Head of Awards and Donor Compliance – Damascus At Save the Children

Team and Job Purpose

Team Purpose:

The Awards Management Unit provides expert strategic and operational award management services across the Syria Response Office’s (SRO) portfolio of awards, ensuring the efficient use of award funds for lifesaving responses and the achievement of sustainable outcomes for children in Syria. In addition, the unit plays an imperative role in ensuring that awards are managed in-line with donor compliance and Save the Children International’s internal policies and processes.

Role Purpose:

Under the direction of the Resource Mobilization, New Business Development and Awards Management Director (RBA Director), the Head of Awards and Donor Compliance is responsible for leading an efficient and effective Award Management Unit. They will lead award management for all programmes, and develop best practice award management processes across the SRO.

The individual will be responsible for providing support and information to the technical and operations teams during implementation, to deliver donor compliant awards and high quality and timely donor reports. They will work with teams involved in implementation to build capacity in award management and donor compliance and provide on-the-job support to develop an awards management process that supports Save the Children’s Quality Standards. The maintenance of systems, processes and day-to-day management of the team will be a primary focus of the Head of Awards and Donor Compliance.

In addition to award management, the individual will play a strong coordination role working with Members and colleagues from technical, operations and finance teams to manage the development of proposals for costed extensions of ongoing programmes. With support from the Awards Coordinators, the individual will lead the development of high-quality proposals for costed extension, ensuring that proposals are accurately costed and are reflective of Save the Children’s and donors’ strategic objectives.

The individual will play a key role in the development of a culture that promotes the importance of ensuring Save the Children delivers high quality programmes. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Principal Accountabilities

• Leadership and management of the Award Management Unit.
• Supports the development of an organisational culture that promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, supporting our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for colleagues, Save the Children Members and donors.
• Ensure the SRO complies with all Save the Children policies and procedures outlined in the Quality Framework, where applicable.
• Ensures that all required support is provided promptly, at-scale and in-line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with technical, operational and finance teams.
• Building a high-performing Award Management Unit to support good practice and high-quality delivery across the SRO.
• Lead award management related capacity building both within the Awards Management Unit and for other relevant staff members including budget holders.
• Develop strong relationships with Save the Children Centre, Members and other Awards functions in Save the Children Country Offices across the region; escalating issues through the correct channels when required.
• Provide strategic support to the RBA Director on all aspects of award management, including management of costed extensions and donor compliance, and champion award management at the SRO.
• Ensure the production of high quality and timely reports that accurately reflect the impact achieved and lessons learnt during the implementation of an award.
• With support from the Awards Coordinators, lead the coordination and development of proposals for costed extensions, working with technical, operations and finance teams to produce high quality, fully costed proposals for costed extensions.
• Work closely with the New Business Development Manager to ensure lessons from ongoing awards are fed-back into programme design, and compliance/award management risks are understood with risk management plans in place at proposal stage.
• Build and maintain relationships with relevant networks and award management staff of similar organizations operating in Syria, as well as local representatives of donor organizations.
• Engage globally on the development of Save the Children systems and processes and the sharing of best practice for award management.
• Ensure that the Award Management System (AMS) is effectively maintained and up to date for all awards and sub-awards including authorization and document retention.
• Ensure that key staff (including partners) have a clear understanding of donor compliance requirements throughout the project management cycle and that there is a complete audit trail of the implementation and reporting for all awards.
• Working in collaboration with the Finance Director and Senior Management Team, ensure the SRO has a clear framework for master budget development, cost allocation, monitoring of award budgets, phasing and forecasting.
• Employ strong financial analysis skills to oversee the awards portfolio, ensuring that project spending is on track and financial risks are successfully mitigated, where possible.
• Work in collaboration with the finance department and provide technical advice regarding strategic donor costs eligibility to mitigate the risk of compliance issues.
• Utilise key performance indicators and other management tools to identify and address operational issues that could impact negatively on the delivery of programmes.
• Contribute towards the SRO’s wider portfolio and pipeline management, through the provision of detailed analysis of current awards and portfolio health to the RBA Director.
• Work with relevant program staff to ensure all donors undergo legal vetting prior to commencing work with Save the Children, are engaged with appropriate agreements and effective monitoring systems are in place so that partner delivery meets donor expectations and requirements.
• Work with program and partnership staff to ensure relevant donor requirements are effectively communicated and understood by implementing partners.
• Ensure the sub-award database is updated on a regular basis.
• Coordinate with finance and operations teams for sub-award monitoring and review.
• Coordinate corrective actions in response to any internal or external audit findings related to sub-grantee management.
• Monitor and provide support to sub-grantees in preparation of their financial and programmatic reports per established agreements.
• Provide regular reports to the RBA Director on status of required steps in managing sub-award management.
• Through the operations team, maintain regular contact with sub-grantees to exchange information on status of sub-grants.
• Ensure appropriate staffing at all levels of the Awards Management Unit, working with the RBA Director to recruit, manage and motivate teams.
• Ensure appropriate gender and ethnic diversity within the Awards Management Unit.
• Ensure that colleagues within the Awards Management Unit have clearly defined objectives and understand their responsibilities.
• Incorporate staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems into team building process.
• Ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for direct reports.
• Encourage a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation.

