Director of Awards Management

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Awards

LOCATION: Sana’a, Yemen

CONTRACT LENGTH: Fixed Term 12 months – Renewable

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:
Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people frequently (e.g. once a week or more) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:
The Director of Award Management is responsible for delivering an efficient and effective award management function. They will lead award management for all programmes, and develop best practice award management processes across Yemen Country Office. The role has three main aspects to it: lead and develop the Country Office award management effort; capacity building staff, and contributing to the development of best practices systems and processes.

The role offers a leadership opportunity for an individual highly experienced in grants management, business development and donor communications. It requires an individual capable of providing strategic leadership to a dynamic team which is responsible for supporting ambitious fundraising targets as well as the management of a portfolio of awards currently valued at around $40-50 Million per year.

The individual will be responsible for working with all other teams in the Country Office to develop the capacity of all staff and provide on-the-job support to develop an awards management process that supports Save the Children quality standards.

The individual will play a strong coordination role across the Save the Children global network and with donors to identify funding opportunities. They will co-ordinate development of high quality proposals that are reflective of Save the Children and donor strategic objectives, ensuring proposal budgets are accurately costed. During implementation they will provide support and information to the technical and field-based teams to deliver donor compliant awards and high quality and timely donor reports.

The maintenance of systems, processes and day to day management of the team will be a primary function of the Director of Award Management. The individual will play a key role in the development of a culture that promotes the primacy of ensuring Save the Children delivers high quality programmes whilst always s eeking to improve national staff capacity to take on roles currently held by international staff.

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.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Country Director

Staff reporting to this post: Proposal and Report Writing Coordinators, Award Managers

Role Dimensions: The Save the Children International (SCI) Yemen Country Office (CO) has an annual budget of around USD 40-50 million and growing, working mainly on the humanitarian response to the ongoing conflict and its impact including more recently on the cholera outbreak. The CO has over 500 staff and 1400 volunteers and works in nine governorates in the north, centre and south of the country through seven field offices (and two sub-offices) in addition to the main office in Sana’a.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contribute to:
* Leadership of the Yemen Country Office
* Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our full spectrum mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors
* Help design and implement a coherent organizational structure that is consistent with agency practices and appropriate to program needs
* Help establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with: host government authorities, partner agencies including humanitarian and development donors, and local and international NGOs
* Ensure Yemen Country Office complies with all Save the Children’s Quality Framework Essential Standards and Standard Operating Procedures
* Ensure that all required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with the Regional Office
Developing self and others; Networking
* Building a high performing award management team to support good practice and high quality delivery across the Country Office
* Lead Award Management related capacity building both within the AM team and for other relevant staff members including budget holders
* Develop strong relationships with the region, centre, members and other Award Directors in the region; escalate issues through the correct channels when required

Communicating with impact:
* Provide strategic support to the CD on all aspects of award management including pipeline management and donor compliance; champion Award management at the Country Office
* Support fundraising efforts that reduce portfolio complexity, in coordination with Country Office leadership.
* Lead the coordination of proposals, working with Programme Development & Quality, Finance and Operations to produce high quality, fully costed proposals compliant with SCI requirements and cost recovery procedures.
* Ensure the production of high quality and timely reports that accurately reflect the impact achieved and lessons learnt during the implementation of an award
* Build and maintain relationships with relevant networks and award management staff of similar organizations in the country, as well as local representatives of donor organizations

Compliance (systems, processes & donor):
* To engage globally on the development of Save the Children systems and processes and the sharing of best practice
* To 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
* To 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

Monitoring and analysis:
* Working in collaboration with the Finance Director and SMT, ensure the CO has a clear framework for master budget development, cost allocation, monitoring of award budgets, phasing and forecasting, ensuring alignment between the master budget and funding tracker.
* Using strong financial analysis skills to oversee the award portfolio and pipeline
* To work in collaboration with the finance department and provide technical advice regarding strategic donor costs allocations with a view to minimise compliance issues where possible
Leadership, portfolio management & strategy
* Define the strategic direction of the awards management unit and undertake effective planning that supports the unit to establish and maintain an efficient and effective awards management process
* To use key performance indicators and other management information to identify and address operational issues that coul d impact negatively on the delivery of programmes
* Work with SMT to engage with donors and identify possible funding opportunities in line with CO strategy
* To support in the development of a Country Office funding strategy that enables proactive engagement across Save the Children globally and with donors to secure funding opportunities in a timely manner, making recommendations and flagging issues to Senior Management
* To provide detailed analysis of current/ pipeline awards to senior management
To engage with Save the Children globally and provide information to support in the building of professional relationships with donors to identify strategic fundraising opportunities

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
* Professional qualification, preferably a Masters or equivalent degree related to Business, Finance, Accounting or International Development

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential
* Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a demanding workload comprised of diverse and challenging tasks and responsibilities
* Proven track record of active contribution to a senior management team, and providing strategic support across multiple sectors and/or regions
* 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 a strategic level
* Well-developed skills in staff management. Proven coaching and capacity building skills
* Understanding of the financial aspects of award management, and understanding of operations and progra mming
* Very strong attention to detail, problem solving skills, and ability to analyse trends
* Computer literate (i.e. Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, financial systems)
* Cultural awareness and ability to build relationships quickly with a wide variety of people
* Patient, adaptable, able to improvise, and communicate clearly and effectively under pressure
* Strong communication (written and spoken) in English, and strong interpersonal skills, with experience in managing multicultural teams

Desirable
* Prior experience working in the Middle East
* Arabic language
* 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

Additional job responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.