Sub-Grants Officer at Namati

• The Sub-grants Officer will serve as a core holder of these roles within the Finance team, as well as for our grantees. At a basic level, this role involves managing the entire lifecycle of a subgrant, from partner pre-assessment through final reports. But much more than that, we want the Subgrants Officer to partner with our grantee organizations to understand (and, sometimes, help them build out) their internal financial management and reporting processes while remaining an important check-in reporting and due diligence processes. The sub-grant officer will play a key role in managing each sub-grant within our geographically and thematically diverse portfolio of about 30 sub-grants.
• Being able to hold these two facets of the role - supportive partner and neutral auditor - can be difficult, but also creates the most positive impact for Namati and our sub-grantees. Each sub-grant has a goal within Namati’s larger programs, and the details of how they execute their plans matter for sub-grant implementation, so understanding these details both builds partnership and creates a more knowledgeable basis for auditing and critical review.
• This role is ideal for an early-career professional with some experience in international grantmaking. There is significant room for growth in this role (and team) for candidates who can work independently and prove to be a reliable, trustworthy, and insightful partner to the Finance team.

Reporting to the Director of Global Finance, the sub-grant officer's responsibilities will include the following:

• Lead the pre-assessment process, working with potential partners to collect and analyze a variety of documents and data (registrations, audits, financial manuals, and other due diligence materials), and providing an initial recommendation based on your conclusions.
• Coordinate with program officers to finalize subgrant agreements, including grant amounts and disbursement schedules.
• Partner closely with grantees, working with partner program and finance staff to understand the details of each subgrant, and provide some assistance to grantees in building out their own financial and operational processes when needed.
• Actively manage live subgrants through their standard lifecycle, reviewing financial reports, spending patterns, and fund balances, and recommending any necessary changes.
• Manage sub-grantee reporting, ensuring that partners submit the required reports and information timely and in the forms we require, and reviewing those reports carefully to understand the grantee’s operations and financial situation deeply.
• Carefully analyze grantee information to ensure compliance and spot possible issues. This requires understanding the details of each grant to recognize when something is unusual, reviewing and following up on questionable expenses or missing reports, and examining spending trends against budgets.
• Participate in improving our approach to subgrants. Over time, this person will develop an understanding not just of what our policies are, but why they were set, and help us iterate on our processes to achieve better results for Namati as well as for our grantees.

Here’s what you might have tackled in the last week:

• Updated the Director of Global Finance on the status of all active sub-grants.
• Reached out to a new sub-grantee in Chile whose first report isn’t quite what Namati is looking for and helped them understand how to improve their reporting in the future.
• Completed a pre-assessment review for a potential new sub-grantee in Kenya, writing your summary and submitting your recommendation to make the grant.
• Consulted with the Director of Global Finance on a discrepancy you’ve spotted in a sub-grantee reporting to determine appropriate next steps.
• Reviewed the Q3 report for a new grantee and reached out to their finance officer to give kudos on the improvements in their internal processes over their Q2 report.
• Created a first draft disbursement plan for a new grantee based on budgets and program plans you’ve collected and analysed in partnership with Namati and partner program officers.

Must-haves for the position

• International grants experience: You bring 3-5 (or more) years of experience in international grants and sub-grants. Ideally, you have experience across many borders and are comfortable working in different cultures and contexts, in a multi-currency environment.
• Detail orientation and precision: You genuinely enjoy completing detail-oriented tasks. You are dedicated to letting no ball drop and deftly juggle multiple tasks. As a basic practice, you check and double-check your work to ensure it is free of errors and feel a sense of deep satisfaction upon successful completion of every task you tackle.
• Efficiency and organization: You are highly organized and manage complex processes confidently and efficiently. You know how to work with input from a variety of stakeholders while maintaining control, scope, and timeliness. You always nail deadlines.
• Resourceful problem-solving skills: You know how to find answers and can figure out how to solve problems when they arise. You possess the personal initiative needed to improve processes without prompting. You feel comfortable working independently.
• Sound judgment and integrity: You are well-regarded for your judgment and have a reputation as a trustworthy colleague. For this role to be effective, the Finance and Accounting team must be able to trust your abilities and feel confident in your assessments.
• Mission orientation and drive: It’s in your nature to work diligently on a problem until you’ve seen the solution through to your complete satisfaction. You’re deeply committed to Namati’s mission and driven to make an impact.
• Growth mindset: You are always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.

Nice to have

• Experience with US government grants, or government grant procedures of other countries. There is room to learn, but if you’re coming in with this knowledge, let us know!