Manager, Grants & Contracts

Summary

The Manager, Grants and Contracts is key part of a team responsible for supporting the financial management and compliance of VillageReach grants and contracts. The Manager is responsible for ensuring the smooth and efficient operation of awards by refining policies, systems, and trainings that oversee award administrative, financial, and logistical areas of grant compliance. The Manager oversees a portfolio of awards, manages a Grants & Contracts Associate, and has dotted-line oversight of award associates globally for their adherence to Grants & Contracts standard protocols. The Manager also plays a strategic role in systems maintenance and improvement, labor levelling, budgeting, and organizational OKRs related to initiatives of the Global Operations team.

Description

Training and Procedural Oversight (60% FTE)

• Work collaboratively across teams to prioritize updates to policies and SOPs related to compliance, contracting, business development, and award management policies
• Partner with Grants Accountant and Controller on key financial policies, systems updates, and protocols that will strengthen award management and financial risk management.
• Partner with Finance team on budget system and financial visualization tools to strengthen award management and opportunity budgeting data availability.
• Audit adherence to policies to determine where gaps in tools and training exist; perform escalation protocols
• Develop and refine trainings for incoming grant managers, award associates, and business development leaders on protocols across offices
• Monitor portfolio of awards to audit financial compliance, grant performance, adherence to VR policies; meet with award manager at least quarterly

Business Development Support (25% FTE)

• Ensure correct set-up, review, approval, and system upload of budgets for new business development opportunities within portfolio
• Partner with Finance leadership to ensure all required approvals are integrated into standard protocols
• Develop/refine and lead trainings to enhance business development: common donor guidelines, how to use budget templates, where to find key budget information
• Work with finance leads across geographies to keep budget template up to date with standard expenses, recent staff hires

Strategy and Management (15% FTE)

• Supervise and manage the work of Associate, with dotted line oversight of staff with partial G&C responsibilities to ensure they meet standard performance metrics
• Regularly participate in cross-functional coordination and strategy meetings
• Serve as subject matter expert for donor compliance issues
• Lead strategic initiatives that improve the functioning of the Grants & Contracts team through coordination and leadership with other VillageReach team leads. These initiatives will be set quarterly, with the goal of improved efficiency, decentralization, and financial data availability.

Competencies:

The following competencies reflect what is expected of all VillageReach employees; including examples of how one might demonstrate each of these competencies in one’s role.

• Personal Motivation and Drive: Is self-directed in one’s approach to work, but asks for help when needed; holds oneself accountable; undertakes self-development activities; seeks to build and master new skills; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities within the organization
• Collaboration & Effective Communication: Establishes and maintains effective relations with coworkers, partners & stakeholders and external parties; works collaboratively with others to accomplish organizational and team goals and objectives; works actively to resolve conflicts; expresses ideas and thoughts effectively; selects and uses appropriate communication methods and maintains meaningful communication with virtual coworkers and other parties to keep them informed
• Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: Takes personal responsibility for and supports others across the organization in creating and sustaining a diverse work environment where individuals are welcomed, valued, respected and supported; personally committed to attaining cultural competency including self-awareness of one’s own attitudes about culture and cross-cultural interactions; exhibits the willingness and ability to engage openly and respectfully around issues of race, colonialism, identity and culture; upholds equity in access to sharing of information, ideas, and opportunities throughout VillageReach
• Commitment to Excellence: Produces a high output of work, both in terms of quality and quantity; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; monitors work to ensure quality; has a personal commitment to the mission of VillageReach
• Solution Orientation & Innovation: Focuses on results and desired outcomes and how to best achieve them; gets the job done; sees opportunities for creative problem-solving while staying within the parameters of good practice; sees old problems in new ways and has novel approaches to solving those problems; contributes original and/or resourceful ideas to their area of responsibility; is able to consider and articulate risks and consequences of proposed innovations and factor these into decision-making

Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

This position directly supervises one or more associates. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning and directing work; monitoring performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; and addressing complaints and resolving problems.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 4+ years’ experience managing multi-million dollar grant portfolios from both a compliance and financial standpoint, including public sector grant management.
• Demonstrated financial management skills
• Experience with technical and financial reporting
• Experience drafting contracts and monitoring subrecipient compliance
• Operationally-minded with proven track-record of successful grant system improvements and SOP creation and implementation

Other Qualifications:

• Comply with VillageReach’s COVID-19 vaccination policy which requires vaccination for in-person work and for travel.
• Established cultural competency in partnering with racial, cultural and linguistically diverse groups.
• Demonstrated understanding of challenges with working in rural, underserved and low-income context; experience living in and/or working in a low-income country a plus.
• Experience working in a geographically dispersed workplace using remote communication technologies
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel) and comfortable in a fast-paced technical environment.
• Advanced skills in Excel
• Extensive experience with budgeting software, data visualization software, and CRM platforms, including back-end administration.