Ubuntu in the programme country of assignment.
Responsibilities / Result Areas
Operational Support & Field Accompaniment
- Provide direct technical and operational support to missions across logistics and supply domains, including during start-up, transition, emergency response, scale-up, or gap-filling periods.
- Support missions in identifying logistics and supply bottlenecks, risks, gaps, and priority improvements, and accompany field teams in implementing practical, context-adapted solutions.
- Ensure missions receive timely guidance on logistics and supply systems, standards, tools, and operational practices.
- Contribute to emergency preparedness, operational readiness, and continuity during critical incidents, transitions, or surge situations.
- Support the definition and implementation of a responsive logistics and supply support model for the Cell portfolio, balancing field visits, remote support, emergency surge, technical referrals, and systems follow-up.
- Prioritise logistics and supply support needs across missions in consultation with the MedOp Cell Manager, Head of Logistics, Head of Supply, and relevant operational stakeholders.
- Contribute to annual and quarterly planning of logistics and supply support activities, including assessments, field visits, reviews, emergency preparedness, capacity building, and resource planning.
- Identify additional technical support needs, including WASH, supply, energy/ICT, security logistics, flying specialists, regional support, inter-OD expertise, or external technical services.
- Provide input to operational planning and budget reviews from a logistics and supply perspective, including major investments, fleet, premises, energy, WASH, emergency stocks, maintenance, and supply chain costs.
- Provide or facilitate technical support on air operations and air safety management where air assets are used, in coordination with relevant MSF technical referents and operational leadership.
Functional Strategy, Support Model & Operational Alignment
- Contribute to the development, adaptation, and implementation of MSF Ubuntu logistics and supply strategies, priorities, policies, tools, and support models.
- Provide operational input to medical and operational strategies, ensuring logistics and supply constraints, opportunities, risks, and capacities are considered in programme design and decision-making.
- Support the definition of logistics and supply priorities across the Cell portfolio, aligned with operational needs, emergency response capacity, quality standards, and available resources.
- Promote logistics and supply as integrated enablers of medical-humanitarian action, operational quality, emergency responsiveness, and accountability.
Logistics & Supply Systems Strengthening
- Support the implementation, adaptation, and follow-up of logistics and supply systems aligned with MSF Ubuntu operational realities and MSF standards.
- Contribute to the contextualisation and operationalisation of existing MSF tools, guidelines, templates, and frameworks.
- Support missions in strengthening planning, reporting, stock management, procurement, fleet management, facilities oversight, maintenance systems, accountability, traceability, and task segregation.
- Identify system gaps, compliance issues, or operational risks, and support mitigation measures with relevant stakeholders.
- Support the development, review, adaptation, dissemination, and harmonisation of logistics and supply policies, tools, templates, and training materials, while allowing necessary contextual adaptation.
- Collect feedback from missions on the usability of tools and propose improvements to MSF Ubuntu logistics and supply leadership.
Quality Assurance & Compliance
- Support logistics and supply reviews, assessments, audit follow-up, and action plan monitoring.
- Monitor adherence to core standards, including Log Basics, supply chain principles, safety requirements, and maintenance standards.
- Support missions in improving documentation, traceability, reporting, and operational follow-up mechanisms.
- Promote quality and compliance approaches that are pragmatic, proportionate, and adapted to operational realities.
- Contribute to strengthening risk management practices related to logistics and supply activities.
- Monitor the quality, relevance, and timeliness of logistics and supply support provided to programmes and emergency operations.
- Ensure logistics and supply support contributes to responsiveness, effectiveness, efficiency, safety, and continuity of medical-humanitarian activities.
Technical Coordination & Inter-OD Collaboration
- Act as a technical interface between MSF Ubuntu and partner ODs on logistics and supply matters.
- Coordinate with technical referents, logistics cells, and specialised platforms to facilitate access to support, tools, and expertise.
- Contribute Ubuntu operational perspectives, lessons learned, and contextual realities to inter-OD technical discussions and collaborations.
