Regional Award Management Officer at Save the Children

ROLE PURPOSE:

• The Regional Award Management Officer provides support to the regional Award Management team in the planning, securing and managing of both development and humanitarian awards, through all stages of the Award Cycle (inception to close out).  The position involves supporting award information management and compliance with SCI systems and processes. This is a highly collaborative role, working daily with stakeholders throughout Save the Children across the world, to facilitate a culture of strong operational and program quality.
• As a key member of the East and Southern Africa Regional (ESARO) Operations team, the Award Officer will work closely with the Head of Regional Award Management and Strategic Portfolio to ensure that the members and the Country Offices in the ESARO have strong Award Management – planning, securing and managing their funding portfolios and sub-grants effectively - in line with the SCI Quality Framework and donor requirements.
• The Officer supports and helps manage regional learning & capacity building initiatives; provides compelling data-based insights and analysis to senior leadership as needed; and provides support to users of the online global Award Management System. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the Officer will be expected to work flexibly outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly. The Officer may be called upon to deploy for a humanitarian response at short notice.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Regional Awards Manager.

Staff reporting to this post: N/A

• Role Dimensions: This role will work closely with the Regional Office Awards team, East and Southern Africa Country office Awards teams, ESA COs partnership focal points, SCI Centre Awards team, Regional office Program Operations, Finance and PDQI teams etc.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Award Management

Award Management System (AMS)

• Provide peer-leadership, face to face and live online training/orientation, and day-to-day coaching and guidance to COs as requested.
•  Monitor system use and maintain awareness of strengths, weaknesses and gaps in all Country Offices in the Region.
• Contribute to the global work of the AMS Management Group– proposing, testing and de-bugging new global system developments, and communicating them clearly to users in East and Southern Africa Region.
• Support in system roll outs and enhancements as needed (e.g., PPM Prime, RFT, Coding, Power BI)

Award Management for SCI Directly Received Awards

• Together with the Regional Awards Manager- SCI Led funding and in collaboration with the Regional Award Specialist, understand new requirements for Regional Office in account management of Save the Children’s Directly Received Awards.
• Once standards are defined, Support Country Offices to understand and meet institutional donor requirements, and the core requirements of the SCI Quality Framework & Essential Standards, including partnership. 
• Support the Regional Head of Awards Management, Donor Compliance and Strategic partnerships and the Regional Director by undertaking review of donor agreements and amendments review and coordinating approvals as required.

Management Reporting & Analysis

• Produce monthly and quarterly Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports and relevant data reports to support trends analysis and risk identification to the operations team.
• Undertake research tasks (as directed, and on own initiative) to identify emerging or under-resourced risks and challenges in SCI award/grant management throughout ESARO.
• Ensure donor budget lines in AMS are as needed for donor reporting requirements.
• Ensure documents upkeep on AMS.
• Support and assist the Head of Award Management in monitoring, implementation and evaluation of capacity building approaches to measure their effectiveness.
• Write and provide regional updates and bulletins on Award Management issues.
• Prepare Strategic Portfolio Analysis Report to inform New Business Development Initiatives and Management Decisions.

Partnerships – Sub awards and sub grantee management

• Support program staff to comply with Save the Children partnership policies and procedures and ensure all implementing partners undergo legal vetting on AMS and preparation of partner agreements are undertaken as per partnership processes to ensure donor compliance.
• Working with CO Awards and Partnership teams, ensure that the partner data integrity and completeness of information in the system for all partner documentation including reports is uploaded onto AMS through spot checks of AMS data.
• Support coordination of the monthly calls with Partnership Focal points to discuss partnership management and share best practices.

Humanitarian Response

• Provide direct and/or remote support to emergency responses as required, including administrative work and effective management of humanitarian pooled funds and appeal funds, including sub-award agreements with specific COs/members. 

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS   

• Undergraduate degree in International Development, Social Sciences, Law, Business Administration or Finance or a relevant field.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential:

• A minimum 3 years of experience in award/finance or a similar functional area within an NGO.
• Demonstrated interest in career in donor-funded project management with International NGOs, particularly those addressing human/children’s rights and those applying partnership approaches.
• Exposure to developing proposals (narrative and financial), negotiating agreements and managing compliance of major institutional donors in the development sector (e.g., USAID, EC, ECHO, UNICEF, DFAT, etc.) including knowledge of grant documents & compliance issues.
• Demonstrable experience in grant/contract management and financial management
•  Computer literacy, particularly in Microsoft Office Suite and excellent documentation skills are a must.
• Ability to establish and maintain conducive collegial relations and perform effectively as a member of a team.
• Availability and willingness to work extra hours during times of humanitarian responses.
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Highly developed interpersonal and English communication skills including influencing and negotiation
• Commitment to goals and values of Save the Children.
• Excellent time management and planning capacity
• Experience working with implementing partners and managing sub awards/grants.

Desirable:

• Experience in financial accounting and accounting systems (i.e., Agresso).
• Experience with Save the Children Award Management System (AMS). 
• Experience working in across departments and in business processes.

Additional job responsibilities

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.