Grants and Contracts Officer (Maternity cover)

IEU

Reports to: Head of Grants, Contracts and Compliance

Start date: 1 May 2022

Location: London, United Kingdom

Types of contracts: Fixed-term, five months

LoE: 100% (full-time)

Salary: £35,813 per annum (C1)

About Internews:

Internews works to ensure access to trusted, quality news and information that empowers people to have a voice in their future and to live healthy, secure, and rewarding lives. We envision a world where everyone can communicate freely with anyone, anywhere, and exchange the news and information they need to shape their communities and the world.

For 35 years and in more than 100 countries, we have worked with our local partners to build hundreds of sustainable organizations, strengthened the capacity of thousands of media professionals, human rights activists, and information entrepreneurs, and reached millions of people with quality, local information, improving lives and building lasting change. On issues ranging from health and the environment to conflict and governance, Internews has developed approaches that harness the power of media and information to create positive change.

Internews is a charity operating internationally, with administrative centres in California, Washington DC, London, and Paris as well as regional hubs in Bangkok and Nairobi. Formed in 1982, Internews currently has offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.

Our commitment to a culture of belonging:

Internews is passionate about our core values and about supporting positive change in the world. We pride ourselves on our commitment to innovation and flexibility. We believe that diverse teams are strong teams, and work to support an ethic of belonging, dignity, and justice for all people. Our current team includes a mix of genders, parents and non-parents, the self-taught, and people of multiple races, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations, and socio-economic backgrounds. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourage candidates of all races, genders, ages, abilities, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply, and actively welcome those with alternative backgrounds and experiences.

About the Role:

This opportunity has come up at Internews’ department of Grants, Contracts and Compliance because one of our valued team members will be going on a maternity leave. Grants and Contracts Officer has the overall responsibility of ensuring contractual and regulatory compliance of awards in their portfolio. With direct report to the Head of London’s Grants, Contracts and Compliance (GC&C), s/he will work closely with Internews’ several regional Program Management Units (PMUs) and Technical Leadership Teams to ensure that our programmes receive seamless and rigorous award management support, and that Internews’ country offices and partners receive best possible service in the sub-granting process.
You would be expected to have a deep understanding of the rules and regulations of major European donors. You will oversee the compliance management through all stages in the programme management cycle: from the development of proposal budgets to closing donor awards. This role is pivotal for building and maintaining the culture in which employees are expected to do the right thing – not the fast thing.

Key Responsibilities:

Compliance:

Works with regional Programme Officers and country teams on effective operational start-up, implementation and closing of awards. This includes reviewing and negotiating contracts with donors, setting-up awards on Internews’ Enterprise Resource Planning system, delivering compliance inductions, managing amendment requests to donors, and ensuring minimal standards for closing out awards within their portfolio.

Procurement management:

  • Manages all Collaborative Agreements and other contractual engagements with our Alliance partner – Internews Network (IUS) under projects that s/he supports;
  • Supports project staff with procurement planning and management. Controls the maintenance of accurate records for all procurements;
  • Leads on the development of project procurement plans to ensure internal and donor compliance. Inducts project staff;
  • Leads on the design and administration of large-scale procurements from the HQ. Negotiates terms and conditions with vendors;
  • Continuously reviews IEU’s policies and procedures to ensure they are up to date with best industry practices.

Sub-grants:

  • Supports start‐ups of sub-awards to partner. Coordinates project stakeholder inductions and ensures that all necessary processes and procedures are in place;
  • Participates in the recruitment of key grant management positions in the country offices;
  • Leads on the process of due‐diligence in preparation for sub‐granting to partners. Prepares sub-grant agreements, and ensures that they comply with Internews’s and donor requirements. Spot-checks financial reports from sub‐grantees for compliance-control;
  • Builds grant management capacities of local partners, collects and replicates best practices;
  • Helps project teams set up grant management schedules for donor reporting; coordinates quality‐assurance of partner reports in preparation for donor submissions;
  • Supports the adaptation of Internews’ standard sub-granting policies and procedures to country contexts. Monitors grant compliance from HQ to satisfy organisational and donor requirements;
  • Provides end-to-end management of partnership agreements for HQ-administered programmes;
  • Closes‐out partner agreements, provides guidance on required steps and minimal standards;
  • Identifies and documents best grant management practices from individual grants, works with M&E colleagues to coordinate debriefings with stakeholders.

Development:

Reviews budget proposals to prospective donors ensuring: accurate, complete, and consistent submissions; compliance to donor requirements; appropriateness and sufficiency of budgets.

Other:

Contributes to the preparation and coordination of HQ and partner project audits

Other responsibilities at the GC&C as assigned by the Head of GC&C.

Essential Qualification, Knowledge, Skills & Experience:

  • BA degree in a relevant field (not required if there is a strong work experience)
  • Work experience in an international development environment, preferably in a grants and contracts role
  • Expertise in rules, regulations and requirements of major European donors as applicable to international development context. Experience in managing compliance of grants from the European Commission and SIDA.
  • Experience in sub-granting and sub-contracting – essential.
  • Experience in staff training, both face-to-face and remote.
  • Exceptional attention to detail.
  • Microsoft Office user, with advanced Excel skills
  • Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
  • Solution driven
  • Effective communication skills; verbal and written

Desirable Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills & Experience:

  • Expertise in managing commercial contracts with EC and FCDO
  • Spoken and written French
  • Experience working in country offices/project implementation offices.

Recruitment Timeline

Closing Date: 06 March 2022

Candidates must submit a succinct covering letter of no more than 1 page explaining how they satisfy the requirements of the person speciation in addition to a CV highlighting relevant experience. The successful candidate will also be asked to provide three professional referees, one of whom must be from their most recent employer.

The above noted job description is not intended to describe, in detail, all the tasks that may be assigned but rather to give the job holder a general sense of the responsibilities and expectations of his/her position. As the nature of business demands change so, too, may the essential functions of this position.

This position will be located in the United Kingdom and therefore a successful applicant must both be present in the UK for the duration of the assignment and obtain the Right to Work in the UK in order to commence their employment.

Internal candidates may work from other countries where Internews has its established offices.

How to apply

To submit your application please go to https://phf.tbe.taleo.net/phf04/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=INTERNEWS&cws=38&rid=1666


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