- Support alignment and complementarity between Ubuntu logistics and supply practices and broader MSF frameworks.
- Participate in technical working groups, collaborative initiatives, and operational exchanges as delegated.
- Identify opportunities for interoperability, shared tools, joint technical approaches, regional support, and operational synergies with other MSF entities and platforms.
- Facilitate links between MSF Ubuntu programmes and regional or inter-OD support capacities, ensuring complementarity and avoiding duplication.
Capacity Building & Team Support
- Identify learning and development needs for logistics and supply staff in coordination with line managers, HR, and relevant departments.
- Provide coaching, mentoring, briefing, debriefing, onboarding, and practical support to field logisticians, supply staff, LogCos, SupplyCos, and WASH referents.
- Support the strengthening of national staff capacities, operational autonomy, and readiness for coordination or emergency roles.
- Promote peer learning, on-the-job coaching, feedback culture, and sharing of operational good practices.
- Contribute to practical learning materials, operational guidance, job profile review, staffing models, team structures, and role clarification in collaboration with HR and Logistics/Supply leadership.
- Contribute to the identification and follow-up of logistics and supply talent, including emergency, gap-filling, and programme support profiles.
- Manage, coach, support, and develop direct reports in line with MSF Ubuntu HR policies, values, and management standards.
- Foster a respectful, inclusive, accountable, and safe working environment, ensuring duty of care, safeguarding, equity, diversity, and inclusion are reflected in team management and ways of working.
- Define objectives, priorities, workplans, and performance expectations for direct reports, ensuring alignment with operational priorities and available capacity.
Information, Knowledge Management & Continuous Improvement
- Support the maintenance and dissemination of simple, practical logistics and supply tools and templates.
- Contribute to operational reporting and information management processes that support decision-making.
- Document lessons learned, operational practices, and field innovations for internal learning and sharing.
- Identify opportunities for simplification, efficiency improvement, innovation, and better integration between logistics and supply functions.
- Support the definition, monitoring, and analysis of key logistics and supply indicators across the portfolio to identify risks, bottlenecks, performance gaps, and support needs.
- Promote the use of simple dashboards, logistics reporting systems, supply follow-up tools, and operational indicators to support evidence-based decision-making.
- Analyse logistics and supply data from missions, including stock performance, order lead times, procurement follow-up, fleet performance, maintenance, energy, WASH, and reporting compliance, where relevant.
- Facilitate access to mapping, GIS, and spatial analysis support where relevant for access planning, emergency assessments, WASH activities, movement planning, and operational decision-making.
Representation & Institutional Interface
- When designated, act as MSF Ubuntu's country-level representative in the programme country of assignment, ensuring appropriate institutional presence and coordination with operational, administrative, and external stakeholders.
- Support alignment and communication between MSF Ubuntu, partner ODs, and country-level coordination structures, in coherence with agreed governance and collaboration frameworks.
- Contribute to maintaining constructive relationships with relevant authorities, partners, and operational stakeholders as delegated by MSF Ubuntu leadership.
- Ensure Ubuntu's operational priorities, ways of working, and institutional positioning are appropriately reflected and understood within the country context.
- Facilitate coordination and information flow between country operations and MSF Ubuntu leadership structures.
- Support a coherent and collaborative working environment across teams and partners operating within the programme.
Ethics, Risk & Accountability
- Ensure adherence to MSF principles, medical ethics, and patient rights.
- Identify and mitigate clinical and operational risks.
- Promote accountability to patients and communities.
- Support safeguarding and ethical decision-making processes.
- Work closely with the Safeguarding Unit to embed Safe programming, responsible behaviour, prevention of harm, and accountability across all MSF Ubuntu medical operations.
Qualifications and Requirements
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Logistics, Supply Chain, Engineering, Operations Management, Humanitarian Affairs, or a related field.
- Minimum 7 years of progressive experience in humanitarian logistics and/or supply chain management.
- Strong field experience in complex or insecure operational environments.
- Fluency in written and spoken English; French is a strong asset.
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