Senior Director Compliance & Policy

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading nonprofit humanitarian relief and development organizations. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC’s mission is to assist those whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict and disaster, including the climate crisis, to survive, recover and gain control over their lives.

The Awards Management Unit is responsible for building, maintaining, and strengthening relationships with public and institutional donors and position IRC as a partner of choice for delivering programs for our clients. This means working to expand IRC’s portfolio and diversify our relationships, as well as supporting the successful and compliant management and implementation of awards, whether directly or through partners.

Job Overview/Summary:

This role is the steward for IRC’s organizational compliance with donor rules and regulations, and IRC’s internal system for partnership management. The role manages a team of highly specialized professionals who serve as the internal centre of expertise on these rules and regulations across institutional and private donors. The team works to establish and maintain a culture of compliance throughout IRC by providing advice and guidance on subawards management and relevant donor rules and regulations, support the creation of administrative processes and policies, build understanding, commitment and skills across the organization and safeguard adherence to ensure that IRC’s work is delivered in compliance with donor and IRC requirements.

The Senior Director leads this team, sits on the AMU Senior Leaders team and is a member of IRC’s Senior Leaders Group (SLG). The role is ultimately responsible for the work of the C&P team and ensures that the perspective of donor compliance is reflected and integrated across all of IRC’s business processes. The role also supports leaders across IRC’s programming departments (CRRD and RAI) and acts as a key advisor to the organization in areas of risk analysis and mitigation.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership

• Contribute to departmental management, prioritization and decision making as a member of the AMU Senior Leaders Team
• Act as a key partner to other senior leaders across AMU and other parts of the organization on questions of compliance and policy to support IRC’s work
• Set a high standard and be accountable for support to Crisis Response, Recovery, and Development (CRRD) and Resettlement, Integration and Asylum (RAI) offices
• Work closely with External Relations to ensure that compliance questions for private donors are managed effectively and efficiently and in line with IRC’s overall policies
• Represent C&P, AMU and occasionally IRC in external fora as appropriate. In particular, actively engage in InterAction, Humentum, peer organizations and other fora focused on donor compliance issues including changes donors are proposing to their standard requirements

Team management

• Oversee recruitment, development, and retention of high-performing team members into the Compliance & Policy (C&P) team
• Create and maintain a results-driven, action-oriented and empowering culture within C&P that balances donor compliance with an understanding of field constraints and the ultimate impact of IRC’s work
• Ensure that the C&P team is a diverse and inclusive team that can attract talent from all backgrounds and has a supportive internal culture where people feel valued and included.

Technical Expertise

• Provide sophisticated and definitive (in conjunction, if necessary, with the Office of the General Counsel) advice on the interpretation and application of statutory donor laws, regulations, processes and procedures in IRC’s work. Converts statutory language to workable solutions.
• Ensure the development and implementation of robust organizational systems and controls for maintaining compliance with prime and sub-award requirements.
• Oversee the development of standard templates and terms and conditions for award documents, sub-awards, contracts, and other guidance documents as needed.
• Ensure IRC’s management of sub-awardees is compliant, effective, and efficient across grants, cooperative agreements and commercial contracts
• Ensure that sub-awards are being effectively monitored at different levels of the organization, as appropriate.
• Identify gaps in organizational policies for compliance relative to best practice, and support the development and implementation of such policies.
• Support the development and execution of training and other capacity building for AMU staff both in HQ and field on donor compliance for new and existing donors

Donor relations

• In collaboration with the Strategic Partnerships team, monitor changes to donor’s statutory rules and regulations; lead organizational awareness and change processes for updated compliance.
• Support, and at times lead, communications with donors regarding compliance matters and contract negotiations.

Key Working Relationships:

All AMU Teams in particular AMU Senior Leaders and AMU Leaders, IRC UK and IRC Deutschland Executive Directors, External Relations Senior Leaders, Ethics and Compliance Unit, Finance, Office of General Counsel, IRC programmatic departments (CRRD and RAI), Operations

Job Requirements:

Work / Educational Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• At least 10 years of relevant professional experience, demonstrating increasing responsibility and leadership within operations and / or programs in international NGOs or equivalent.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Demonstrated experience and expertise in interpreting and applying statutory and regulatory rules & regulations in executing awards and contracts from statutory entities and in maintaining a current knowledge of changes in the language, application, and enforcement of these rules and regulations.
• Demonstrated knowledge and prior experience working with major statutory donors, including but not limited to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), FCDO, ECHO/Other EU directorates, UN agencies, SIDA, World Bank, Global Affairs Canada, Australian Aid, and others.
• Extensive experience with statutory donor agreements and contract mechanisms.
• Developed understanding of professional business standards required to create a high performing and accountable environment.
• Experience providing compliance capacity strengthening and training in a multicultural setting.
• High level of attention to details in all aspects of work responsibilities.
• Proven ability to create and maintain effective systems for managing information, and tools for making information accessible and understandable to a broad audience.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to effectively interact with all levels of staff and partners and work in and across teams, a collegial, collaborative, and creative leader with high energy
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex legal, regulatory, and administrative information to a broad range of individuals from various backgrounds.
• Proven experience and ability to motivate and manage personnel in a diverse, dynamic, and growing work environment, prioritizing employee engagement and wellbeing.
• Rigorous and critical thinker with the capacity to analyze complex problems and identify both quick win solutions and medium to long term strategies.
• Previous experience with international nonprofit organizations preferred
• English language skills required, understanding of French or German preferred

Working Environment:

• Standard office working environment
• Some international travel
• This role may require working remotely full or part time and part time remote employees may be required to share workspace

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Adult Safeguarding, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement:

In accordance with IRC’s duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known hazards and our commitment to safeguard the health of our employees, clients, and communities, IRC requires new hires to furnish proof of vaccination against COVID-19 in order to be considered for any in-office or hybrid positions. All IRC US offices require full vaccination to attend any in-office functions (e.g., meetings, trainings).