Business Transformation Manager P4 at World Food Programme (WFP)

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

Are you a Business Transformation Manager interested in further developing your professional experience while contributing to ending global hunger? Would you like to join WFP, a highly reputable organisation bringing positive change to lives of people affected by hardships? Would you like to join a global organisation investing in its people?

If your answer is yes, then this is a great opportunity for you to become an integral member of a diverse and passionate team that works on varied and international projects directly contributing to beneficiary assistance.

Why WFP?

As one of WFP’s five priorities, digital transformation is now at the heart of our ability to deliver the other four. That means even stronger emergency responses, getting closer to Zero Hunger, building the partnerships to make that possible, and making our operations simpler and more efficient every step of the way. This shift in digital gears is forcing us to evaluate how we can enable all our staff to do their best work (wherever they are), how far and how fast we can leverage the latent power of technologies across 80 countries where we operate, and how we can do all of that without compromising security, human rights or UN values in any way. So, it’s against this backdrop that we aim to continue our progress in deploying technological solutions at scale and continuing to embrace the power of data across all our policies, programmes and operations. This is a big opportunity for someone who truly wants to learn what it takes to transform a large organization and be fully connected to the purpose that drives us all to give our best every day.

• WFP assists more than 86 million people around 83 countries. Your work will have a positive impact on lives of the world’s most vulnerable people
• You will join a diverse team of professionals and will have a chance to exchange your experience with your colleagues
• Our team is growing internationally and the timing to join us cannot be better! We are driving changes in the way WFP operates, with the aim of also influencing changes in the humanitarian/development sector.
• We offer attractive compensation package (please refer to Terms and Conditions section)

WFP [Technology Division]

The Executive Director has identified Digital Transformation as one of WFP’s five priorities. The Technology Division has realigned the team into a Digital Transformation Services pillar with a field-focused Digital Services Hub located in Nairobi. This role will work with countries and regions to ensure digital technologies are aligned to serve their country strategic plans with a specific focus on the beneficiary, partner, and government experience for all WFP functional units. Working closely with key operational and executive-level stakeholders, the assigned, in collaboration with Regional IT Officers and Regional Field Business Engagement Managers, will facilitate discussions on how a Country Office can unlock strategic value through digital as part of WFP’s continued scale-up efforts. The assigned will be located in Nairobi, Kenya, and work under the general supervision and guidance of the Chief of Digital Transformation Services, Technology Division.

Some of the projects that the WFP, Digital Transformation Services team are currently working on, include:

• Continuing to align technology to business and operational needs
• Scaling core digital products to country offices such as our School Feeding, Farmers and WFP Service Marketplace platforms.
• Mainstreaming data literacy, tools, products and governance across WFP
• Digitizing and/or automating processes to further unlock employee value-add work and efficiency

The Role

Key Responsibilities

• Act as central coordinating point and support with Regional Business Engagement Managers for digital scale-up and Country Strategic Plan Alignment activities;
• Engage with countries’ senior management at operational and strategic level to develop a Country Office-Technology Solutions Roadmap based on the Country Strategic Plans, Digital Transformation Solutions Roadmap, key digital product lines, divisional roadmaps;
• Develop relationships with operational and executive-level subject matter experts to shape and validate demand for digital services through user research, with HQ Business Engagement Managers;
• Initiate Country Office digital scale-up teams in alignment with the Field Digital Playbook and the defined Country Office digital roadmap.
• Act as a primary focal point for collecting user feedback on existing technology solutions and channelling this feedback to the various product owners;
• Understand and communicate to countries relevant user-research based value propositions of digital solutions, features and capabilities, including relevant new capabilities for beneficiaries, partners and governments as they become available;
• Work closely with Headquarters Business Engagement Managers and Regional Business Engagement Managers to strengthen HQ-Field alignment;
• Support training and capacity building for IT Officers in Country Offices to strengthen their business engagement and digital skills;
• Participate in the development of Digital Transformation planning and strategy to advocate for country outcomes as well as team work plans;
• Other duties as required.

About You

• The ideal profile is a professional who is highly adaptive and able to communicate effectively with diverse audiences who might not share the same technical knowledge.
• This person enjoys working at the intersection of big picture strategy and tying it to tangible and actionable steps for execution.
• They can juggle various priorities and keep things moving forward, not being discouraged by obstacles, but instead see them as challenges for ongoing growth and learning.

Qualifications & Key Requirements

• Degree in Computer Sciences, Business Administration, Economics, Finance or related field.
• At least 8 years of progressive professional experience in project management, technology and/or strategy related work with a minimum of 2 years of managerial experience.
• Strong understanding of digital technology trends and how modern technology works. 
• Strong strategic thinking skills with the ability to connect dots within the context of a large, complex organization and sector.
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills
• Able to communicate effectively including translating technical language into everyday language.
• Has experience working with human-centred design and agile methodologies
• Strong facilitation skills and ability to listen and hear people’s needs as opposed to imposing their own knowledge or solutions.

Additional/Nice have requirements:

• Project Management certification (PMP, PRINCE2)
• Strategy and management consulting experience

Language:

• Fluency (level C) in English language.
• Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: preferably French and/or Arabic; otherwise Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and/or WFP’s working language, Portuguese