Budget

USD 25 million

People Management Responsibility (direct/indirect reports)

Number of people managed in total: Four

Manager of a team: Yes

Team Manager (manager of multiple teams): No

Size of Remit

SRO

Travel Requirements

International travel required: Yes

Percentage required for travel: 30%

Key Relationships

Internal (excluding direct team and manager)

• PDQ
• Operations
• Finance
• ESMT
• Main office staff
• Vetting Team
• Partnerships Advisor

External

• SC Member offices
• Donors
• Partner organizations

Competencies

Cluster: Leading

Competency: Leading and inspiring others

Level: Accomplished

Behavioral Indicator: Creates and engages others in a shared vision and strategy that will deliver more for children.

Cluster: Leading

Competency: Delivering results

Level: Leading Edge

Behavioural Indicator: Builds a culture of quality and focuses on ongoing performance improvement.

Cluster: Leading

Competency: Developing self and others

Level: Leading Edge

Behavioral Indicator: Creates and enables a learning culture that supports the development of staff.

Cluster: Thinking

Competency: Problem solving and decision making

Level: Leading Edge

Behavioral Indicator: Identifies and addresses root causes of long-term problems facing the organization.

Cluster: Thinking

Competency: Innovating and adapting

Level: Accomplished

Behavioral Indicator: Builds others’ confidence in their own ability to develop new ideas and embrace change.

Cluster: Engaging

Competency: Communicating with impact

Level: Accomplished

Behavioral Indicator: Promotes dialogue with key stakeholders through active listening and effective questioning.

Experience and Skills

Essential

• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a demanding workload comprised of diverse and challenging tasks and responsibilities.
• Highly skilled in staff management with previous experience of managing large teams, coaching and capacity building skills.
• Extensive experience with INGOs with proven experience of establishing and running the award management function both at central office and field office levels.
• Knowledge of the requirements of major institutional donors – such as BHA, FCDO, GFFO, SIDA, Norad, CDCS, ECW, GPE – including budgeting, eligibility issues, compliance management and reporting.
• Experience of strategic donor engagement.
• Extensive experience in financial management of awards, including both grants and commercial contracts/outcome-based finance.
• Experience of leading proposal development processes for proposals for institutional and non-institutional donors.
• Experience of working with multidisciplinary teams, with an understanding of operations and programming in humanitarian/nexus contexts.
• Very strong attention to detail, problem solving skills, and ability to analyse trends.
• Strong communication (written and spoken) in English, and strong interpersonal skills, with experience in managing multicultural teams.

Desirable

• Experience or understanding of the Syrian context.
• Experience with award management policies, procedures and systems and Save the Children’s award management system (AMS).
• Understanding of financial reporting from Save the Children’s accounting software (Agresso).
• Experience of Project Management, M&E Management or Funding Coordination.

Education and Qualifications

Essential

Masters or equivalent degree in International Development, Business and Administration or related field.

A minimum of 7 years of experience in awards management in humanitarian and/or development contexts, preferably in a similar role.

Desirable

Accredited programme management certifications.

Safeguarding

We need to keep children and adults safe so our selection process includes rigorous background checks and reflects our commitment to the protection of children and adults from abuse.

Level 1: A basic criminal record background (DBS) check is required/equivalent police record check.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunities

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is core to our vision, values and global strategy. Save the Children is committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive organization, and one which will support us in our vision to ensure every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, disability, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, caring or parental responsibilities, age, or beliefs and religion. We are committed to diversifying our staff to better represent the communities we serve and actively welcome underrepresented groups to apply.

Reasonable adjustments will be made should any candidate invited to interview require this.