Senior Awards and Sub Awards Manager

About CARE

CARE works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We seek a world of hope, inclusion and social justice, where poverty has been overcome, and all people live with dignity and security, with a specific focus on the empowerment of women and girls. CARE’s Vision 2030 strategy includes six broad impact areas, with specific impact targets and metrics aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. CARE anticipates its impact will increasingly be achieved at the systems level as part of its quest for sustainable impact at scale, achieved through local leadership in partnership with governments, the private sector and civil society actors.

CARE International Somalia & Somaliland program is seeking applications from qualified candidates for the position of Senior Awards and Subawards Manager based in Hargeisa (other locations are possible), with significant travel across CARE offices in Somalia/Somaliland.

Job Summary

The Senior Award and Sub Award Manager oversees and coordinates the administrative management of all awards and sub-awards implemented by the Country Office. This includes support to award setup, staff training to ensure donor rules and regulations are understood and implemented properly, and review and submission of donor reports. S/he monitors the CO program budgets planning calendar, develops operational budgets and supports program staff in proposal budget development. S/he works closely with program and Deputy Country Director, Operations to make sure all funds are accounted for accurately and program budget line items are managed adequately. This includes activities such as: awards tracking, sub-award report preparation, monitoring and filing.

The role will provide strategic support and timely advice to the Deputy Country Director-Operations and other members of the Senior Management Team in ensuring the application of and adherence to all relevant CARE policies, donor rules and regulations. S/he will take the lead in managing risks linked to awards and subaward management.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategy/Leadership

• Design and implement a coherent Award and subaward organizational structure in CARE Somalia & Somailand and management of stakeholders to ensure responsiveness to program needs and priorities, and in line with Key Performance Indicators.
• Design and implement award and sub-award strategies that delivers efficient and timely support to programs within the complex and challenging context of Somalia & Somaliland
• Lead the design and implementation of award and sub-award operational planning to ensure the delivery of integrated services focused on achieving successful programming.
• Ensure award and sub-award preparedness for emergencies in line with CARE policies and standards.
• Contribute to the Country Office’s overall strategy and ensure that the award and sub-award function is making a positive impact on this.
• Provide overall leadership of award and sub-award functions for program and emergency operations with more focus on strategy rather than daily operational matters.
• Drive the adoption of digital solutions for award and subaward and embedding other global and regional initiatives into CARE Somalia and contributing to key regional and global initiatives where CARE Somalia and Somaliland has best practice knowledge e.g. Cash programming.
• Keep up to date with CARE’s emerging award and subaward trends, strategies, and approaches, , and organizational change processes.

Contracts/Awards Management

• Takes lead in ensuring the understanding of relevant donor rules & regulations by finance staff, project managers, and other stakeholders.
• Ensure award documentation and setup with Shared Services Center – SSC including project ID and fund code request, etc.;
• Ensure monitoring of sub-recipient performance in coordination with program and compliance staff, including periodic partner office visits.
• Assist the Deputy Country Director, Operations or (or equivalent) in maintaining CARE’s accounting policies and procedures relevant to contracts, grants and compliance.
• Develop and roll out Sub award agreements startup/management workshop after signing the sub-award agreement and before the project starts implementation.
• Facilitate award closeout procedures and ensure appropriate filing, storage, and retention of award documentation.
• Lead in project start-up and provide input to the startup requirements of activity planning.

Internal Reporting: Management Reporting and Financial Analysis

• Coordinate with Award and Sub Award Managers on the status of projects Pipeline & ensure pipeline reports and pipeline budgets are prepared
• Prepare the country office Monthly grants and contracts Payable/Receivable Status Reports
• Coordinate with the Award and Sub Award Manager and relevant program staff to prepare and submit all required forms to Shared Services Center SSC for award and sub grants setup in the system (e.g. fund code, project ID, top line budgets, activity ID, etc.)
• Ensure Dissemination to appropriate staff new FC/PID/Activity ID/ for the new awards and sub grants or any changes thereof
• Ensure the Award and sub award Managers maintain the PeopleSoft chart field for FCs, PIDs and AIDs up to date.
• Ensure Budget Holders are provided with detailed Monthly Expenditure Reports (BVA reports)
• Ensure the Award and sub award Managers at the beginning of each month prepare portfolio status report, highlighting grants & sub grants that need action immediately, as well as in short and medium term.
• Critically review expenditure reports with budget holders and provide recommendations to address under spending, overspending or unusual expenditure in relation to project phases.

