Job Opportunities at International Rescue Committee

The Purpose of the Role:  

• The Central Africa Region has a portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs currently in the following countries: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania. 
• Where additional support is required by the countries in the region, the Regional Budget Coordinator is deployed to work as part of the finance/budgeting and grants teams in country offices. S/he may be deployed to act as a temporary Budget Coordinator, or to provide surge support to assist in the development of proposals as well as donor financial reports, and to perform general budgeting functions during peak periods. The Regional Budget Coordinator may also be requested to cover for a Finance role, including Deputy Finance Director in a country program or may take on standard regional budget review responsibilities when not deployed. 

Scope and Authority: 

• No line management unless required by the Deputy Director of Finance when deployed in-country. 

Key Working Relationships: 

• The Regional Budget Coordinator reports to the SPAA and works closely with Finance, Programs, Grants and Partnerships teams in country, the Regional Finance Director, the Regional Program and Award Support (RPAS) and other AMU team members, as well as country office and regional staff.

Key Responsibilities: 
The Regional Budget Coordinator is deployed (remote or in-person) to support specific country programs and may be responsible for the following, as assigned: 

• Proposal and modification budgeting and financial reporting
•  Lead or support on budget development for proposals, award modifications and financial reports. 
•  Coordinate on inputs into proposal or modification budgets for submission to donor and ensure adequate coverage of country operating costs or headquarters costs.
•  Work with country finance, operations and technical teams to ensure cost proposals and technical proposals are aligned.
•  Coordinate with the proposal team on strategic issues involving proposal budgets. Ensure the proposal and modification budgets comply with IRC organizational policies and donor requirements. 
•  Reviews, edit and finalize explanatory budget narrative to accompany budget in proposal, modification, or financial reports. 
•  Review countries’ cost allocation budget tools. 
•  Create and/or modify budget spreadsheet templates in accordance with donor requirements.
•  Lead internal budget reviews during proposal or modification period, as well as financial reports when requested.
•  Lead on engagement with partners on their budgets and review partner budgets and reports. 
•  Advise on IRC’s standard budget templates and donor reporting templates.
•  Ensure proposal and modification budgets are reviewed and submitted according to internal timelines and donor submission deadlines.
•  Ensure compliance with RFP/RFA/tender requirements.
•  Lead on or support the preparation of donor financial reports.
•  Support on other budget related tasks, including audit support and report responses, as requested.
•  Support on re-coding and/ or fixing financial reporting issues in collaboration with Finance.
•  Provide support in developing pricing contract budgets for donors. 
•  Review budgets (proposal, modification, and report) from a regional approver perspective, when not deployed.
•  Support on other financial management areas, as requested by the RFD. 

Financial monitoring 

•  Standardize and lead on the roll out of guidance for delivering effective budget versus actual meetings. 
•  Support the development and roll out of spending plan templates for IRC and partners to ensure use of adequate tools for monitoring spending. 
•  Support financial analysis of Project Cycle Meeting (PCM) routines. 

Capacity building and training

•  Provide training and/or capacity building to relevant country office staff on proposal budget development, financial reporting, and monitoring.
•  Onboard new country office Finance staff on finance related matters especially on proposal budget, budget monitoring, budget modification and other IRC processes. 
•  Mentor in-country finance team in the use of Integra to ensure budgets are accurately uploaded and financial monitoring is happening. 
•  Provide support in troubleshooting and liaise with Integra team to find solutions.  
•  Sharing learning across the region in relation to the implementation of the cost allocation methodology, Integra and financial monitoring. 

Other finance duties as assigned and/or when deployed as a senior finance role in-country (to be agreed by line manager) 

•  If deployed to cover a Finance role, perform the routine finance duties of the deployment role such as management of the finance team, support in month-end processes and audits. 
•  Support country programs on operating budget and reforecast processes as requested. 
•  Support in the review and feedback of country program FM01s, as requested. 
•  Support country program to develop strategies to optimize budgets and spending. 
•  Provide financial analysis, reports, and strategic feedback to facilitate high-level decision-making by functional and Regional/Country management. 
•  Oversee spending patterns and implementing measures to promote adherence to budgets and ensuring assigned departments are maintaining budget methodologies to ensure good financial standing of organization. 
•  Coordinate data and understand business requirements to build and maintain templates and models to enable budget and forecast processes. 
•  Support country program in the development of the annual budgeting and forecasting process. 
•  Generate and analyze monthly actuals reports and identify risks and opportunities. 
•  Identify and implement opportunities to use IRC’s financial data and systems to improve modeling, reporting and analytics capabilities. 
•  Support the continued development and implementation of software and systems such as Integra,
•  Provide ad hoc finance decision support on critical initiatives, including the development of business cases for new projects or funding areas. 

