Country: United States of America
Closing date: 19 Feb 2018
Requisition ID: req976
Job Title: Grants and Operations Coordinator
Sector: Operations
Employment Category: Fixed Term
Employment Type: Full-Time
Location: USA-New York, NY - HQ
Job Description
Background: The International Rescue Committee (IRC), founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, the IRC helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future. In order to achieve this mission, the IRC is working to improve the safety, health, education, economic well-being and power of people in crisis-affected places, but particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized, so that we can narrow the stark inequalities that exist, including between men and women, and boys and girls.
Job Overview/Summary:
The Governance Unit within Policy & Practice is responsible for developing and overseeing the quality of IRC's program portfolio of key interventions contributing to the Power of the people we serve, as well as to the governance aspects of service delivery that contribute to IRC's other sectoral outcomes. Our work helps those we support have a greater degree of influence over the collective decisions that affect their lives, be able to choose where to live as well as have access to effective and responsive services.
The Coordinator, Grants and Operations is responsible for supporting the Senior Director - Governance, and senior staff in ensuring effective and efficient grants and operations management within the unit. This includes development and monitoring of budgets for the Governance Unit as a whole and for individual grants, human resources administration, management of information and knowledge systems, and oversight of procurement and administrative support to Governance Unit activities. S/he will ensure that all the necessary IRC systems, policies and procedures are understood, and used by Governance Unit team members. Where policies and procedures do not yet exist, the Coordinator will be responsible for working with relevant departments and staff to develop them.
The Coordinator will supervise a full-time Governance Program Manager/Assistant. S/he reports to the Senior Director - Governance and is part of the Governance senior management team, which also includes a Senior Technical Advisor managing country technical assistance. S/he may be assigned to work with regional and country staff on areas of budget and grants management. S/he will also liaise closely with the IRC support departments to ensure that the Governance Unit is operating as effectively and efficiently as possible to achieve our objectives.
Job Function & Responsibilities:
Systems & Processes
- Act as unit focal point for the IRC standard systems, processes, and procedures applicable to the Governance Unit including OTIS, TETRA, Rescue Net, Workday, Finance and Supply Chain
- Proactively engage with Governance Unit staff and develop resources as required to ensure staff understand and use systems and are aware of any related changes
- Identify areas of inefficiencies or gaps in current systems/policy/procedures and work with relevant Police and Practice (P&P) units and IRC operations departments to develop and implement improvements
- Develop/maintain and implement effective on-boarding processes, monitor implementation to ensure all staff receive timely and appropriate on-boarding and required training
Grant Management and Budget Development
- Develop and maintain an in-depth understanding of Governance Unit grants, donor compliance and budget conditions and status
- Working with relevant Governance Unit and P&P Finance staff ensure accuracy of grant financial/budget reports, promptly identify and advise the TU Director and applicable grant leads on areas of concern
- In partnership with program technical staff contribute to the development of TU grant budget proposals including inclusion of appropriate staff and operational costs
- Support in budget development for Governance Technical Unit-led projects and competitive opportunities where requested, in partnership with program technical staff including inclusion of appropriate staff and operational costs
- Ensure utilization of IRC standard grant management processes (OTIS, opening, review and closing meetings) and if required develop new tools or reporting formats to enhance grants management
- Implement processes to ensure new, and current staff are fully orientated and trained on the IRC grants systems and processes and any changes
Annual Operating Budget & Finance
- Ensure the Governance Unit operating budget is maintained on a timely basis and revisions submitted in accordance with the Finance schedule; provide recommendations for addressing any budget issues
- Analyze unit needs and spending patterns to ensure most effective use of funding and identification of any gaps or duplication in coverage
- Ensure financial requirements and documentation related to Governance Unit travel, conferences, advances and reimbursements are fully understood and complied with so that transactions are completed on a timely basis and correctly charged. Work with HQ finance staff to address any recurrent or systematic problems
Staff Management
- Provide Direct Line Management for the Governance Program Manager/Assistant: Directly supervise the recruitment of the program manager/assistant including completing Performance Appraisals with the Program Manager/Program Assistant, and monitoring progress against objectives and targets for each appraisal completed
- Maintain and promote a positive work environment for direct reports including providing timely support, encouraging learning and skills development, providing effective feedback and holding regular staff meetings.
- Ensure staff understand the roles and responsibilities of their position, have agreed performance objectives for each year and receive required training on IRC systems and processes to be effective
Knowledge Management and Communication
- Promote knowledge management and organizational learning within the unit, across the technical units, and with the country offices (e.g. governance newsletter)
- Coordinate sector-specific tool development and publications including managing the process of product delivery including logistical time-management and work planning, sourcing content, design, editing and printing consultants, and leading in the organization of translating sector specific tool documents.
- Coordinate dissemination of new Governance products including coordinating information dissemination around sector-specific research, evaluation and learning outcomes produced through the work of the Governance Unit.
- Produce, coordinate and disseminate communications materials to support the team, including capacity statements, reports on program evaluations, fact sheets, training materials, etc. Provide regular updates to the technical unit, programs department and senior leadership on the status of program activities. Oversee the setting up and ongoing maintenance of a resource library.
- Manage information regarding trends and success rates in learning humanitarian programming to support IRC's ability to deliver high-quality programming and build its evidence base.
Support to Senior Management Team & Strategy Development
- Support the Director in advance strategic initiatives to advance Governance programming. This may include management of annual unit priorities and tracking throughout the year. Maintain tracker for SMT issues and provide advice to senior team as requested.
- In partnership with the Program Manager/Program Assistant, facilitate capturing of unit data to meet internal management monitoring and internal Policy & Practice reporting requirements.
Position Reports to: Senior Director, Governance Position directly supervises: Program Manager
Indirect Reporting: Senior Technical Advisor
Other Internal and/or external contacts:
Internal: Technical Unit staff in the Governance Technical Unit and Policy & Practice planning and operations team
External: Sub-grantees or consultants hired
Job Requirements:
Education: Masters degree in a relevant field (political science, international relations, economics, public policy etc.)
Work Experience: 3-6 years of experience in the sector, with demonstrable professional experience in budget and grants administration
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
- Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills; demonstrated ability to successfully work in a fast paced environment, within and across departments/functions and develop positive relationships with locally and remote based staff
- Excellent organizational skills: the ability to work independently & productively in a fast-paced environment and ability to effectively see projects through from start to finish
- Strong Microsoft Office skills and experience with organizational information and financial systems needed
- Superior internal and external communication and coordination capabilities
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Experience managing donor funded projects and grants. Knowledge of DFID and ECHO compliance rules and requirements strongly preferred.
- Experience of managing budgets and spending plans, including reviews of budget-versus-actuals, and in delivering projects on budget
- Experience of and skills in developing and managing logical frameworks, M&E plans and tools
- Experience of developing donor progress reports, and of liaising with donors over project progress
- Experience and interest in governance programming (desirable)
- Experience of conducting research (desirable)
Language Skills: English (essential) French and Arabic (desirable)
Certificates or Licenses: N/A
Working Environment: Standard work environment. Up to 10% travel to crisis affected and fragile contexts may be required
How to apply:
Please follow this link to apply: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=YXN0cmlkLm1hdGhldy41NTg0Ny4zODMwQGlyY2NkLmFwbGl0cmFrLmNvbQ