About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.
In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions
into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
Now, and for the future.
Program / Department Summary
In Syria, Mercy Corps has been implementing emergency and life-sustaining activities since 2012. Mercy Corps currently operates with multiple institutional donors and a rigid, reporting regime.
General Position Summary
As a senior member of the Syria Country Office, the Grants Management Director will share accountability with other members of the Extended Senior Management Team (SMT) for the direction and coordination of Mercy Corps’ Syria Response. S/he will provide leadership of the Grant Management Department, instituting best practice in grant management procedures and processes. The role will lead a team responsible for grant stewardship of multiple large and complex projects throughout the entire grant life-cycle, including fundraising strategies, pre-positioning, new business development, contracting, implementation and grant close-out, focusing on compliance, assessment and mitigation of business risk, developing and rolling out systems and processes for grant operations, which bridge programs with other departments, including finance, operations and HR. The candidate must demonstrate expertise and leadership to meet all pre- and post-award management requirements in developing new business opportunities, funding strategies and donor engagement. The Grants Management Director will also manage the Communications of the Country Office, ensuring quality and consistent internal and external products that promote the work of the Country Office and the ongoing complexity of the Syria Crisis.
Essential Job Responsibilities
LEADERSHIP
● Design and implement a coherent organizational structure for the Grant Management Department that is consistent with agency practices and appropriate to program needs.
● Support to establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with: donors, partner agencies including major institutional donors, and local and international NGOs.
● Ensure that the required Grant Management support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the best practice during emergencies.
● Provide leadership to the Grants Management Department, ensuring a culture that promotes accountability, high performance, encourages team learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our teams to achieve impact for our beneficiaries and excellent customer service to our donors and key stakeholders.
● Guide the Senior Communications Coordinator, ensuring the delivery of strategic communications targets and internal knowledge sharing.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
● Lead the development and own the implementation of the Country Office funding strategy, making recommendations and flagging issues to the SMT and Mercy Corps HQ as appropriate.
● Provide strategic support to the SMT on all aspects of grant management including funding pipeline management, award contracting and donor compliance.
● Working with the Finance Director, ensure the Country Office has a clear framework for monitoring of award budgets, phasing and forecasting.
● Ensure accurate and up to date information on the funding pipeline and grant portfolio is readily available to SMT and members.
● Identify business risks in regards to grants and donor contracting, and inform SMT to ensure informed decision-making with appropriate mitigating actions in collaboration with department directors.
● Use data project management tools, including funding trackers, grant trackers and dashboards to assist SMT in data driven decision making.
GRANTS MANAGEMENT:
● Work with the hub-level Program Directors, Sub-Award and Compliance Director, Field Program and Support Teams, as well as HQ offices throughout the grant cycle to ensure appropriate set up of new grants, ongoing reporting and close out of awards.
● Ensure accountable reporting to donors through establishing, implementing and monitoring of strong reporting mechanisms, which reconcile Finance, Operations, Distribution, and M&E data.
● Recruit, train and manage grant management staff.
● Build and maintain relationships with the local representatives of donors, working with HQ to ensure consistent communications to donors at all levels.
● Build and maintain relationships with relevant networks and grant management staff of similar organizations in the country.
● Ensure grants team is leading on the production of internal reports, including sitreps, 3Is and newsletters, ensuring timely inputs from program, finance and operations teams, and ensure review and sign-off processes are thorough and adhered to.
● Ensures grants department adheres to minimum PM@MC (program management) standards and supports the finance, programs, MEL, and operations teams to do so also.
● Facilitate communication between field teams, donors and HQ, as and when required, including the preparation of program and contextual updates for key stakeholders.
● Work closely with the PaQ Director to ensure systems are adapted and functioning for effective program monitoring, progress and quality to support ongoing reporting, proposals and other operational management tools.
NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
● Provide detailed analysis of current/ pipeline grants to senior management colleagues and provide donor funding cycle information to guide proactive business development
● Lead the proposal development process, assigning team leads within the grants department to coordinate across departments, with the region and HQ, engaging particularly with the Program Performance and Quality (PAQ) team and the Directors of Programs to ensure the production of high quality proposals that are reflective of Mercy Corps and donor strategic objectives, are operationally viable and accurately reflect the cost of doing business
● Work with Program Directors and department heads to ensure systems are in place to facilitate adequate risk analysis and identification of opportunities.
COMMUNICATIONS
● Manage the Communications Team, coordinating the range of products and identification of target audiences.
● Ensure the dissemination of products reaches the right stakeholders internal and external to Mercy Corps.
● Maintain up to date technologies for the production and outreach to all stakeholders in Mercy Corps and external to the organisation.
COMPLIANCE
● Act as the focal point for full compliance with PM@MC minimum standards for program management.
● In coordination with Finance, MEL and Program teams ensure that the SMT is regularly briefed on grant BVA progress.
● Support the finance team with initial budget development and ensure consistency with program planning.
● Ensure that key contributing staff and partners have a clear understanding of donor requirements and expectations at all stages of the grant cycle.
● Work with the finance team and provide technical advice to strategic donor costs allocation with a view to minimize compliance requirements where possible (timesheets, co-financing etc.)
● Ensure potential issues and amendment requests are flagged promptly to donors. This may include developing business cases where donor waiver/derogation requests need to be more thoroughly articulated or negotiated with donors.
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
● As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.
ACCOUNTABILITY TO BENEFICIARIES
● Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Supervisory Responsibility
Senior Grants Manager, Senior Communications Coordinator
Accountability
Reports Directly to: Deputy Country Director; maintains functional link with Department Heads, Area Directors
Works Directly with: Each department: Program Teams, Finance Department, MEL, Operations and Security & Access, the HAT, Headquarters teams.
Knowledge and Experience
● 7+ years of experience related to humanitarian or developmental work, including:
● Preparing writing and analysis on programmatic activities;
● Basic budget development and management experience;
● Managing work plans;
● Representing programs with donors and external stakeholders.
● At least 2 years’ experience working on grant management in a senior leadership role
● Excellent writing and communication skills required.
● Ability to produce and edit documents under deadline pressure.
● Ability to coordinate funding proposals and progress reports from key institutional donors (USG BHA, DRL, FCDO, Sida, ECHO, EC. etc.).
● Strong financial literacy, able to develop budgets, budget narratives and provide detailed analysis of BvAs
● Experience with monitoring and evaluation and other learning efforts.
● Strong understanding of key humanitarian principles and good practices.
● Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
● Ability to efficiently manage competing priorities with limited supervisor input.
● Willingness and ability to travel frequently to Mercy Corps project sites and field locations, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.
● Experience working in a multi-cultural setting.
● Graduate degree in a relevant field preferred.
● Experience working in the Middle East region and Syrian context preferred.
● PM@MC certified preferred.
● Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in Arabic or Kurdish is a plus.
● Strong organization skills with attention to detail
Success Factors
The successful candidate will combine exceptional organizational abilities and writing skills with good humor under pressure. S/he will learn and move between all departments to consolidate essential information for accurately reporting Mercy Corps activities in Syria. S/he will be able to capture strategy, technical methodology, and planning in to concise and clear documents in new proposal development. The candidate will be organized and maintain a clear electronic and paper filing system. S/he will take the time to learn and understand donor compliance and help ensure best practices are upheld throughout the entire grants management process. The successful candidate will be able to ultimately be able to provide constructive input to large relief programs and therefore, must be willing to learn from others. In particular, best practices in cross cutting issues including accountability, gender and protection. S/he must be focused on capacity building of national staff; have strong program support and information management skills.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Amman and it requires up to 40% travel to all program implementation sites, security permitting and as required for coordination and reporting/proposal drafting purposes.
Personnel in this location are expected to follow all security protocols. This is an unaccompanied position
Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps’ policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.
Ongoing Learning
In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.
We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.
Safeguarding & Ethics
Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.