Procurement Advisor

Job description

VVOB– Education for development is an international non-profit organisation with over 40 years’ experience in strengthening the quality of education systems in Africa, Asia and South America in close partnership with ministries of education and their institutions. Our head office is based in Brussels, Belgium.

We implement our programmes and projects with one shared passion: to ensure the improvement of quality education.

Do you share our ambition to ensure that learners around the world can enjoy their fundamental human right to quality education, without exception? Are you convinced as well that quality education guarantees equal opportunities for everyone and is the key to a better world?

Are you interested and eager to find out if you are a fit for this position? Then check the specifications outlined in this vacancy. We are looking for a Procurement Advisor who will operate from our office in  Zambia.

Do you want to take on this challenge? Continue reading!

Responsibilities of the Procurement Advisor:

As Procurement Advisor you contribute to VVOB’s ambitions and values by overseeing the procurement agenda in Zambia and ensuring high quality and timely implementation of procurement processes in line with donor requirements and VVOB standard operating procedures and policies.
The Procurement Advisor will report to the Operations Manager and thus be a part of the operations team.
You are the lead on all procurements in VVOB Zambia and will thus coordinate all procurements in country. This includes preparing terms of references, examining, and evaluating tenders, writing awards reports and supporting contract management.

You will:

You lead and oversee the procurement agenda for VVOB Zambia, coordinating procurement needs from different departments and translating these into a feasible country procurement plan.
You coordinate all procurement related matters based on this plan. You lead the procurement processes in line with donor and VVOB procurement policies and guidelines and ensure a qualitative and timely implementation and execution of all procurements.
You ensure qualitative contract management, including framework agreements, ensuring procurement contracts are finalised in a correct way and follow up of existing contracts.
You keep abreast with procurement laws and regulations and take the lead in continuous improvement, knowledge building and knowledge sharing on procurement within the team and procurement colleagues in Zambia and globally.
You also follow up and execute specific procurement processes, including preparing terms of references, examining, and evaluating tenders, drawing up award decisions and notification letters and supporting contract management including framework agreements.
You ensure integrity, fairness, accuracy, and transparency in procurement processes
Through market research efforts, you identify and qualify potential suppliers (and products/services). Ensure that beneficial, ethical, and open supplier relationships are created and maintained.

If you’re our Procurement Advisor, your workweek at the office may include the following highlights:

Together with the Operations Manager, you discuss updates, on procurement guidelines, on the Zambian procurement handbook to verify if the updates are fully in line with the VVOB global guidelines.
You have a meeting with the Project Coordinators to understand their upcoming procurement needs and to ensure that they are still in line with the procurement plans to ensure the procurement needs of the projects can be met in a qualitative and timely manner.
You support the programmes team on the qualitative review from a recent call for quotations and finalise on the technical review, bringing it together in an award report for the sign off of the Country Programmes Manager.
Lunch! A perfect time to catch up with your colleagues and get informal feedback of current service providers.
You engage with the Finance Officers to ensure that you are aligned on the vendor balances and upcoming payments.
You meet with vendors that we have framework agreements with to discuss concerns raised by staff and some concerns raised by the provider to ensure a smooth working relationship.

Who are you?

This position is open to Zambian Nationals.

Your expertise and experience :

Master’s degree in Purchasing and Supply, Finance/Business management/CIPS (6) or other relevant field or equivalent experience
Registered practicing member with the Zambia Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
All professional and Academic qualifications must be verified by ZAQA.
Profound experience in operations, specifically in coordinating procurement preferably in an INGO
Excellent computer skills in MS Office, Excel, Power point, Teams and other operations systems
Understanding of donor requirements and experience of compliance is an asset
Experience of effectively setting up and implementing framework agreements for goods and services
Skilled in vendor selection, negotiation, contracting, performance monitoring and building ethical vendor relationships.
Experienced in training and mentoring operations teams and field staff, and in implementing, SOPs, and systems to strengthen procurement capacity across various project locations.
Fluent in English.

VVOB core competences:

Results and goal oriented
Lifelong learning and improvement
Cooperation within a team and with other stakeholders

Function specific competencies:

Reliability
Development Oriented
Communication Skills
Problem Analysis and Judgement and planning and Organization

What we’re offering:

A dynamic working environment in an international context.
An exciting job in a growing organisation with varied responsibilities and opportunities for professional development.
An opportunity to contribute to exciting, evidence-based projects aimed at ensuring the education sector in Zambia is strengthened, by bringing in innovative solutions for professional development of school leaders and teachers.
A complete remuneration package, which includes a base salary and benefits.
A national contract to 31/12/2026.

What’s next?

Send your motivation letter detailing your match with the profile as well as your motivation behind applying for the vacancy along with your CV by e-mail no later than 1st May 2025 to recruitmentzambia@vvob.org Don’t forget to refer to the job title in the subject line of your e-mail.

Before a job offer, shortlisted candidates can expect:

1. A written test
2. An interview process

VVOB firmly believes that quality education can only be achieved if equity is ensured. Qualities of people prevail, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or disability.