Senior Regional Programme Officer at Save the Children

JOB PURPOSE

As member of the Regional Portfolio Unit, the Senior Programme Officer contributes, under the supervision of the Head of Regional Unit, to the development, management and oversight of assigned portfolio.

In particular, the SRPO has a key role in:

Ø Development of the specific geographic Portfolio;

Ø Supporting donor engagement and fundraising for the region;

Ø Management of the specific geographic Portfolio;

Ø Financial management and monitoring for the specific geographic Portfolio.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Portfolio programmes development (15-20%)

· Ensures opportunities are appropriately channelled towards Regional and COs programme priorities;

· Revision and appraisal of project proposals, in coordination with technical and proposal development staff as appropriate;

· Responsible for the final approval of non institutional donors’ project proposals;

· Responsible for the accurate information into the SC Awards Management System, in line with the Awards Management Officer guidance.

Support to donor engagement and fundraising for the region (5-10%)

· In coordination with the Head of Regional Unit, supports the business development and engagement with institutional and private donors;

· Carries out analysis of funding opportunities in order to contribute to internal decision making process (Go/No-Go).

Portfolio programmes management (30%)

· Monitoring progress of SC Italy funded projects, providing input/advice to implementation teams in Country offices and raising red flags to CO SMT where appropriate;

· For most relevant and strategic projects, provides programmatic feedback to project reports and coordinates review from TSPQ staff where appropriate;

· Liaises with technical team to facilitate delivery of technical support and identification of good practices and opportunities of learning within programmes in the Regional portfolio;

· Supports ad hoc work on humanitarian responses, shall the need arise.

· Supports the identification of good practices and innovative approaches within the portfolio.

· Carries out regular field visits in assigned area;

Award Management (40%)

· Responsible for all the administrative processes linked to the creating, monitoring and close out of awards, including the creation of codes, folders and database on server of project information;

· Leads on the administrative steps for all awards (through the AMS system, server etc)

· Provide light touch report review for less priority projects

· Inputs into risk assessment process;

· Ensures general compliance with Donor requirements (no financial specific), as well as SC Italy internal and SCI standards and provides advice/support to Cos;

· Liaises with the Grant Unit to ensure all relevant documentation is donor-ready (Narrative Report, Amendment Request; Work plan etc)

· Contributes to monitoring of country office KPIs, and contributes to the overall Award Management processes and systems;

· Contributes to ensuring effective coordination with other departments (Coms, Marketing, Domestic Program) on ad hoc projects;

· Provides programmatic information to feed into production of content for advocacy, technical and content management teams;

· Supports the HoU in recruitment of project staff when needed;

Financial management and monitoring (5%)

· Responsible for the design, oversight and monitoring of SC Italy budget for the assigned geographic areas;

· Supports the Regional HoU in the allocation and monitoring of sources of funds for the Region;

· Responsible for project budgets monitoring, including monitoring of budget variances and assessing amendments (main focus on private-funds);

· Responsible for consistency check between budgets and projects planning/narrative documentation (main focus on private-funds);

· Responsible for the substantial analysis of the financial report (over/underspent) (main focus on private-funds);

· Support the Finance team in the final reconciliation, liaising with COs if necessary

EXPERIENCES & QUALIFICATIONS

· Fluent in Italian and English

· Knowledge of French, Spanish or Portuguese is an asset

· At least 5 years of working experience in development cooperation/humanitarian aid, in a programme management related position

· At least 2 years working experience overseas in development cooperation/humanitarian aid sector

· Working experience in an HQ is an advantage;

· Comprehensive experience in proposal development and report writing;

· Experience in working with institutional donors and knowledge of EU/AICS or other Donor compliance;

· Proven experience in project cycle management and budget management

SOFT SKILLS

· Strong team player

· Able to work effectively with others towards the achievement of common objectives

· Capacity to engage with senior international staff on development and humanitarian issues

· Negotiation skills

· Capacity to relate to a different range of internal and external stakeholders

· Flexible and adaptable to changing context

· Pragmatic/solutions oriented/problem solver yet having strong analytical skills

OTHER

· Commitment to Save the Children values

· Availability to work in Rome