Supply Chain & Advocacy Manager

ABOUT VILLAGEREACH 

VillageReach transforms health care delivery to reach everyone. We are driven by a vision of a world where each person has the health care needed to thrive. VillageReach’s goal is to reduce inequities in access to quality primary health care for 350 million people by 2030. We work with governments, the private sector, partners and communities to build responsive primary health care systems that deliver health products, information and services to the most under-reached. We use our policy and advocacy approach to influence policies, shape narratives, and shift mindsets, ensuring that health systems work for everyone. Our strength lies in evidence-driven advocacy and strategic partnerships. We engage policy-makers, build coalitions, and use communication as a lever to raise awareness, build trust, and drive action. 

As a locally driven and globally connected organization, VillageReach has offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and the United States.  This position will be based in Nairobi, Kenya. 

Summary

The Manager, Supply Chain & Advocacy will support the Supply Chain for Primary Health Care program in Kenya, working to strengthen the health system and ensure essential health supplies consistently reach under-reached communities. The role involves close collaboration with the Ministry of Health—specifically the Department of Health Products & Technology and the Division of Community Health—KEMSA, the counties (Migori, Homabay, Baringo, Nyeri, Kwale, Turkana, and others as they arise), and the Community Health Unit for Universal Health Coverage (CHU4UHC).

The Manager will support the work with county-level stakeholders and the Council of Governors to ensure supply chain evidence informs the integration and prioritization of community health commodities within county budgets, digital systems, and supply chain systems. The position reports to the Senior Manager, Supply Chain will be implementing the program across the six counties.

Description

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.

Supply Chain Advocacy (40%):

Support the Senior Manager, Supply Chain, in developing and executing a clear advocacy strategy for amplifying supply chain needs and planning considerations for CHWs at county and national level. Specifically:

• Advocate for increased funding support for community health needs and for inclusion of community health commodity requirements within county budgets and county planning cycles.
• Collaborate with CHU4UHC partner organizations at the national and county level to enhance alignment and leverage existing investments in community health supply chains (e.g., FAH).
• Support county governments to translate evidence from SC4CHW work into policy for sustainable financing of community health commodities.
• Work with the Council of Governors to develop and execute a roadmap for replicating VillageReach’s CHW supply chain approach and tools across counties, and to translate SC4CHW work into policy for management of community health commodities across all 47 counties.
• Co-develop a gap analysis for bottlenecks to replenishment and support delivery of a joint MoH community supply chain advocacy plan that ensures community commodities are available when and where they are needed.
• Advocate for inclusion of community commodities in county government budgets so that CHW kits can be regularly replenished from link facilities.
• Track progress against both national and county-specific advocacy plans.
• Develop high-quality policy briefs that translate complex technical material into compelling policy collateral and messages suited for national governments, donors, and partners.

Technical (40%):

Working together with the Senior Manager, Supply Chain, provide technical leadership for the day-to-day implementation of all community health supply chain improvement activities. Activities include assessments, supply chain system design, warehousing and inventory management, transportation and distribution, forecasting and supply planning, and supply chain performance management. This includes managing national-level stakeholders to develop policies and strategies that support community supply chains, as well as supporting county governments to:

• Conduct quarterly Health Products and Technology Units meetings.
• Develop policy documents on supply chain management (e.g., SOPs, strategic plans).
• Train Community Health Assistants and health workers on supply chain management.
• Regularly assess the performance of their supply chains.
• Contribute to policy frameworks that support community supply chains and the national health supply chain more broadly.

Business Development (10%):

Working together with Senior Manager, Supply Chain and VillageReach business development team, conduct business development activities, including identifying, cultivating and securing funding opportunities for VillageReach for the continued growth of the program.

Stakeholder Engagement (10%):

Engage with the County Health Products and Technology Units, the County Health departments and other supply chain and community health partners at the county level and identify opportunities for collaboration to strengthen community health supply chains.

Competencies:

VillageReach has ten (10) Organizational Competencies that describe how we work together and get things done that are grouped into three strategic areas of Achieving Great Results, Setting Direction and, Bringing Others With you. For a full description, please download our Organizational Competency document.

Achieving Great Results:

1.      Risk Taking and Innovation

·        Key Behaviors: Comfort with ambiguity, curiosity, adaptability, unconstrained and undeterred creativity, resourcefulness.

2.      Business Judgement

·        Key Behaviors: Getting to root causes, understanding environment, navigating complexity and ambiguity, entrepreneurial energy.

3.      Building Strong Teams

·       Key Behaviors: Trust in Subject Matter Experts (SME’s); radical candor to resolve conflict, hold each other accountable as colleagues, focused on results, commitment to mission.

Setting Direction:

4.      Compelling Communication

·        Key Behaviors: Clear and evidence-based communication, audience adaptability, curious listener. 

5.      Resilient Self Leadership

·        Key Behaviors: Self-aware, plan how one shows up, emotionally intelligent, use one’s own agency and takes accountability.

6.      Stewardship and Personal Alignment

·        Key Behaviors: Take ownership, display ethical conduct, effective at resource management, alignment of personal objectives with organizational goals and mission, focus on continuous improvement and sustainability.

Bringing Others with You:

7.      Influencing Leadership

·        Key Behaviors: Cultivate trust, influences to make change, navigate the matrix structure.

8.      Radical Partnership

·        Key Behaviors: Share information and credit, address conflict, increase impact through collaboration, political and contextual awareness.

9.      Cultivates a Growth Mindset

·        Key Behaviors: Seek out diverse input, demonstrate flexibility in thinking and curiosity, embrace challenges, demonstrate persistence, seek learning opportunities.

10.   Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion

·        Key Behaviors: Continuous learning and ally-ship across cultural lines, challenge prejudice and bias, modeled in one’s own behavior.

Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Supervisory Responsibilities: This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s or graduate degree or equivalent in pharmacy, supply chain management, public health, international development, business or related field.
• 5 years’ work experience working with global health supply chains policy and advocacy.
• Demonstrated experience working closely with governments to adopt policy reforms.
• Demonstrated experience developing Advocacy briefs and presentations to influence policymakers.
• Demonstrated experience interacting with government agencies and counterparts, and international donor agencies; excellent networking and partnership building skills
• Excellent planning and prioritization skills as well as creative problem-solving and analytical skills;
• Experience working with government partners at both the national and the county level.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of supply chain systems and data flow at the community level
• Understanding of the challenges with commodity availability at the community level
• Experience working with geographically distributed teams
• Readiness to travel in-country (Kenya) 25% of the time to supervise project activities at the county level

Other Qualifications:

• Eligibility to work in Kenya and excellent understanding of the Kenyan health system.
• Comply with VillageReach’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.
• Established cultural competency in partnering with racial, cultural and linguistically diverse groups.
• Can carefully navigate complex political dynamics with the MOH and other partners.
• Demonstrated understanding of challenges with working in rural, underserved and low-income context; experience living in and/or working in a low-income country a plus.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel) and comfortable in a fast-paced technical environment.
• Fluency in English and Swahili with professional proficiency in writing and speaking.
• Collaboration skills to develop and manage relationships with key stakeholders.
• Communications skills to present convincingly to senior government officials, Technical Assistance partners and conference audiences.

Environment and Physical Demands:

This employee would spend at least one day (or preferably two days when possible) a week at the Division of Community Health, one day a week (preferably two when possible) at the Department of Health Products and Technology and one day at the VillageReach Kenya office with the Senior Manager, Supply Chain and the Senior Director, Global Programs.

VillageReach employees typically work in a shared, open environment with task and conference rooms accessible to employees for privacy and meetings. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet. Due to the time zone differences across our USA, Kenya and Country Offices and location of other global staff, we have established core collaboration hours between 6am Pacific Time and 18:00 South Africa Time (GMT+1) Monday through Thursday. All staff, regardless of location are expected to be available between these hours. During Daylight Savings Time, this allows for 12 hours per week (3 hours/day) of collaboration time and during Standard Time, 8 hours (2 hours/day). We do not hold cross-office meetings on Friday.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY & INCLUSION:

VillageReach is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer committed to workforce diversity. We believe that diverse, equitably weighted perspectives foster an organizational capacity to create novel solutions that improve health in the most under-reached and hard-to-reach areas. To align our values, innovations and impact, VillageReach is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse global workforce.

APPLICATION INFORMATION:

This hire is expected to begin January 5, 2026 and therefore resumes will be reviewed on a rolling basis until December 12, 2025. To apply, please submit your resume and a cover letter and an example of an advocacy brief you developed to our online portal: http://www.villagereach.org/join-us/.  In your cover letter, please address (1)Why you are interested in this position, (2)What is one reason you think you’d be a good fit for this position and, (3)what is one strength you would bring to this position?

Hiring Process:

The hiring process will include the following steps:

1.      Review submitted applications

2.      Conduct 20-30 minute screening interviews for shortlisted candidates

3.      Conduct skills and value-based interviews for 3-5 candidates.

4.      Request that top candidates submit a practical assessment (designed to take no more than two hours to complete). Sometimes the assignment will occur before the interview.

5.      Conduct final interview if necessary

6.      Request references 

7.      Make offer 

8.      Conduct background check

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, but candidates who proceed to step 2 will be notified if they are not chosen for step 3.

Safeguarding:

VillageReach is committed to promoting the welfare of children, young people, adults, and beneficiaries with whom it engages. We expect everyone working with us to share this commitment through our code of conduct.All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which may include criminal records. VillageReach participates in the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and, in line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By applying, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Benefits

Compensation & Benefits:

VillageReach has an established compensation structure that is based on the relevant market and internally transparent. The range for this position is $55,300 to $73.700.We hire people into the established range based on one’s experience and education and considering internal equity. We do not inquire about salary history. Please refer to our compensation overview on our website for more information and for more information on employee benefits.