Location: Monrovia, Liberia
Position Status: Full-time, Exempt, Regular - Expat
Risk Level: ☐ Level 3 XLevel 2 ☐Level 1
(Level 3: Frequent contact with participants, direct contact with children, access to sensitive data, and/or high level of accountability.
Level 2: Some contact with participants; unplanned non-direct contact with children.
Level 1: Likely to have no contact with participants or sensitive data)
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is transitioning to Prosper Global. Learn morehere. As the transition is being implemented by location, you may see the Mercy Corps and Prosper Global names used concurrently during this period. This is an administrative transition, and our teams, programs and commitments continue without interruption.
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.
In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions
into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
Now, and for the future.
The Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps has worked in Liberia since 2002, initially responding to the humanitarian impacts of the country’s civil conflicts and subsequently evolving its programming to address the changing needs and priorities of Liberian communities. Over the past two decades, Mercy Corps has implemented a diverse portfolio of programs focused on food security, agricultural livelihoods, nutrition, financial inclusion, youth economic empowerment, renewable energy, water and sanitation, and community resilience, supporting sustainable development and improved opportunities across the country.
Mercy Corps Liberia works across multiple counties and sectors to address evolving development needs and humanitarian challenges. In collaboration with government, communities, donors, and other partners, Mercy Corps implements programs that support food security, livelihoods, economic opportunity, and resilience. The country's program is supported by operational and technical teams that help ensure effective, accountable, and compliant program delivery.
Mercy Corps will implement a five-year, $35 million USDA McGovern-Dole International Food for Education Program in Liberia. The project will improve literacy, school attendance, nutrition, and food security among primary school children in four counties: Grand Bassa, Rivercess, River Gee, and Grand Gedeh. The program will reach approximately 50,000 students annually across 234 public primary schools through the provision of nutritious daily school meals, strengthened early grade reading instruction, and integrated school health and nutrition interventions. In addition to reducing short-term hunger and improving educational outcomes, the program seeks to increase the Government of Liberia’s capacity to manage and sustain school feeding and literacy systems beyond the life of the award.
The Position
The Supply Chain & Operations Director provides overall executive leadership, strategic direction, and oversight for all operations functions, supply chain, procurement, logistics, warehousing, and inventory management operations. This senior leadership role drives end-to-end strategy across USDA-donated commodities and Local and Regional Procurement (LRP) food items, ensuring on-time customs clearance and facilitating import permits for imported commodities.
This position ensures full compliance with USG donor regulations (including 7 CFR1599), donor requirements, and organizational, while safeguarding commodity integrity from source to final distribution. The Director operates at a strategic level, setting up policy, building systems, managing risk, and representing the program to external stakeholders while ensuring operational teams have the frameworks, tools, and capacity to deliver. This includes stakeholder engagement, warehousing, transportation and storage, loss of mitigation, commodity handling and reporting, regulatory compliance, SOP development, Call Forward management, staff management, and capacity building. The position is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective supply-chain systems, controls, procedures, and standards in accordance with donor requirements, applicable government regulations, and organizational policies and standards.
Essential Responsibilities
STRATEGY AND PLANNING
- Work with the regional senior leadership team to develop and support the regional strategy.
- Mobilize support services and risk management resources to enable country and regional leadership teams to execute their respective strategic priorities.
- Lead the development and administration of regional and country level reports on key finance, operations and human resources indicators.
- Manage and administer regional core budgets in coordination with regional and global leadership.
- Lead the overall strategic design, optimization, and scaling of the program’s supply chain model for both imported US commodities and LRP food products.
- Establish risk management, continuity, and crisis response strategies to safeguard food supply lines against port delays, market volatility, political instability, and transport disruptions.
- Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and operational benchmarks for supply chain performance, cost efficiency, product safety, and timely delivery across all field sites.
- Establish governance structures, decision-making frameworks, and accountability mechanisms for supply chain operations.
- Advise senior management and the donor on supply chain risk, performance, and strategic opportunities.
- Drive continuous improvement, innovation, and cost efficiency across the supply chain.
- Develop and implement an integrated supply chain strategy aligned with program objectives, US requirements, organizational standards, and operational realities.
OPERATIONAL
- Ensure integration of program support systems and process in all Mercy Corps Liberia offices.
- Ensure all offices have capacity (human and technical) to support smooth program operations.
- Ensure internal and donor procedures, policies and guidelines are followed.
- Ensure unified and cost-effective fleet management, including tracking maintenance, fuel usage and vehicle scheduling.
- Oversee set-up and development of Mercy Corps offices, including drafting and reviewing contracts for office and housing space and leasehold improvements.
- Develop and periodically review country of field office-specific policies and communicate them to teams.
- Oversee database and file management for administration, procurement and logistics documents.
- Oversee facility management, including housing and office leases; ensure that security standards are maintained at all premises.
- Ensure that Mercy Corps contracts and business transactions/relationship are transparent and in compliance with Liberia law and Mercy Corps/donor policies.
WARHOUSE, TRANSPORT AND CALL FORWARD & COMMODITY PIPELINE MANAGEMENT
- Lead and coordinate the formulation and submission of the official US Call Forward schedule in close alignment with program delivery targets, school calendars, and pipeline estimates.
- Lead and coordinate the development, review, and implementation of commodity Call Forward plans in collaboration with the Chief of Party, MEL Manager, Technical Director, Nutrition Advisor, Global Distribution Quality Advisor, and Program staff alignment with US requirements, program timelines, and distribution plans.
- Coordinate with US, freight forwarders, and receiving warehouses to ensure smooth commodity, call forward and receipt.
- Oversee the end-to-end management of food commodities, from receipt and port clearance through warehousing, transport, delivery, school-level storage, utilization, and final reconciliation.
- Direct multi-year commodity pipeline planning, demand forecasting, and inventory balancing to prevent pipeline breaks, overstocking, or demurrage costs.
- Oversee ocean and land freight logistics, import permits, customs clearance strategies, port discharge operations, and shipping lines of coordination at the executive level.
- Ensure adequate warehouse capacity, appropriate storage conditions, stock rotation, inventory controls, and commodity security.
- Set standards and provide oversight for central and County warehouses, ensuring compliance with international warehousing standards (stacking, ventilation, sanitation, pest control, security).
- Set strategy for transportation and distribution, including contracting and oversight of 3PL providers and primary/secondary transporters.
STRATEGIC LRP & HIGH-LEVEL STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
- Direct the strategic framework for Local and Regional Procurement (LRP), ensuring local market dynamics, price stability, supplier capacities, and US LRP compliance is balanced.
- Serve as the primary supply chain representative and technical expert with US officials, government ministries, port authorities, carrier executives, and international donor working groups.
- Build and manage relationships with suppliers, farmer organizations, cooperatives, transporters, 3PL providers, freight forwarders, and warehouse operators.
- Represent the program in donor reviews, technical working groups, coordination forums, and audit engagements.
- Negotiate and manage strategic agreements, contracts, and MoUs with key supply chain partners.
- Coordinate closely with Program, Finance, Procurement, Compliance, and field teams to align supply chain operations with program delivery.
- Establish effective coordination mechanisms between Supply Chain, Program, Finance, Procurement, MEL, Compliance, and senior management teams.
- Represent the organization in relevant supply chain and commodity management forums and technical discussions.
- Build and maintain effective relat...