Grants Finance Manager at Aga Khan University (AKU)

Job Purpose/Summary

• The Grants Finance Manager will be responsible for supporting programmatic and research grants leading to execution of projects on a stipulated budget and compliance environment. The position holder will also be responsible for accurate and timely reporting to the project lead, granting agencies, donors, leading external audits if required for any grants, ensuring accurate recording of grants and donation related transactions in the general ledger, ensuring projects have sufficient cash flow to run and deliver on tasks assigned by the Senior Manager Finance and Regional Director Finance.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

Pre-award support

• Working closely with faculty, principal investigator, Deans, Directors, Grants & contracts department, and Bilateral & Multilateral department in preparing/reviewing of proposed project financial proposal. This includes review of checklists to confirm that the university has accurately costed project costs and opting for indirect cost recoveries as permitted by the granting agencies.
• Review of draft contracts to ensure that the financial position of the university is accurately reflected and protected.
• Reviewing grant agreements for university sub-awards to ensure that they are compliant with the main donor requirements and University financial policies.

Implementation support

• Review/ Approve requisitions from faculty, principal investigator, Deans, Directors, Grants & contracts department, Bilateral & Multilateral department to ensure that they are as per the approved grant budget and are compliant to the grant agency requirement and procurement policies.
• Timely and accurate preparation of monthly reports to project leads and to granting agencies of the financial position of the project.
• Continuous training of project staff and sub awardee on the compliance environment.
• Preparation of funds withdrawal applications to ensure that the projects have sufficient cash flow; developing a strong mechanism of treasury management related to grants and donations.
• Monthly project accounts to ensure that core recovery is captured accurately and in a timely manner.
• Timely and accurate recording of grants and donation related transactions in the financial system (General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, Treasury).
• Lead and conclude annual grant specific audits done by external auditors in a timely manner.
• Submit monthly, quarterly and annual reports to AKU Finance Head Office.

Project close-out

• Supporting the PI to close the financial operations of the project at the end of the project.
• Working closely with the Grants and Contract departments to ensure that the various project budget costs are deactivated and that all outstanding matters have been resolved.

Team Leadership

• Manage the departmental succession plan, performance appraisal process, training needs & calendar and leave schedules for the department team members.

Relevant Experience and Qualifications

• Master’s degree in business/finance.
• CPA or ACCA or CMA qualification or equivalent
• Demonstrated 6-8 years’ work experience in a granting agency, international development agencies or academic institution with exposure to financial planning, reporting, analysis, grant budgets and day to day accounting functions.
• Demonstrated supervisory skills/experience in managing a team.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Good people management skills.
• Management of expectations of finance and entity heads.