Deputy Director, Supply Chain Business Development and Program Delivery

Join the International Rescue Committee as Deputy Director, where you'll develop global supply chain strategies for health and humanitarian initiatives in Kenya.

• The Deputy Director plays an active role in GSC’s business development (BD) function. Supply chain is an increasingly fundable programming area, with institutional donors such as ECHO, SIDA, Gates and non-traditional donors explicitly framing requirements around operational efficiency, commodity management, and supply chain innovation. Additionally, private and corporate donors have expressed specific interest in funding the optimization of health and emergency supply chains.
• Act as the primary GSC focal point within I@S agile working groups and cross-functional scaling teams, ensuring supply chain planning is embedded in program design from the outset and not treated as a downstream implementation task.
• Implement the strategic direction for cross-cutting supply chain enablers including pooled procurement, global pre-positioning frameworks, harmonized delivery models, and digital systems and oversee their development and rollout across priority country programs.
• Provide supply chain leadership and oversight for the addition of any new I@S Ready to Scale thematic areas, ensuring new commodities and delivery models are integrated into IRC's global supply chain architecture without creating fragmentation or duplication.
• Serve as GSC's coordinating focal point with the Research and Innovation Department, contributing to supply chain innovations including AI-enabled solutions.
• Is responsible for operationalizing the BD strategy, assembling inputs to create compelling bids, gap filling in the BD process as needed/relevant, and driving ultimate bid success through correct donor intel and positioning, strong bid submission, and effective cross-functional collaboration.
• Flag, track and route relevant funding opportunities to GSC Leadership and work closely with internal stakeholders to plan for staff needs and business development capacity requirements to successfully write and budget for winning bids based on the pipeline
• Lead or co-lead the technical design of supply chain sections for proposals where GSC has a primary role, including narrative writing, logical framework development, and supply chain costing.
• Collaborating with program and business development leads to embedding supply chain considerations into program design, with specific attention paid to Impact at Scale initiatives
• Contribute to bid assessment, probability-of-winning analysis, and positioning strategy for supply chain funding opportunities with specific focus on I@S thematic areas
• Develop and maintain GSC supply chain capability statements and value propositions relevant to I@S programming areas, for use in capture and proposal development.
• Participate in the BD review cycle for proposals with significant supply chain components, ensuring technical quality and alignment with IRC’s global supply chain strategy.
• Mobilize opportunities with non-traditional partners such as Airlink to improve program delivery and increase cost savings
• Take the lead with External relations and other fundraising teams to enable increased use of GIK goods and services, enabling program delivery whilst making IRC more cost effective.
• Build and maintain donor intelligence on supply chain funding streams
• Support pre-award activities including donor engagement, capture visits, and key personnel recruitment where relevant to I@S supply chain opportunities.
• Coordinate with Regional Supply Chain Directors and country programs to ensure country-level supply chain needs and evidence are reflected in proposals.
• Contribute to after-action reviews following award decisions to capture lessons and improve future supply chain BD submissions.
• Identify and evaluate opportunities for business development & partnerships with academic or research centers, with Research & Innovation colleagues as appropriate.
• Strengthening global forecasting and demand planning systems for key health commodities.
• Collaborate with Global Procurement to define sourcing strategies, monitor supplier performance, and ensure security of supply.
• Lead global visibility efforts by consolidating country-level data on demand, pipeline status, consumption, and stock risks. Collaborate with GSC Systems and Data to digitalize as many aspects of this as possible in a timely manner.
• Work with country teams to improve quantification, storage, distribution planning, and last-mile delivery.
• Translate I@S targets into actionable supply chain plans with milestones, KPIs, and risk controls.
• Design and support the rollout of cross-country improvements (e.g., pooled procurement feasibility, centralized pre-positioning, LMIS integration, preferred vendor strategies, emergency surge mechanisms, harmonized delivery models).
• Support the implementation of the supply chain I@S bodies of work.
• Escalate and advise GSC Leadership on global priorities, risks, and mitigation strategies impacting success of I@S activity plans.
• Provide specialized technical support to country supply chain and health teams.
• Strengthening country practices in forecasting, contingency planning, supplier management, and stock-out prevention.
• Support countries facing pipeline risks or operational bottlenecks; deploy to high-priority locations as needed.
• Promote best practices and harmonize tools, guidance, and SOPs across all countries, regions and departments.
• Train country and departmental staff as required. Develop e-training as funding permits.
• Develop supply chain KPIs aligned to IRC’s LMIS, BD and I@S objectives.
• Produce timely reports on global health supply chain performance, risks, and mitigation actions.
• Document lessons learned and drive continuous improvement.
• Maintain updated knowledge of global markets, procurement trends, supplier landscapes, regulatory shifts, and donor funding priorities relevant to supply chain programming.

• Remote work / standard office (location dependent)