Workforce Planning and Org Design Consultant

Role Overview

You will be embedded in a regional office and act as the first point of expertise for workforce planning and organisational design across country offices in that region. On a typical day you might pull staffing data, interview functional leaders about their team needs, model future workforce scenarios, and help a Country Office leadership group think through how their structure should evolve. This role exists so that WFP can move beyond reactive hiring and instead make deliberate, evidence-based decisions about how many people, with what capabilities, are needed now and in the years ahead.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the regional technical authority for strategic workforce planning and organisational alignment, guiding country offices through established methodologies and ensuring consistency with regional priorities.
• Combine quantitative workforce data from HR systems with qualitative input from managers and subject-matter experts to assess current staffing, skills availability, future demand and likely gaps.
• Evaluate existing country office structures and design alternative organisational models, weighing trade-offs between operational needs, cost, span of control and workforce capacity.
• Distil complex workforce analysis into clear narrative summaries, visual presentations and practical recommendations that Country Office management and senior stakeholders can act upon.
• Build workforce plans and structural transition roadmaps that outline sequencing, resource requirements, dependencies and implementation risks for short-, medium- and long-term time horizons.
• Facilitate consultations with country offices, regional and headquarters colleagues, HR teams and external experts to validate assumptions, embed operational realities, and maintain stakeholder buy-in throughout the process.
• Own the collection, validation and presentation of workforce data while safeguarding data quality, consistency and privacy compliance.
• Track progress on workforce plan implementation and structural changes, capturing lessons learned and proposing adjustments as operational conditions change.
• Contribute to the broader evolution of workforce planning across WFP by improving tools, templates, benchmarks, knowledge products and sharing good practices with the global team.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Advanced university degree in human resources, organisational development, organisational psychology, business or public administration, economics, data analytics, social sciences, or a related discipline. A first-level degree combined with additional relevant experience is also acceptable.
• At least five years of professional experience in HR management, with a minimum of three years focused on strategic workforce planning, organisational design or HR consulting.
• At least three years of international exposure, whether gained through working abroad or working in a multicultural team within an international environment.
• Demonstrated command of strategic workforce planning, organisational design or HR advisory approaches, ideally in a complex or international organisation.
• Strong analytical ability, including comfort with workforce data, the capacity to identify patterns and the skill to translate findings into actionable insight for decision-makers.
• Solid planning, problem-solving and organisational skills, with the flexibility to handle shifting priorities and evolving field-level demands.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement talents, especially when working across cultures and hierarchies with HR colleagues, functional experts, Country Office management and senior leaders.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and workforce planning, data analysis, reporting or visualisation tools. Familiarity with data visualisation platforms and AI-enabled analytics tools is considered an advantage.
• Full fluency (level C) in written and spoken English is essential. Knowledge of another United Nations language is an asset.
• Ability and willingness to travel, primarily within countries in the assigned region, with occasional travel beyond it as operational needs arise.