Grants Specialist

The Grants Specialist provides highly specialized public awards administration and finance/accounting- related services to support specific Business Units or Programs of the Conservancy including the USAID-funded Project (ECCO) in Angola. The Grants Service Network (GSN) within the Conservancy, provides guidance and administrative support for awards of funds to the Conservancy from United States federal, state, and local government agencies, multilateral agencies, and other national and local governments. The GSN also administers the Conservancy’s grants of funds to other entities, including those funded by a government agency, multilateral organization, other non-profit organization, private foundation, or private donor.

The Grants Specialist is directly responsible for the administration of all aspects of publicly funded awards from pre-award to award implementation and closeout. Their duties include review of funder solicitations, review of proposals and budgets, agreement and amendment negotiation, agreement set-up in the Conservancy’s finance system, review of agreement financial data for accuracy and compliance, and maintenance of agreement auditable files. They work closely with award managers to ensure that the terms and conditions of agreements are met and properly documented and communicates directly with the agency contracting officers. The Grants Specialist is also directly responsible for the due diligence and administrative aspects of grants out to grantee organizations. Additionally, they assist staff in their specialty area and respond to moderately complex employee/management questions and problems based on advanced knowledge of the subject area.

This position will also work closely with the Africa region grants team and the Grants Service Network. This role reports to the Lead Grants Specialist at the regional office. The position location is preferably based in Menongue or Luanda, Angola but other locations within TNC established Africa Region offices may be considered as well. No employment visas or assistance is being offered with this position except for the local labor employment requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Experience administering public awards.

• Multi-lingual skills and/or multi-cultural experience appreciated.

• Non-profit accounting experience preferred.

• Ability to manipulate, analyze and interpret data.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

• Experience monitoring for and ensuring compliance with organizational policy, applicable law and regulation, and finance/accounting/management best practice.

• Experience analyzing a regulatory framework and applying it to the situation at hand.

• Requires fluency in Portuguese and English language to support operations.

• Responsible for the USAID project financial management, preparation of financial reports, invoices and compliance with USAID rules and regulations.

• Supports and helps strengthen the management and administration of sub-awards made to partner organizations to ensure compliance with USAID rules and regulations.

• Ensures TNC policies and procedures, USAID guidelines and regulations, financial standards, and legal requirements are met and managed for compliance.

• Engages directly with USAID in country mission and representatives on financial reporting and compliance when required.

• Drafts outgoing sub-award agreements using standard templates.

• Reviews internal and partner financial reports and supports tracking of private sector leverage fund.

• Works closely with the USAID Chief of Party and other technical managers to ensure technical deliverables are tied to financial reports.

• Presents Budget Variance Analysis and project pipeline reports to the technical teams every quarter.

• Assists with quality control reviews, approvals and documentation presented for payment requests to ensure accuracy and full support in documentation for audit purposes.

• Provides leadership in integrating financial management to support conservation objectives

  Minimum requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field and 3 years related experience or equivalent combination.

• Experience with accounting/financial issues and analysis.

• Experience using accounting and financial reporting systems.

• Technical experience with spreadsheet programs, general ledger reports and financial management tools.

• Experience, coursework or other training with U.S. Federal Uniform Guidance, state and local regulations, multilateral and international regulations, and standard contract clauses, as applicable.