Director Awards Management, East Africa at International Rescue Committee

• The Awards Management Unit complements and supports the IRC’s regional structure and is tasked with direct support and oversight of business development and grants implementation to meet country and IRC-wide priorities. As part of the regional structure the Directors of Awards Management ensure high quality guidance and support throughout the awards lifecycle to IRC country teams and external stakeholders. This is done by leading on/contributing to the development of best practice in business processes, overseeing the regional program support team and representing country and regional perspectives. Directors of Awards Management act as connectors, striving to establish a strong culture of collaboration across HQ, country and regional levels.
• The Directors of Awards Management ensure their teams and AMU colleagues provide key interface between the country offices, grants teams and the wider IRC in all aspects of award management for all donors (private and public) in their respective regions. This includes providing insight into the range of grants-related activities in the region, support for private sector and institutional donors, resourcing gaps in country teams and delivering training.

Direct Reports:

• 7 regional direct reports
• Leadership of full Regional Program Support Team (17 total members)

Key Relationships:

• All pillars within AMU, IRC UK, IRC DE and other European offices, CRRD, External Relations, Supply Chain, Finance, ECU, OGC, HR and IT

KEY ACCOUNTABLITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Accountable for excellence in proposal and award management support to country offices by leading and empowering the regional program support team in supporting the country-based grants staff, co-designing solutions, ensuring capacity building, partnership management, and coordinating support with stakeholders across the organization.
• Define and drive forward critical business decisions and processes that respond to the needs of regions, country programs, and the organization, including contributing to the development, deployment and utilization of financial and operational policies, procedures, and systems to deliver compliance with IRC and donor requirements.
• Lead and manage an ambitious and high performing regional program support team, acting as a trusted and accountable manager, mentor and professional resource, including promoting collaboration, enabling adequate resourcing and ensuring accountability.

Responsible for maintaining regional level oversight of award portfolio and pipeline including:

• In partnership with the Business Development Director, Regions supporting the regional Senior Program Development Advisor to work with country programs in setting and implementing their business development plans, attaining their targets through proactive planning and reviewing progress in support and consultation with regional leadership.
• Leading the team in developing and maintaining positive, strategic relationships with donors to sustain regional impact – providing insight/information into donor thinking and developments in addition to escalating issues as appropriate.
• Liaise with internal stakeholders including: Finance, Measurement, Ethics and Compliance, and Office of General Counsel to deepen understanding/application of organisational objectives and problem solving.
• Seek opportunities to introduce efficiencies and eliminate redundancies in existing business processes, including sharing of best practices across regions.
• Represent the voices and needs of the country grants teams to wider AMU, External Relations and IRC, and support strong collaboration in particular with AMU’s Business Development and Compliance & Policy teams.
• Ensure collaboration between country offices, the region and External Relations around private sector funding priorities. Alongside the CRRD Regional Vice President and Deputy Regional Director, represent the region in quarterly finance, business development, regional roundtable meetings and other key engagements as appropriate.
• Ensure responsiveness and appropriate levels of in-person and remote award management support to all country offices, plus serve as technical resource for country grant staff recruitment. This includes identifying resourcing gaps in-country grants & partnerships teams and finding solutions to ensure proper coverage of immediate needs while providing advice on structural changes for healthy portfolio management.
• Lead on and support AMU and regional strategic priorities and initiatives more widely.
• Ensure identified issues are escalated and proactively work with leadership to find solutions.

REQUIREMENTS

• At least 7-10 years of experience with a relief and development NGO or multilateral agency
• International experience, especially in the region, preferred
• Program and/or grants management experience with key donors, such as USAID, FCDO, European Union/ECHO, UN agencies, and others
• Experience managing for donor compliance, proposal writing, budgeting, and representing implementers to donors
• Proven ability to lead, manage, and develop teams, including staff working at a distance
• Proven ability to manage multiple work streams and to coordinate across teams/functions
• Excellent relationship-management skills with colleagues in country offices and HQ, senior stakeholders, and donors
• Written and spoken fluency in English and required languages of operation of country programs
•  Ability to travel internationally approximately 15% of the time