PERSON SPECIFICATION 
Essential 
Skills, Knowledge, and Qualifications: 

•  Degree (minimum BA) in Business, Accounting, Finance, or related field relevant to the position requirements
•  5-7 years’ experience in developing and managing budgets for humanitarian and development proposals and projects, including from private and statutory donors, e.g. US Government (USAID, OFDA, BPRM, etc.), FCDO, ECHO, GFFO, Sida, SDC, Irish Aid
•  Experience in developing and reviewing donor financial reports 
•  Excellent Microsoft Excel skills
•  Enhanced interpersonal skills and ability to work in a diverse team setting
•  Fluent English and French written and verbal communication skills
•  Ability and willingness to travel across the region (up to 60% of the time)
•  Demonstrated ability to prioritize high volumes of work to meet tight deadlines

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Job Overview: 

• The Grants and Finance Manager will maintain a portfolio of grants within IRC’s Technical Excellence Department. Reporting to the  Grants and Finance Coordinator, this position will work closely with in-country and HQ grants staff, finance and business development to ensure timely and accurate grant reporting, maintenance of grant records, and leadership of the proposal process for new grants. The Grants and Finance Manager will also be responsible for tracking grant spending, developing spending plans, and handling internal disbursement of grant funding to country programs.  This position has limited field travel and support for special projects.  

Major Responsibilities:
Grants and Budget Management 

•  Build and maintain an in-depth understanding of grants, donor compliance, and budget conditions and status
•  Review, track, and analyze expenditures for standard grants
•  Review monthly BvAs and transaction detail reports, participate in monthly budget meetings and ensure that all BvAs and financial reports accurately reflect current and planned spending 
•  Make any necessary spending plan adjustments 
•  Attend and actively participate in all grant related meetings 
•  Work in close collaboration with the Senior Adviser, Grant Operations and the Deputy Director, Business Operations to harmonize grants as part of Technical Excellence’s funding portfolio 
•  Work with relevant Technical Unit and HQ-based finance staff to ensure accuracy of financial reports and to promptly identify and advise applicable grant leads on areas of concern
•  Review and process sub-grants to country programs for grant activities
•  Coordinate the approval of agreements, amendments, cost extensions and no-cost extensions for grants
•  Apply existing IRC standard grant management processes (OTIS, project cycle meetings, etc.) and develop new tools or reporting formats to enhance grants management
•  Manage salary allocations by tracking and monitoring all salary lines in grant budgets 
•  Work with other Grants & Finance Managers to streamline and harmonize IRC processes

Donor Reporting and New Business 

•  Develop guidance, templates, and toolkits to ensure timely submission of narrative and financial donor reports 
•  In partnership with program technical staff and the Business Development Coordinator, manage and contribute to the development of proposals ensuring donor and IRC compliance, including reviewing and contributing to concept notes, proposals and creating budgets
•  Manage OTIS (Opportunity Tracking Information System) workflow for proposals, ongoing grants, agreements and amendments
•  Assist in donor relations; participate in calls with select donors, represent Technical Excellence at donor meetings as required; and communicate relevant priorities to donors and internal business development and foundation relations units.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to:  Grants and Finance Coordinator 
• Position directly supervises:  May supervise Grants Assistants and/or Interns and Volunteers

Other Internal and/or external contacts: 

•  Internal:  Regular contact with Technical Unit teams.  
• Liaise with country program staff. Interact regularly with internal IRC departments, especially 
• budget, finance, human resources and procurement.
•  External:  Interact with donors, vendors, contractors, and consultants. 

Job Requirements:
Education: 

•  Bachelor’s degree in relevant field is required or demonstrable experience. 

Work Experience: 

•  2+ years of experience managing government and/or private grants 
•  Demonstrated experience developing proposals for public and private donors 

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

•  Excellent budget management skills including experience tracking expenses and developing spending plans 
•  Excellent organizational skills: the ability to multi-task, learn quickly, and work independently and productively in a fast-paced and detail-oriented environment
•  Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: the ability to effectively liaise with and motivate a variety of people in a multi-cultural environment
•  Excellent digital literacy: MS Word, Excel, and Desktop Publishing. Proficiency in Excel preferred.

Language Skills:  

•  English fluency

Working Environment: 

•  Standard office work environment
•  Travel less than 10%, conditions allowing