The Program Manager, Food Security and Livelihoods, working closely with his/her Hunger and Livelihoods team, Country Offices and Finance staff, leads on the management of a portfolio of active USAID Food for Peace-funded and other projects and assists in the ongoing development of systems and procedures to ensure the effective flow of resources to Save the Children International (SCI) and other Save the Children members in the hunger and livelihoods technical sector. This work must ensure donor expectations are met and programs are successfully implemented. The Program Manager will also participate in new business development and representation of programs to donors and key stakeholders.
Essential Duties, Responsibilities and Impact
Portfolio Monitoring and Support (80%)
General
- Work collaboratively with project teams, Country Offices, SCI HQ, other SC members, and relevant partners and subgrantees.
- Serve as main point of contact on those resources for Country Offices and SCUS stakeholders (i.e., TA providers, program officers, other Business Teams, Finance, Grants and Contracts, HR, etc.).
- Represent Food Security portfolio, as needed, at meetings involving USAID-funded cooperating agencies, multi-lateral organizations, donors, and other PVOs.
- Build relationships with USAID/FFP desk officers.
- Complete all data entry and follow all processes to ensure funds, and as appropriate, commodities, can be tracked on SCUS and SCI systems (including AMS and Agresso).
- Adapt to new processes and systems as they are developed.
- As needed, be the key point of contact for donor on resources provided to SCI and ensure timely and effective communications on matters related to their resources.
- Monitor the implementation of SCUS projects, identifying issues and risks, working with SCI and relevant technical leads to resolve them or escalating them as required.
- Ensure all donor communications, requests, amendments, etc. are communicated effectively and quickly by the relevant SCI offices.
- Support Country Offices in starting up new SCUS funded projects, ensuring support (such as technical advice, capacity building, donor information) required from SCUS is identified and liaising with the relevant SCUS teams, such as IP, Finance, and Account Managers to meet those needs.
- Coordinate with Finance, Country Offices and relevant technical teams as applicable to ensure all project closeouts are managed effectively and that all issues are resolved.
- Complete Closeout Checklist and close awards in all systems.
Budget and Financial Management
- Monitor procurements to ensure compliance and appropriate completion; lead procurement process as appropriate.
- Negotiate, prepare, and process budgets, including annual Title II PREP budgets, and amendments as necessary.
- Work with Finance and relevant Hunger and Livelihoods technical staff leads to monitor rate of spending in Country Offices and SCUS Home Office including charges such as personnel, travel, consultancy, subgrant agreements, and troubleshoot and escalate as needed.
- Run and review Life of Award reports and grant BvA reports to monitor spending. Work with technical, Country Office, Finance and HQ finance staff to resolve issues in timely and accurate manner
- Monitor project-specific Home Office LOE and timekeeping. Coordinate and communicate project-specific LOE budget splits to Senior Director, Hunger and Livelihoods and Home Office staff.
- Draft subgrant agreements to SC Member countries or partners as needed, including wire transfers and ad hoc support.
- Manage SCUS consultancy agreements, as needed, including wire transfers and ad hoc support.
Commodity Management
- Track commodity pipelines working with the Food Operations Technical Unit of the Department of Humanitarian Response and ensure that information is consistent across multiple reporting lines.
- Revise donor commodity request documents.
- Ensure commodity internal management documents are up to date.
- Identify and raise up any issues or concerns to appropriate stakeholders.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
- Ensure consistency of reporting across documents related to targets and achievements.
- Track assessments, studies, and evaluations, ensuring that copies of final reports are reported and distributed appropriately.
- Track action plans related to data quality audits.
Donor Reporting
- Coordinate the preparation and submission of required donor reports, including but not limited to, annual results reports, quarterly reports, assessments, evaluations and special reports, working with Country Offices to produce the reports and coordinating with technical staff to ensure the content reviews are undertaken as appropriate.
- Support workplan development including, but not limited to, monitoring and evaluation/IPTTs, intervention design, etc.
- Support requests to donor regarding issues of substantial involvement.
- Coordinate with Finance as needed on financial reporting ensuring a review of all financial reports prior to donor submission.
- Coordinate with Resource Development and/or the appropriate Account Manager on submission of donor reports to private donors.
Continuous Improvement, Capacity Building & Knowledge Management (5%)
- Support departmental leadership to improve award management systems, policies, procedures, and knowledge management (proposals, budgets, capacity statements and related award documents).
- Participate in developing best practices, sharing resources, and ongoing trainings.
- Participate in FSL and departmental meetings.Resource Mobilization and Proposal Development Support (15%)
- Draft or contribute to proposal budgets.
- Serve as the cost coordinator on select proposals.
- Draft sections of proposals (capability statements, budget narrative, management plan, reps and certs, etc.) as assigned.
- Draft, edit and coordinate staffing documents for proposals (1420 Biodatas, CVs, Bio-statements, Skills Matrices, etc).
- Support country-specific proposal development as requested (support cost coordinator, review narrative and budgets, etc.).
Required Background and Experience, Skills and Behaviors
Minimum 3-5 years of experience required, with at least one year of demonstrated experience working on a USAID-funded program. Bachelor’s degree required in relevant area of study.
Requires a professional level of functional program management and financial monitoring skills, attention to detail to support complex tasks, programs or projects, and problem-solving skills. Accountable for day to day execution of job. Organizes self and manages time to get things done. May exercise independent judgment and discretion on operational matters related to specific tasks. Requires minimal supervision to review work progress and results. Keeps manager informed of important issues. Builds effective relationships within their immediate or peer workgroup. Ability to travel, occasionally, on short notice.
Required:
- Previous experience supporting or managing a USAID-funded program
- Knowledge of USG rules and regulations
- Proactive approach to work and ability to identify and implement effective processes for achieving outcomes
- Excellent organizational skills – ability to juggle large amounts of details while still maintaining big picture
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Excellent MS Excel skills
- Attention to detail
- Ability to follow through on tasks to completion
- A high degree of flexibility and adaptability in order to respond to changing needs; comfort dealing with ambiguity
- Committed team player with strong interpersonal skills
- Commitment to goals and values of Save the Children
- Ability to travel nationally and internationally to liaise with colleagues in Connecticut and to provide Country Offices with project management support for start-up, implementation and close out of projects.Desired:
- Fluency in French and/or Spanish
