The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and more than 25 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees delivers lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is responsible for building, maintaining, and strengthening relationships with public and institutional donors and position IRC as a partner of choice for delivering programs for our clients. This means working to expand IRC’s portfolio and diversify our relationships, as well as supporting the successful and compliant management and implementation of awards, whether directly or through partners. The AMU is composed of several sub-teams: Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Program and Grant Support, Training & Curriculum Design, Strategic Operations and Compliance & Policy.

AMU Compliance & Policy

AMU Compliance & Policy (C&P) develops and manages donor compliance-related tools, guidance, and templates; it tracks and communicates changes in donor regulations and builds knowledge of compliance throughout the IRC. The C&P team offers escalated support in case of complex donor and partnerships compliance questions and to carry out supplementary reviews of agreements where needed. C&P includes Donor Specialists, who have expertise in specific donors’ rules and regulations according to their portfolio, and Subaward & Partnership (S&P) staff, who have expertise in compliance and implementation of IRC’s internal partnership system (PEERS) and the operationalization of IRC’s partnership principles across all donors.

Purpose of the Role

Under the direction of and in collaboration with the Senior Director of Compliance and Policy, the Subaward & Partnership Compliance Director is responsible for leading the IRC’s C&P Subaward & Partnership team. The director plays a key role in shaping policies and practices, to give advice on and support the efficient and compliant administration of subawards, partnerships, and subcontracts focused on ensuring conformity with award terms and conditions, donor rules and regulations, mitigation of business risk, and adherence to IRC policies and procedures.

Key working relationships

All AMU teams, Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD), Resettlement, Asylum and Integration (RAI), Ethics and Compliance Unit, Finance, Office of the General Counsel, Global Supply Chain, Human Resources.

Key accountabilities

Leadership

• As part of the Compliance & Policy Management Team (Senior Director of Compliance and Policy, Compliance Director for USG awards, and Compliance Director for European and UN donors, and this role) and AMU Leaders team, serve as a key partner and relationship builder to strengthen collaboration within AMU and with IRC departments.

• Participate and/or lead in AMU-wide and/or IRC-wide initiatives/projects as discussed with the Senior Director – Compliance & Policy

• Oversee recruitment, development, management and retention of high-performing team members.

• Ensure that the team is a diverse and inclusive team that can attract talent from all backgrounds and has a supportive internal culture where people feel valued, respected and included.

• Set a high standard for HQ support to AMU/other IRC service departments and field support to CRRD and RAI offices, with an understanding of field constraints and the ultimate impact of IRC’s work.

• Create and maintain a results-driven, solution-oriented and empowering culture that values donor compliance across the full subaward cycle.

• Represent IRC to donors, consortium partners, partners and other organizations, with regards to subaward and subcontract matters as needed.

• Collaborate with AMU, Finance, the Ethics and Compliance Unit, the Office of the General Counsel, Operations, and IRC’s global network (CRRD & RAI) to promote a culture of compliance.

Systems development

• As part of contract readiness activities, support the development of policies, guidelines, procedures, standards, work processes, manuals, metrics and methodologies for successful and comprehensive subcontract management.

• Work closely with the Senior Director C&P, the wider C&P team and other IRC service departments to develop, review and update IRC policies, tools, templates and guidelines as needed to ensure optimal implementation of PEERS and subcontracting SOPs/manuals.

• In collaboration with the wider C&P team, ensure the development of relevant templates and terms and conditions for sub-contracts and partnership agreements, and other guidance documents as needed.

• Responsible for ensuring that efficient and donor compliant subaward management processes are implemented across IRC, including fine-tuning subaward templates and tools, streamlining the subaward management processes, surfacing innovations related to the structure and execution of subawards

Escalated subaward advice (partnerships and subcontracts)

• Support S&P team members in providing sophisticated and expert advice on the application of PEERs from pre-award to close-out for partnerships and subcontracts.

• Identify areas of significant risks and advises senior management and project staff on critical subaward management issues and risk mitigation

• Support S&P team members and IRC teams to trouble-shoot and find solutions to donor compliance issues where they occur under a specific subaward or subcontract

• Provide senior management guidance to support all aspects of the subaward processes in accordance with IRC’s partnership and subcontracting principles and policies, including but not limited to providing advice and guidance on selecting, negotiating, and awarding sub-awards;

• Support, and at times lead, communications with partners and subcontractors on compliance matters and award negotiations.

• Assist in trouble-shooting issues as they arise.

• Other responsibilities as assigned by the Senior Director.

Qualifications

• At least 5 – 8 years supporting a donor compliant subaward process;

• Comprehensive knowledge of partnership principles;

• Experience with one or more of IRC’s statutory donors (USAID, FCDO, ECHO, etc);

• Supervision experience;

• Demonstrated highly efficient risk assessment and analysis practices;

• Effective partnership capacity building experience;

• Excellent written and research skills;

• Strong interpersonal skills, collegial and collaborative, high energy, and creative leader;

• Ability to create and maintain effective systems for managing information and tools for making information accessible and understandable to a broad audience.

Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.

Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.