External Reporting: Donor Reports and Quality Review

• Review Donor Reports as specified in the Contract Agreements
• Ensure narrative reports and financial reports are compliant with donor requirements and are consistent with each other.
• Liaise with Budget Holders and provide recommendations to address any donor budget overspending /underspending.
• Supervise budget revisions in close coordination with budget holders, as needed
• Work with internal and external auditors ensuring all required information to support audit processes. This includes preparing for CARE’s annual financial statements audit and Single audit (formerly known OMB Circular A-133 audit) and other donor audits.

Budgeting & Forecasting

• Participate along with the program managers in the proposal development process by reviewing all budget proposals to ensure compliance with CARE and donor requirements (e.g., allowability, allocability, reasonableness and accuracy of cost matching, program income issues);
• Participate in the development of CO budget guidelines and the preparation of consolidated budgets, including forecasts and future years budgets.
• Monitor actual expenses against budgets and discuss any issues with program managers, Award, and Sub Award Coordinator.

CARE and Partner Staff Capacity Building

• Conduct (continuing refresher) training to CARE and partner staff to ensure all award terms and conditions are understood and implemented properly.
• Conduct training to Budget Holders in use of PeopleSoft (e.g. expenditure report extraction and use, chart of accounts, etc.) and in general sound grants and financial management.
• Develop and oversee the roll-out of tools, training interventions, learning materials and other strategies which will improve CARE and partner staff capacity & compliance
• As mentioned under responsibility 2, plays a critical role in developing partners’ capacity building plans and overseeing progress against these plans.
• Staff Performance Management, talent review and capacity building
• Accountable for overall performance of the country office awards and subaward function against the key performance indicators.
• Embed a culture of performance and effective delivery by ensuring the award and sub-award KPIs are well-tracked and met, with improvement measures being made speedily to remedy poor performance.
• Monitor performance and use data to provide regular analysis against KPIs and make recommendations for strategic improvements to the award and sub-award
• Provides oversight and development support to the grants/contracts/budgeting staff, including the hiring and performance management processes of direct reports in close coordination with the Deputy Country Director of operations.
• Assesses training and development needs of staff and conducts capacity building as necessary.
• Manages direct reports workload and assist the Deputy Country Director, Operations in defining immediate and long-term capacity needs and ensuring that the requisite competencies are reflected in the award and sub-award staff.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES.

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance or business administration/ or similar fields or relevant practical experience in a similar role
• 5 – 7 years experience in award and sub-awards management at the Country Office and/or regional office .
• Strong Grants management skills, highly organized with strong attention to detail, take the initiative, prioritize, and manage multiple tasks, problem-solving, flexible.
• Strong analytical skills. Ability to synthesize and organize data and report on findings.
• Ability to think strategically and plan for long-term initiatives. Able to implement change and demonstrate to others the value of improved processes.
• Good communication skills. Ability to work comfortably with colleagues from different cultures and various internal departments.
• Good understanding of various donor policies and procedures relevant to award and sub-award procurement, knowledge of local markets as well as international procurement regulations.
• Ability to take initiative where appropriate to deal with difficulties encountered in daily work.
• Ability to adapt or change priorities according to the changing demands of the job.
• Ability to keep focused on the overall CARE strategy while developing actions that are sensitive to cultural, gender and political realities of the workplace.
• Ability to work under stressful and sometimes risky conditions.

CONTACTS/KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• The Senior award and sub-award Manager is expected to establish and maintain open, professional, and cordial relations with the COs’ internal and external customers. These include and not limited to:

Internal

• Country Office teams; Program, Program Support/ Operations and Finance teams; Shared Service Centre, Regional Office, and HQ teams

External

• Partners / Government agencies / Other organisations (peer organisations)