Food Safety and Quality Assurance Expert (SSA, L10)–National School Meals Programme

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).

ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Provide technical inputs to national school and infrastructure mapping by identifying food safety risks related to meal preparation, storage, water and sanitation conditions, waste management, energy sources, and hygiene practices in school or community kitchens, training institutions, and private food providers potentially engaged in hot meal delivery.
• Analyze food safety and quality implications of different delivery modalities (on‑site cooking, central kitchens, caterers, hybrid models), including risks associated with sourcing, processing, storage, transportation, meal holding times, and last‑mile distribution under diverse geographic and climatic conditions.
• Support the classification of schools and delivery options from a food safety perspective by defining minimum eligibility criteria, required controls, and mitigation measures for each school cluster, and identifying conditions under which hot meal delivery would not be feasible without significant safety investments.
• Provide technical guidance on compliance with national food safety regulations and standards, in coordination with relevant authorities (e.g. National Food Safety Authority, Ministry of Health), including inspection requirements, certification, licensing, and alignment with existing control systems.
• Define food safety and quality requirements for procurement and contracting processes, including supplier eligibility criteria, food specifications, hygiene and sanitation standards, inspection and verification mechanisms, recall procedures, and integration of food safety obligations into contracts and framework agreements.
• Advise on the design of food safety assurance systems across the supply chain, including preventive controls, risk‑based monitoring, documentation requirements, and incident reporting and response protocols tailored to hot school meals operations.
• Provide food‑safety‑related inputs to costing and financial models by identifying cost implications of compliance measures, including equipment, infrastructure upgrades, protective gear, testing, inspections, staff training, and monitoring systems.
• Draft or review food safety and hygiene components of the National School Meals Operational Manual, including standard operating procedures for kitchen operations, personal hygiene, cleaning and sanitation, temperature control, storage and transport of food, incident management, and reporting tools.
• Identify food safety capacity gaps among government institutions, implementing partners, caterers, kitchen staff, and suppliers, and propose priority capacity‑strengthening and training measures to support safe implementation at scale.
• Assess food safety readiness for phased implementation in selected governorates, identifying high‑risk control points, immediate mitigation actions, and minimum conditions required prior to start‑up.
• Develop training materials on standard operating procedures on food safety and hygiene for relevant government counterparts and programme personnel, and deliver Training of Trainers (ToT) sessions to strengthen national capacity for the implementation of the National School Hot Meals Programme.
• Contribute to the development of a short start‑up and scale‑up risk management note by summarizing key food safety risks likely to arise during early implementation and recommending adjustments to delivery models, controls, and monitoring arrangements based on field realities.
• Provide technical backstopping during the launch of the pilot phase of the hot meals programme to relevant stakeholders.
• Any other related duties, as required, within the scope of the assignment.

1-Food Safety Mapping and Risk Assessment Summary

Technical inputs/ sections pertinent to food safety and quality provided to the national school kitchen mapping/ assessment, including identification of key food safety risks across schools, supply chain, kitchens, current delivery models, and geographic contexts.

2-Food Safety Standards and Controls for Hot Meal Delivery Models

A concise document defining food safety and quality requirements for on‑site, central kitchen, and hybrid delivery models, including supplier eligibility criteria, food specifications, hygiene and sanitation standards, inspection and compliance mechanisms, and alignment with national regulations.

3-Food Safety Operational Guidance and Inputs to Supply Chain and Costing Guidance

National Operational Manual for food safety and quality assurance across kitchen operations, storage, transport, incident management, monitoring, and reporting. Contributions to the manuals related to supply chain and food‑safety‑related costs for financial modelling.

4-Capacity Assessment and TOT

Capacity Assessment Report and TOT sessions delivered to national stakeholders

5-Start‑up Food Safety Readiness and Scale‑up Adjustment Note

An action‑oriented assessment of food safety readiness for phased implementation of the hot meals selected models, identifying high‑risk control points, required pre‑conditions for start‑up, and recommended actionable adjustments to support safe piloting and informed scale‑up.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

A first-level degree with additional relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced degree.

Experience

• At least 8–10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in food safety system design, implementation, and quality assurance, including a minimum of 5 years in senior technical, advisory, or food safety management roles within large-scale catering, institutional feeding, hospitality, airline catering, industrial catering, school feeding programmes, or comparable food service operations.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and implementing food safety management systems for large-scale catering operations, such as institutional catering, airline catering, industrial catering, hospital catering, school feeding programmes or comparable meal service operations.
• Proven experience managing or advising on high-risk food safety environments, including identification and mitigation of public-health, operational and reputational risks.
• Demonstrated experience providing senior-level technical advice to government counterparts, regulatory authorities and/or international organizations.
• Experience working with the Egyptian food safety regulatory environment, including engagement with the National Food Safety Authority (NFSA) and food service regulatory requirements, is strongly preferred.
• Prior experience working with UN agencies, governments or large public-sector programmes is strongly desirable.

Knowledge & Skills

• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality analytical reports, technical guidance and operational manuals for senior and government audiences.
• Strong analytical, drafting, and advisory skills, with the ability to translate complex technical requirements into practical operational guidance.
• Knowledge of food safety risk assessment methodologies and preventive control frameworks.
• Ability to design and implement monitoring and quality assurance systems at scale.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and facilitation skills.
• Ability to work independently and deliver technical outputs under tight deadlines.

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REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

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REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruiting system. We do not consider CVs or applications sent by email, LinkedIn, or any other channel.
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• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.