Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.
Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps works in places of transition, where conflict, disaster, political upheaval, or economic collapse present opportunities to build more secure, productive, and just communities. Providing emergency relief in times of crisis, we move quickly to help communities recover and build resilience to future shocks, and promote sustainable change by supporting community-led and market-driven initiatives. Recognizing both the great potential and the complex challenges faced by the Middle East, since 1989 Mercy Corps has been implementing a range of humanitarian assistance and development programs tailored to the specific needs of the region and of those communities where we work.
In Syria, Mercy Corps has been implementing emergency and life-sustaining activities since 2012. Mercy Corps currently operates with multiple institutional donors and a rigid, reporting regime.
General Position Summary
The Mercy Corps teams is responding to the earthquake that took place in the early morning hours on 6 February that hit southeastern Turkey. The earthquake was felt as far away as Cyprus and Lebanon, and particularly affected Gaziantep, Turkey, and Northwest Syria (NWS). Damage in Mercy Corps Syria programming areas have been catastrophic. The Mercy Corps Syria team began the response with an Incident Management taskforce and is not transforming into Emergency Response, which will last for the coming few months.
The Emergency Grants Manager will be accountable to lead Grants tasks related to the Emergency Response. S/he will provide leadership on a growing portfolio of grants and participate in the Emergency Response team, in charge of administration of the team and grant management procedures and processes.
The Manager will take on ad-hoc leadership and decision-making in collaboration with the Director of Grant Management and Deputy Country Director to decide stewardship and help to set parameters of otherwise unstructured funds, The Emergency Grant Manager will support the Deputy Country Director in carrying out fundraising strategies for emergency funds, including pre-positioning, new business development, contracting, implementation. They will focus on compliance, helping to bridge grants functions with other departments for funds and programs that are developed for the emergency projects.
The Emergency Grants Manager will work under the direct supervision of the Director of Grants Management, as well as working relationships with the Senior Grants Manager, Area Director, Finance, Program Performance and Quality (PaQ), Program Managers, security and all other field departments in coordinating all grants/reporting-related tasks. Additionally, the Emergency Grants Manager will coordinate closely with the Regional Program Team in Mercy Corps’ headquarters.
Essential Job Responsibilities
GRANTS MANAGEMENT
Coordinate across program, Program Performance and Quality (PaQ), finance and support functions, as well as HQ offices throughout the grant cycle to ensure appropriate set up of new grants, ongoing reporting and close out of grants.
Coordinate the preparation of accountable donor and internal reporting in compliance with internal and donor requirements, ensuring timely inputs from program, PaQ, finance and operations teams, and ensure review and signoff processes are thorough and adhered to.
Maintain an up to date grant filing system that meets minimum Mercy Corps Project Management and donor standards.
Update project management tools, including funding trackers, grant trackers and dashboards.
Work closely with the Director of Grants Management on effective coordination and management of grants to ensure they remain on-time, on scope and on budget. This includes:
Providing regular information on project progress and burn-rates;
Working closely with the Area and Program Directors and Finance, to ensure accurate forecasting, flagging challenges and opportunities;
Coordinate and document all program kick-off, review and close-out meetings, track action points for follow-up and record/document all lessons learned;
Prepare for and participate in complex board meetings and update board members of program progress against indicators and milestones, as well as program support needs.
NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Lead the development of concept notes and proposals, coordinating across departments, with the region and HQ, engaging particularly with the Program Performance and Quality (PAQ) team, technical advisors, program leads and finance to ensure the production of high quality proposals that are reflective of Mercy Corps and donor strategic objectives, are operationally viable and accurately reflect the cost of doing business.
Ensure proposals and concept notes are developed in a timely manner and with realistic deadlines, and that these are communicated and understood by stakeholders both internal to the office as well as the region and HQ.
Coordinate both internally and externally, to ensure that prior to submission all proposals are reviewed and approved by management and HQ, as appropriate.
Lead on modification of programs in response to changing contexts and implementation realities.
Support the Grants Management Director and Senior Grants Manager in tracking funding opportunities, including calls for funding progress of proposals, submission deadlines, financing available. Ensure all appropriate donor and Mercy Corps proposal formats are available in country.
FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT
Ensure programs are executed in alignment with the donor agreement and the applicable donor regulations, staying abreast of changes in the regulatory environment related to donor/grant compliance.
Ensure that key contributing staff and partners have a clear understanding of donor requirements and expectations at all stages of the grant cycle.
Provide support and training to the field teams to ensure that Mercy Corps Project Management minimum standards, including complex program management, are met.
In coordination with the Senior Grants Manager and Finance, ensure comprehensive monthly BvA meetings and lead grant review meetings presenting up to date information, identifying issues to be addressed and following up on action points.
Support the finance team with budget development and ensure consistency with program planning.
Support to Value for Money (VFM) initiatives across Mercy Corps Syria.
OTHER TASKS
Produce other information and communications products for both internal and external audiences as required.
As delegated, act as focal point for all queries and information requests from Mercy Corps and donors.
Represent Mercy Corps to donors and other key stakeholders, as required.
Supervisory Responsibility
None.
Accountability
Reports Directly to: Grants Management Director; maintains functional link with Department Heads, Area Directors
Works Directly with: Each department: Program Teams, Finance Department, MEL, Operations and Security & Access, the HAT, Headquarters teams.
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Minimum Qualifications & Transferable Skills
5+ years of experience related to humanitarian or developmental work, including:
Preparing writing and analysis on programmatic activities;
Basic budget development and management experience;
Managing work plans;
Representing programs with donors and external stakeholders.
At least 2 years’ experience working on grant management in a senior leadership role
Excellent writing and communication skills required.
Ability to produce and edit documents under deadline pressure.
Ability to coordinate funding proposals and progress reports from key institutional donors (USG BHA, DRL, FCDO, Sida, ECHO, EC. etc.).
Strong financial literacy, able to develop budgets, budget narratives and provide detailed analysis of BvAs
Experience with monitoring and evaluation and other learning efforts.
Strong understanding of key humanitarian principles and good practices.
Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
Ability to efficiently manage competing priorities with limited supervisor input.
Willingness and ability to travel frequently to Mercy Corps project sites and field locations, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.
Experience working in a multi-cultural setting.
Graduate degree in a relevant field preferred.
Experience working in the Middle East region and Syrian context preferred.
[email protected] certified preferred.
Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in Arabic or Kurdish is a plus.
Strong organization skills with attention to detail
Success Factors
The successful candidate will combine exceptional organizational abilities and writing skills with good humor under pressure. S/he will learn and move between all departments to consolidate essential information for accurately reporting Mercy Corps activities in Syria. S/he will be able to capture strategy, technical methodology, and planning in to concise and clear documents in new proposal development. The candidate will be organized and maintain a clear electronic and paper filing system. S/he will take the time to learn and understand donor compliance and help ensure best practices are upheld throughout the entire grants management process. The successful candidate will be able to ultimately be able to provide constructive input to large relief programs and therefore, must be willing to learn from others. In particular, best practices in cross cutting issues including accountability, gender and protection. S/he must be focused on capacity building of national staff; have strong program support and information management skills.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Amman and it requires up to 40% travel to all program implementation sites, security permitting and as required for coordination and reporting/proposal drafting purposes. Personnel in this location are expected to follow all security protocols. This is an unaccompanied position.
Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps’ policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.
Ongoing Learning
In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.
We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.
Safeguarding & Ethics
Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme