South Sudan: HEAD OF AWARD MANAGEMENT

TITLE: HEAD OF AWARD MANAGEMENT

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Awards Management/ SMT

LOCATION: Juba, South Sudan

GRADE: TBD

CONTRACT LENGTH: 2 years

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; ore because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

Save the Children in South Sudan has a $37m+ (and growing) per year portfolio of institutional awards in 2015. The Award Management Director is responsible for the overall strategic vision and leadership of the Awards team in country. This role plays a key role in the Senior Management Team providing effective strategic management of the current Award/Funding portfolio and pipeline in support of the Country Strategic Plan and Operational Goals.

The role is also accountable for upholding compliant delivery of these awards to donors' and to SCI's standards. He/she supports/ensures award management guidance is effectively provided to both development and humanitarian programmes, and on-going support to develop best practice award management procedures and processes. To achieve this, the role has three main aspects: lead and manage the Country Office Awards Team; build capacity of national staff in awards management through professional development; and contribute to the development and advancement of effective award management processes and systems.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Deputy Country Director Operations

The South Sudan Country programme has recently revised its strategy. The structural implications are currently being considered. This may lead to minor alterations in the Job description.

Staff reporting to this post: Up to 3 directly.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Strategic Award Portfolio Management and Leadership (this is the key deliverable for this role)

• Provide leadership within the Country Office, and globally within Save the Children.
• Define and implement a vision for effective strategic Award Portfolio Management in the South Sudan Country Office, in line with current CO efforts.
• Provide strategic support within the SMT on all aspects of award management including funding pipeline management, award contracting and donor compliance and in country donor relationship management.
• Support development and implementation of the Country Office funding strategy, making recommendations and flagging issues to the SMT and Save the Children members as appropriate.
• Ensure accurate and up to date information on the funding pipeline and award portfolio is regularly provided to SMT and members, with data generated directly from SCI systems.
• Work with the Finance Director, ensure that the CO has a clear framework for strategic master budget development, cost allocation, monitoring of award budgets, phasing and forecasting, in particular ensuring alignment between the master budget and funding tracker.
• Ensure that necessary risks are taken knowingly with appropriate mitigating actions.
• Accountable to South Sudan Country Office senior leadership for upholding the SCI Quality Framework and Essential Standards in Award Management.

Award Management

• Identify, assess, input, recommend on the existing and desired reconciliation process (reporting assurance mechanism) between Finance, Procurement, Logistics, Distribution, and M&E to ensure accountable reporting to donors.
• Ensure that the Award Management System (AMS) is effectively maintained, up to date and accurately records the detail and process for all awards and sub-awards.
• Recruit, train and manage award management staff.
• Engage with the local representatives of donor organisations, working closely with relevant members to ensure consistent communications to donor organisations at all levels, where necessary together with PDQ/ Country Director
• Build and maintain relationships with relevant networks and award management staff of similar organisations in the country.
• Support the proposal development process and coordinate across departments, with the East Africa Regional Office, Centre and Members as needed.

Donor Compliance (Role provides day to day managerial oversight of the Awards team to ensure the below responsibilities are adequately delegated and met by the Award Managers and their teams)

• Ensure all donor requirements are met and there is a complete audit trail of the implementation and reporting for all awards.
• Ensure that key contributing staff have a clear understanding of donor requirements and expectations at the proposal, agreement, kick off, implementation, amendment, reporting, close out and audit stage of awards.
• Ensure that key processes are in place so that proposals, formats, eligibility, compliance, reporting, M&E and quality assurance receive optimum attention at the various stages of the award life cycle with a view of securing donor satisfaction.
• Work with the finance team and provide technical advice to strategic donor costs allocation with a view to minimise compliance requirements where possible (timesheets, co-financing etc.)
• Work with the PDQ team and technical specialists to ensure that reporting is technically compliant
• Ensure potential issues and amendment requests are flagged promptly to donors via the relevant Save the Children member. This may include developing business cases where donor waiver/derogation requests need to be more thoroughly articulated or negotiated with donors.
• Ensure that all new staff receives an orientation to SCI award management processes, systems, tools, and donor compliance requirements that are relevant to the role.
• Work with internal and external auditors as necessary.

Partnerships

• Work with relevant program staff to ensure all implementing partners undergo legal vetting and a capacity assessment 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 staff to ensure relevant donor requirements are effectively communicated and understood by implementing partners.

Capacity Building

• Support the award management team to strengthen the knowledge and capacity of staff across all functions to manage awards and comply with donor requirements as relevant to their role by providing, induction, training and coaching consistent with their various roles and responsibilities.
• Prepare a capacity building strategy to recruit, train and retain national staff as assistant reporting officers.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

Essential

• Post graduate qualification in Finance management, Grants management or equivalent
• At least 5 - 7 years' experience in a similar position
• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a demanding workload comprised of diverse and challenging tasks and responsibilities.
• Extensive Experience in Project Management, MEAL or program funding coordination.
• Proven track record of active contribution to a senior management team, and providing strategic support across multiple sectors and/or regions.

• Previous experience effectively leading an organizational change process.

• Extensive experience with NGOs with increasing responsibilities including a proven experience of establishing and running the award management function in the field.

• Knowledge of the requirements of major institutional donors including budgeting, eligibility issues, compliance management, and reporting.

• Experience of engaging with donors at country strategy levels.

• Experience of and well developed skills in staff management and supervision. Proven strong coaching and capacity building skills.

• Very strong capacity for attention to detail, problem solving, and analysis of trends.

• Computer literate (i.e. WORD, advanced Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, financial

  systems).

• Cultural awareness and ability to build relationships quickly with a wide variety of people

• Patient, adaptable, flexible, able to improvise and remain responsive and communicate clearly and effectively under pressure

• Strong communication (written and spoken), and interpersonal skills in English, with experience in managing multicultural teams

Desirable

• Considerable experience with Save the Children award management procedures and systems and Save the Children's award management system (AMS)

Application Email: Please apply with a covering letter and up-to-date CV to: 'MKogi.59068.3830@savethechildrenint.aplitrak.com'