Manager, Grants and Compliance

Summary

Join Search for Common Ground as the Manager, Grants and Compliance, based in Damascus (initially remote) and contingent on donor funding. You will be responsible for the financial and grants management, compliance, and reporting for the FCDO ISF Syria program. This involves ensuring compliance with FCDO and Search policies, overseeing subawards to partners, managing grant funding for civil society organizations, and fostering collaboration within the consortium. The role contributes to financial management, procurement, and payroll processes. The position requires a BS/BA with 9+ years of grants management and compliance experience, regional experience in the MENA region, and the ability to manage direct reports. The position is based in Syria, with security risks requiring adherence to safety protocols and some international travel.

Requirements

• Builds and maintains collaborative relationships with FCDO, partners, and other stakeholders
• Manages and contributes to routine activities and initiatives while also making progress on continuous improvement efforts
• Juggles multiple demands and adapts to new situations with fresh ideas or innovative approaches
• Contributes to the development and implementation of the Consortium, aligning with its goals and objectives
• Confirms and socializes standards across functions globally while allowing for thoughtful collaboration in an international context
• Practices ethical behavior to meet Search’s expectations for conduct, minimizes ambiguity, and sets an example for others
• Builds a framework and sets in motion a plan to overcome challenges by making sense of complexity and an uncertain future, staying cognizant of the implications of choices for the department, and being decisive while also applying flexibility for further change as needed and in response to changing work plans that meet environmental factors
• Sets up procedures and team building to ensure high quality of work (e.g., review meetings)
• Seeks out creative solutions within a complex and international environment while working within an organizational framework that emphasizes compliance, ethics, best practices, and established standards
• Shares information, advice, and suggestions to help others to be more successful; provides effective coaching
• Serves as an expert to provide advice or solutions in their technical or functional area
• Convenes groups or teams through the problem-solving and creative thinking processes, leading to the development and implementation of new approaches, systems, structures, and methods in a consortium environment
• Involves team members in thought leadership discussions and decision making to lead to continued growth and development for team members and partners
• Remains alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks, acquires relevant knowledge and skills that will enable them to promote strong safeguarding practices, understands the safeguarding policy and procedures, and conducts themselves in a manner consistent with the Safeguarding Policy
• BS/BA with a minimum of 9 years of experience in grants management and compliance or a related field
• Regional experience in the MENA region is required
• Manages one or more direct reports and/or consultants and/or manages one functional area
• Ability to travel internationally at least 5%

Responsibilities

• Ensures all grant activities under the FCDO ISF Syria program fully comply with FCDO and Search policies and regulatory requirements
• Provides oversight of subawards to consortium partners, ensuring transparency and accountability
• Manages and oversees grant funding allocated to civil society organizations and community-based initiatives
• Applies Search for Common Ground's and donors' rules, regulations, policies, processes, procedures, and standards to uphold compliance and confidentiality of Finance activities and data
• Recommends improvements to Finance systems, processes, and procedures by maintaining a high-level working knowledge of organizational and donor rules, regulations, policies, processes, procedures, and standards, including but not limited to data quality, internal controls, and segregation of duties
• Initiates and maintains collaborative relationships with Finance and Programs teams and sub-awardees
• Reinforces synergy within the consortium members' systems, policies, procedures, manuals, and guidelines
• Supports consortium members in the development of high-quality financial and narrative reports, creates budgets, including but not limited to processes and procedures for budget coding, forecasting, and reporting
• Monitors and analyzes consortium members' budgets, including expenditures, burn rates, organizational compliance, and donor requirements
• Analyzes irregularities and recommends corrective actions to consortium members
• Collaborate on grant management capacity strengthening training for consortium members' teams
• Reviews and analyzes financial data to inform decision-making and proactively addresses any irregularities
• Collaborates with the Finance, Program, and MEAL teams to reinforce data quality and internal controls for reporting purposes
• Collaborates with Finance and Program teams to strengthen grants management capacity
• Contributes to the development/strengthening of financial Standard Operating Procedures and reporting forms for Consortium members
• In cooperation with the Finance Manager and Team Leader, act as the point of contact for internal and external audits
• Prepare project-specific reports, consolidate consortium members' reports, and manage external communication
• Conduct a budget vs. actuals review exercise with consortium members and propose remedial actions
• Participate in a financial spot check with the finance manager to provide consortium members with recommendations based on the findings
• Ensure the coordination of pre-audit assessments for upcoming audits
• Liaise with the audit team regarding audit engagement, Audit sample collection, provision of supporting documents during field assessments, responses to audit findings, and development of mitigation measures in response to the findings
• Support consortium members' teams in conducting procurement activities in accordance with donor policies, procedures, and processes
• Escalate unresolved procurement matters to the manager
• Partners with People and Culture to establish effective and efficient payroll process flow, including but not limited to personnel actions procedures
• Ensures accuracy of payroll deductions and payroll changes, including but not limited to statutory deductions, income taxes, mandatory withholdings, and personnel actions
• Ensures accuracy of payroll register to include, but not limited to, gross pay, statutory deductions, tax withholding, and leave balances
• Ensures accuracy of mandatory deductions, including but not limited to statutory deductions, mandatory withholdings, income taxes, and personnel actions
• Infuses organizational values in all work
• Other duties that are broadly in line with the above key contributions are assigned

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with FCDO contracts is highly desirable
• In-depth knowledge of or experience in the Syrian context is strongly preferred