Contracts and Portfolio Manager at Christian Aid

About the role

Reporting in to the Partnership & Strategy Lead, the Contracts and Portfolio Manager for the East & Southern Africa region provides strategic oversight and management of Christian Aid’s restricted funding portfolio across the Multi-Country Cluster (MCC).

The post-holder will ensure effective delivery, compliance, and reporting for donor-funded programmes while contributing to Christian Aid’s organisational values and goals, and plays a key role in building relationships with donors, ensuring contract compliance, and supporting programme teams and partners in delivering high-quality programmes aligned with organisational values and goals, while fostering a mindset of connection and enhancing collaboration. 

The role is critical for ensuring that each programme achieves an integrated total economy approach, with all work (donor funded or not) fitting into the programme focus and partnerships driven new model.

Some of the main responsibilities of the Contracts and Portfolio Manager include:

• Lead the management and oversight of restricted programme delivery across the MCC aligning with organisational values and goals, while ensuring complementarity with unrestricted initiatives.
• Provide management oversight for effective contract management and compliance for all donor contracts within the MCC restricted income portfolio, to ensure maximum impact.
• Develop and maintain relationships with external donor contacts as the main point of contact for Christian Aid to foster a mindset of connection.
• Oversee donor-funded programme expenditure budgets and appeal funds, advising the MCC SLT to ensure teams have what they need to deliver donor funded work, e.g. correct staffing in place to ensure regular reviews and corrective action taken as needed.
• Implement a robust donor portfolio risk management framework and support audits to ensure consistent high-quality work is delivered, and ensures the donor portfolio is strategic and delivers on strategic focus and model.
• Work closely with MEAL colleagues to ensure donor reporting obligations are met across the MCC contract portfolio, ensuring consistency of delivery and alignment with decolonised MEAL approaches.
• Foster a team mindset by engaging in a dynamic way across the cluster, and by providing coaching, guidance, and professional development opportunities for the Restricted Funding Officer.
• Collaborate with internal teams such as MEAL, Finance, Advocacy, and Operations to ensure integrated programming approaches and foster a mindset of connection.

About you

Who we are looking for

Essential:

• Degree or equivalent qualification in business, economics, international development, or a related discipline.
• Substantial experience managing multi-million-pound donor-funded programmes across multiple geographies, in collaboration with key MCC staff.
• Understanding donor compliance requirements.
• Detailed understanding of donor compliance requirements for institutional donors such as governments or private foundations.
• Significant expertise in financial planning, monitoring, reporting, and risk management for restricted funding portfolios.
• Demonstrable experience in managing audits and due diligence processes with donors or external stakeholders.

Desirable:

• Demonstrable experience working within humanitarian programming contexts.