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Director of Grants Administration and Compliance

9:45:00 AM

Summary

Innovations for Poverty Action is expanding its team, creating a Director of Grants, Compliance and Financial Planning position to work closely with the Director of Finance and the rest of the Senior Management Team to develop a compliance system, to expand and improve the organization’s grant management and reporting systems, and to build and oversee projects’ and the organization’s financial management and planning capacity.

The Director of Grants, Compliance and Financial Planning will work with the Finance, Legal, Operations, and Project Teams in various countries to develop IPA’s compliance systems and to build upon IPA’s grant management and reporting systems, as well as budgeting, forecasting and financial planning capacity. This includes tracking the terms and conditions of grants and contracts, including temporary and permanent restrictions; tracking the timing of deliverables and issuing invoices and reports to donors; developing a budgeting and forecasting system for all levels of the organization and oversee the organization’s financial planning.

Responsibilities

The Director of Grants, Compliance and Financial Planning will lead a team of individual grants administrators to provide strong services to both donors and Principal Investigators. The Director must possess strong analytical, management and accounting skills, financial management and planning skills, be very detailed oriented and able to multitask, and be highly organized.

The Director of Grants Administration and Compliance will assist in providing operational and administrative support in the following ways:

Leading the grants administration team

  • Lead the team’s strategic planning: shape and structure the team’s vision, goals and responsibilities; assign roles within the team; establish and monitor goals.
  • Lead and direct activities of the Grants Administration Department; establish procedures, communicate information, monitor the team’s performance and oversee its professional development.
  • Together with the Director of Finance and the Financial Controller, clearly define roles of the Grants Administration team with respect to the rest of the Finance team.
  • Coordinate the Grants Administration team’s functions with other IPA departments

Creation of grants management, reporting and compliance systems

  • Work with the Direct of Finance and the General Counsel, review and improve IPA contracts’ negotiation and review process.
  • Lead the creation of a grants database using SalesForce and of a system to maintain it.
  • Work with in-country project staff, Principal Investigators and US-based finance staff to create and improve systems to track:
    • Grant and contract requirements and deliverables
    • Invoicing schedules for all sources of funds
  • Develop a compliance system which may include and is not limited to the following areas:
    • Procurement of goods and services
    • Marking and branding
    • Subcontractor compliance
  • Communicate with donor institutions and project staff (including training and capacity building) to ensurecomprehensive compliance with donor rules and regulations.
  • Develop and oversee a system to coordinate with Finance, Legal, HR and Operations and Country Offices to manage compliance matters relating to all grants, contracts and other agreements

Contracts negotiation, grants management and reporting oversight

  • Negotiate financial terms of contracts with donors when necessary, and oversee the review of contracts and grants terms by the Grants Administrators, according to the contract review process
  • Oversee donor reporting and monitor grant billing by the Grants Administrators, including managing grant A/R with the Finance Department
  • Supervise the maintenance of up-to-date and organized electronic and paper files
  • Oversee the organization ofthe monthly expense reports’ review to verify that all expenditures have been allocated correctly

External Relations

  • Develop and maintain good relationships and regular, effective and cordial relationships with IPA donors and IPA researchers
  • Develop a system to determine and track IPA donors’ requirements and work style
  • Work with Development Director, develop a good knowledge of which IPA donors are strategic, and use this knowledge to facilitate the identification and potential negotiations of future funding opportunities
  • Work with other IPA teams, establish guidelines for researchers’ financial oversight responsibilities, and communicate those guidelines with researchers, taking into account risks to IPA as well as researchers’ work style and constraints.

Project financial and strategic planning

  • Lead the development of a process for creating and updating project budgets, and comparing project budgets with expenditures, in order to regularly assess and report on financial health of projects
  • Structure the grants administration’s , country offices’ and the project team’s roles and responsibilities in overseeing projects’ financial planning

Organizational financial and strategic planning

  • Together with the Director of Finance, and working with other IPA teams, lead the revision of IPA core revenue generation system and oversee its implementation.
  • Together with the Director of Finance, and the operations team, review and improve the country offices’ budgeting and financial planning process, and oversee the country offices’ budgeting and financial planning.
  • Participate in the organization’s overall risk mitigation strategy – for example by participating in new projects risk assessment committee as well as in a a newly created IPA organizational risk assessment committee
  • Develop a strategy for training non finance IPA staff on finance fundamentals, to reduce risks associated with decentralized financial management.


Qualifications

  • Minimum Bachelor’s degree with strong academic performance, Masters degree in relevant field preferable
  • 8-10 years of experience in grants management, preferably for a global nonprofit or academic institution
  • Proven ability to create new systems
  • Up to date knowledge of USAID and US Government agreement policies and regulations required
  • Experience managing multi-million dollar USAID or other USG grants and/or contracts required
  • Strong management skills
  • Excellent writing and communication skills
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Proficient in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and Word
  • Experience with accounting systems desirable
  • Experience with data base management system desirable
  • Interest in working in a dynamic and entrepreneurial environment

Contact Details


Application Instructions

Please send an email to jobs@poverty-action.org and copy grants@poverty-action.org, following these instructions exactly:

  • In the subject line: Put your full name, first (given) name followed by last (family) name.
  • Attachments: Please attach your resume and cover letter
  • In the email body: Copy exactly the following position line: 100605 IPAUSA, Director of Grants Administration and Compliance

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted by email for an interview. Applicants are encouraged to apply early, as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

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