Deputy Director – Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) at International Rescue Committee

Specific Responsibilities

• Grant fund. We will allocate funds (approx. £2.4M in total) to partners in ERICC focal countries to support the cost of piloting, scaling up and adapting education programmes.

Pre-Award

• Develop standard operating procedures for the fund, including eligibility criteria, appropriate vetting, due diligence, compliance procedures, procedures for avoiding real or perceived conflict of interest, and financial management.
• Assess the number, size, and length of grants to be funded and number of funding windows.
• Set up appropriate arrangements with FCDO for IRC to act as an agent to grant funds.
• Work with web developers to build a portal for proposal submission and review, including ensuring accessibility and equity for all marginalized groups
• Develop information strategy for potential applicants and build Frequently Asked Questions
• Coordinate calls for proposals, initial screening & vetting, and crafting the scoring criteria.
• Establish and convene the proposal Review Panel.

Post-Award

• Onboard Grantees and provide technical assistance, and ensure regular reporting.
• Support grantees, particularly smaller organizations, on financial systems, monitoring, and evaluation (M&E), safeguarding, risk management and governance.
• Develop procedures for disbursement of, and invoicing for, grant funds
• Coordinate with grantees to receive and review timely narrative and financial grant reports
• Build systems to identify problems at the grantee level and to put in place remedial actions.
• Supervise projects against objectives and in compliance with donor and IRC guidelines.
• Draft responses to FCDO enquiries or Parliamentary Questions.
• Share progress reports with the ERICC Research Directorate and FCDO.

Closeout

• Lead Grantees Closeout Process including issuing closure letters, feedback form, closeout meeting, closeout audit, asset disposal processes, and documentation filling.
• Provide operational, financial and contractual oversight of the programme, including:
• Serve as the primary liaison for FCDO contractual compliance and contract management.
• Ensure sound financial management (forecasting, monitor budget vs actuals, cash flow, etc)
• Conduct financial analysis to ensure value for money and adequate funding to achieve results
• Contracting with partners, including vetting, pre-award assessment, and agreeing on budgets and special conditions.
• Support workplanning based on priorities identified by programme leadership.
• Support the preparation and submission of donor reports.
• Ensure strong risk management and mitigation.
• Ensure institutional capacity strengthening for project sub-contractors on key issues such as governance, key policies, human resources, transparency, safeguarding, and finance.
• Lead process for consultancies and commissioned work.
• To deputize the Programme Director when required.

Experience

Essential Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Significant experience in leading FCDO contracts, particularly operational, contracts, and financial leadership and management
• E xperience in running funds or other large granting mechanisms
• B udget development and spending plans, and supervise the financial health of projects
• Risk assessment and mitigation, due diligence assessments and/or audits
• Excellent written and oral English
• Excellent IT skills (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel)
• Track record of working on own initiative as well as on diverse teams.
• Maintaining positive relationships with collaborators, and having e xcellent communication skills
• Ability to lead varied workload and work under pressure

Preferred Experience And Skills

• Experience of working in international organisation or on a consortia
• Research project experience
• Having worked in one or more of: Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Syria, South Sudan, Bangladesh and Myanmar