Partnerships Officer

BACKGROUND

Over the past 80 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster.

The International Rescue Committee now works in more than 40 countries and in 28 U.S. cities to help people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. The IRC is a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable.

Technical Excellence and Grant Operations & Analytics Team

At the IRC, we define and measure our success as positive changes in people’s lives in relation to five outcome areas: health, education, economic well-being, safety and power, while helping to narrow the gender gap. To achieve these outcomes – to drive our impact – our programs must be based on the best available evidence and aligned with our theories of change; adapted to context; responsive to client needs and preferences; and continuously improved by generating evidence, measuring what we do, and acting on what we learn. The Technical Excellence team supports the delivery of this.

Established in April 2021, the Grant Operations & Analytics Team (GOAT) has brought together awards (grants/contracts), business development, partnerships, finance, and analytics functions and staff from each Technical Excellence Unit to one centralized team to increase efficiency, effectiveness and quality control across Technical Excellence awards and business operations. The primary purpose of this new team is to harmonize capacity and capabilities and drive efficiencies by establishing consistent, high quality standards and best practices to the service of improved budgeting, grants & contracts management, business development, partnership management and data collection and analytics. The Grant Operations & Analytics Team strives to build a diverse and inclusive team at all levels who as individuals, and as a group, create a working environment characterized by critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity for us to achieve our aspirations as a team and deliver the best possible service to our clients.

The Purpose of the Role

The Partnerships Officer is a key position supporting the Technical Excellence team to develop and manage strong partnerships with a wide variety of partners in line with IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS) policy and donor regulations.

Key Working Relationships

• Reports to the Senior Partnership Coordinator with no management responsibilities

• Works as part of the wider GOAT team in close coordination with:

• Internal

• Technical Excellence Units

• AMU Program and Grant Support team

• Programme Development Advisors covering same portfolio

• Compliance & Policy team

• Finance department on matters of financial management

• Country Program Partnership staff

• External

  • Partner Organizations

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Promote Effective Partnerships

• • Promote and apply the IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results system (PEERS).
    • Contribute to building a strong understanding of PEERS throughout the Technical Excellence team, and to ensuring that IRC’s partnership principles, skills and approaches are applied by staff across programs and projects with partners.
    • Facilitate systematic partner feedback on IRC’s management of the partnership relationship, including the documentation of, and response to partner feedback.

Partnership Agreement Management

• • Conduct & coordinate Partner Identity and Background Review (Vetting) processes, including completion of the report.
    • Review Partners’ submitted proposals and budgets and support key technical and finance staff in this task before Project Lead sign off.
    • Coordinate and co-lead Partnership Capacity Analysis (PCA) processes, including contributing to and facilitating the collaborative risk analysis and management.
    • Coordinate with project leads to agree/review appropriate partnership agreement type and draft agreement, taking into account the due diligence outcomes and specific project and donor requirements.
    • Liaising with HQ for approvals and/or review of documents and agreements.
    • Support and co-lead Partnership Project Opening, Review and Closing Meetings, together with the relevant team members.
    • Coordinate and participate in timely and effective partner program, finance, and compliance monitoring, and work with the technical leads and finance staff to address any project performance issues.
    • Coordinate narrative reporting processes and liaise with finance on finance reporting processes, including review and feedback, ensuring that appropriate checklists are completed.
    • Coordinate any partner support as identified during the PCA or implementation.
    • Coordinate with Finance to ensure timely transfer of payments to partners.
    • Draft and process sub-awards modifications in a timely manner ensuring that the relevant IRC units (in-country and at the HQ) provide their inputs and approve the modification.
    • Maintain complete and organized partnership files for each partner.
    • Maintain up to date Partnership Tracker/Monitoring Schedule
    • Lead the completion of the Partnership Review Memorandum process to review the performance of the partners, of the IRC (including on the basis of partner feedback), and of the partnership, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, fostering ongoing partnerships beyond the sub-award project cycle.
    • Lead on all partnership agreement closeout processes.
    • Support Program Leads in communications of partners’ results to relevant stakeholders.

Strategy and Program Approach

• • Collaborate with project and technical leads to ensure a culture of mutual capacity sharing approaches and learning, so that IRC can learn from unique partners practices and innovations.
    • Identify opportunities for mentoring and/or coaching follow up activities at the partner organizational and individual levels.
    • Lead in capacity sharing monitoring, evaluating, learning and periodic reporting, including documenting successful capacity sharing methods that can be scaled.
    • Promote a culture of mutual learning and good partnership among all partners and IRC.

Other duties

• • Travel to IRC locations around the world to undertake capacity building, training, and monitoring, as applicable.
    • Update internal systems for data management, including OTIS, awards trackers, and financial management systems.
    • Contribute to GOAT/Unit work plan and delivery of specific projects, as assigned.
    • Liaise with other IRC departments and teams.
    • Proactively disseminate the services provided by GOAT.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential:

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Understanding and practical experience of project management principles throughout the full project lifecycle (positioning to closeout), including budgeting and financial reporting.
• Excellent communication, influencing and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively manage a variety of relationships in a multicultural environment.
• Strong diplomatic skills, including the ability to tailor language to different audiences and needs.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate equally effectively with colleagues in ‘remote’ and diverse teams.
• Strong attention to detail to ensure own work, and work of others is of a consistent high quality in a fast-paced, demanding environment.
• Solid organisational skills; detail-oriented; ability to multi-task and prioritise tasks, and to learn quickly.
• Ability to work autonomously and under remote management.
• Good IT skills (Word, Excel, Outlook).
• Ability to travel internationally.
• Fluency in English required.

Experience:

• At least 3-6 years’ experience in grant/contract management including business development.
• Experience in managing different types of partnerships including local and international organizations, government, and private sector.
• IRC PEERs experience is preferred.
• Demonstrable solid experience of key institutional funding, regulations and procedures, including with regards to commercial contracts and sub-contracting
• Developed understanding of business and partnering standards required to create a high performing and accountable environment.
• Experience of working with and supporting technical experts in the development of partnerships
• Experience in building and maintaining relationships with senior staff across different teams and functions, including those based in other countries.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity:

IRC is committed to building a diverse organization and a climate of inclusivity. We strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate that they can contribute to this goal.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.