Team Lead Digital Innovations

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

29 January :59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)

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ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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WHY JOIN WFP? 

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.

• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.

• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.

• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

JOB TITLE: Team Lead Digital Innovations
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Regular Consultant
UNIT/DIVISION: Nutrition, School Meals and Social Protection PRGS
DUTY STATION (City, Country): Rome, Italy
DURATION: 11 Months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization fighting hunger worldwide, providing food assistance in emergencies and improving nutrition and resilience.

Malnutrition remains a major challenge, contributing to 45% of child deaths under five. Stunting persists in many regions, while child overweight is rising, even in low-income countries. Among women of reproductive age, 159 million are underweight, while 644 million are overweight or obese. Anaemia affects 571 million women (30.2%) globally.

In 2024, WFP addressed malnutrition in 55 countries and integrated nutrition into 72 sectors, including agriculture, social protection, and school meals. It prioritized at-risk groups, reaching 9.4 million pregnant and lactating women and girls (PLWG) and 16.5 million children under five with nutrition support.

As one of the United Nations main agencies fighting malnutrition, the WFP is adapting to meet the current and emerging global nutrition challenges. This includes enhancing organizational capacity and innovating to improve programme quality, with a view to sustainably reducing all forms of malnutrition.

One example of such innovations is WFP's CODA (Conditional On-Demand Assistance), a digital tool and full-service solution designed to simplify and streamline nutrition programme decision making, monitoring and reporting through the digitization of national guidelines and the recording of individual data of those enrolled in programme. CODA is an innovative approach for individualized digital WFP case management that aims to transform big data collection and analysis for programmes that require participation monitoring and/or on demand distribution.

Reporting to the Chief of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning, Innovation for Nutrition (MERLIN), PPGN, the consultant will lead the Digital Innovation team, identify and implement strategic actions for nutrition digital solutions, specifically CODA and supervise a team of direct reports.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1.    Lead and manage the portfolio of Nutrition Digital Solutions and Innovation projects, specifically CODA, guiding all stakeholders to deliver a solution which achieves its value proposition to provide quality nutrition programme data to decision-makers at multiple levels.
2.    Lead and motivate a team of Digital Innovation specialists, develop work plans, set objectives, monitor performance, and ensure appropriate development to enable high performance. Ensure day to day management of the team, including team structure and accompanying ToRs.
3.    Manage the overall implementation, design, modelling, transition plan from previous versions to new and delivery process of CODA, working with data and qualitative insights to define the service offer and strategic proposition.
4.    Determine the funding strategy and manage the overall budget for CODA.  
5.    Define the service model for CODA, including aspects such as change management, communication, feedback management, training, and support. 
6.    Analyse emerging Nutrition policy and strategy for implications to Digital Innovation, distil into team objectives and simple strategic documents and implement through the portfolio. 
7.    Ensure documentation of progress, achievements and lessons learned is in place across the Digital Innovation workstream. 
8.    Strategically coordinate and manage collaboration with TEC (including the Nairobi Hub), Programme Department (PD), Regional Bureaux, Country Offices, the Innovation Change Management Divisions and Services (in particular the Innovation Accelerator), as well as with other services, divisions and departments across WFP, to ensure synergies between Digital Innovation initiatives and strategies. 
9.    In close collaboration with the Chief for MERLIN, develop and manage the PPGN Digital Innovation Resource Mobilization & Fundraising strategy to identify current funding needs and identify current and potential Private Sector and Government donors and partners to scale up existing innovation projects.
10.    Work directly with TEC Division and engage the Global Privacy Office on Nutrition's needs related to data protection and data privacy in alignment with the strategic objectives of WFP. 
11.    Plan and deliver external communications with relevant teams within WFP and the Nutrition and Food Quality Service, PPGN (e.g. Knowledge Management, Communications) to highlight the PPGN Digital Innovation projects, to further identify new partnerships and collaborations, and to increase fundraising opportunities. 
12.    Represent PPGN at Digital Innovation events and committees to further the visibility of the DI portfolio and ensure, integration with internal systems and synergies with other divisions within WFP, international agencies, Foundations, Private Sector Partners and Governments. 
13.    Work in collaboration with monitoring and evaluation and evidence officers to ensure evidence generation and best practices on digital innovations for nutrition and use of digitalization to improve nutrition global evidence base and WFP monitoring and evaluation. 
14.    Remain up-to-date on the social good and digital innovations to ensure business continuity, and provide required backstopping when needed.
15.    Provide support and/or, where required, delegate responsibilities across the team to mitigate short-term capacity gaps arising from the temporary unavailability of substantive role-holders, including but not limited to facilitating Scrum ceremonies, leading backlog grooming, and undertaking business analysis activities.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

•    Activities for the successful pilot delivery, use, governance, and maintenance of CODA are defined and carried out in close collaboration with the product teams. 

•    Digital Innovation team effectively managed and meeting its annual objectives, including product reporting lines that may not be in the direct line management. 

•    Team workplans for the team and sub-teams linked with WFP's Nutrition and Strategic Objectives

•    CODA service model and its packages (including the engagement strategy) are defined and communicated to ensure coordination with Country Offices and Regional Bureaux. 

•    Metrics and key performance indicators for CODA are defined and tracked, areas for improvement are identified, and corrective actions are taken when applicable.

•    Overseeing roll out, support, training and adoption oversight including change management activities as required for CODA. 

•    Effective collaboration with PD, TEC, INK in place to achieve Nutrition's digitalization priorities. 

•    Strong relationships networks with appropriate stakeholders established. 

•    Successful leadership in implementing identified strategy to raise the profile of WFP, build relationships and further organizational aims.

•    Effective leadership and management of scale-up of existing Digital Innovation projects 

•    Nutrition Digital Innovation budget, fundraising and resource mapping strategy is developed, covering Private Sector, Governments, Foundations and Accelerator opportunities.  

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:    Advanced university degree in relevant disciplines including Nutrition, public health, business management, social sciences, information technology or related field with relevant work experience.

Experience:    

Experience with introduction and scale up of innovations, preferably related to digitization of programme monitoring/management 
At least 7 years or more of postgraduate progressively responsible experience in humanitarian aid operations, including nutrition programmes 
Experience in developing project plans and managing tight timelines
Experience working on information technology projects including digital product development preferably in an agile environment
Expertise in project management with demonstrated progression in management responsibilities and leadership required

Knowledge & Skills:    

Expertise in nutrition, public health or related field, with required
experience in digitalization 
Expertise in Information communications technology (ICT) and innovation/Labs strongly desired
Ability to lead and manage projects and teams
Strong track record of delivering results in a complex environment
Demonstrated capacity for innovative problem-solving and flexibility to undertake new tasks required
Clear communication skills and the ability to discuss complex topics with a variety of audiences
Strong interpersonal skills for consensus building and collaborative result accomplishment required
Experience working in WFP or another UN agency 
Ability to coordinate with multiple stakeholders on deadlines required
Ability to work independently and take initiative required
Good planning skills and ability to work well in a team setting required Proficient in MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point) required

Languages:    Fluency in English required, with working knowledge of English and working knowledge of one of the other UN official languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) desired.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

 

WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.

Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

 

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: 

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

 

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REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruitment system. We do not accept CVs or spontaneous applications by email.

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• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.

• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter

• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time

• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

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