Regional Award Manager, Asia (Homebased in Asia)

The Opportunity

The purpose of this post is to support the Award Management team in the planning, securing and managing of both development and humanitarian awards. The position involves supporting award information management and compliance with systems and processes. This is a highly collaborative role, working daily with stakeholders throughout Save the Children across the world, to facilitate a culture of strong operational and program quality.

As a key member of the Asia Operations team, you will work closely with the Head of Award Management (Asia) to ensure that the members, Country Offices and clusters (MST, Mekong) in the Asia region have strong Award Management – planning, securing and managing their funding portfolios and sub-grants effectively – in line with the SCI Quality Framework and donor requirements.

You will support and help manage with the Head of Award Management regional learning & capacity building initiatives; provide compelling data-based insights and analysis to senior leadership as needed; and be a regional ‘super user’ and community-of-practice champion for the online global Award Management System. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, you will be will be expected to work flexibly outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly. You may be called upon to deploy for a humanitarian response at short notice.

Key Areas of Accountability:

Developing self and others; Working effectively with others

• Support the Regional Head of Award Management to support the development and performance of the Award Management team
• Support the delivery of capacity building both within the AM team and across the Country Office for directly received donor funding
• Carry out orientations and staff trainings for award management procedures, donor requirements etc… for Save the Children staff and partner organisations to ensure Directly Received award management is of high quality
• Build relationships across the Country Office, the Region and the Centre and escalate issues as required

Communicating with impact, negotiation and coordination

• Support Resource Mobilisation teams in the region by ensuring timely AMS set up, review and approvals at key pre-award stage gates (Opportunity and Proposal approvals). Acts as the Funding Office Provide advice on donor compliance requirements and potential program delivery risks related to that donor to support Resource Mobilisation in high quality proposals.
• Coordinate the processes for donor reporting to ensure that reports are high quality, delivered on time and supported by auditable records.
• Maintain effective communications with Save the Children members regarding donor related issues
• Lead Award Kick off meetings to ensure that all award information is shared effectively with relevant staff, including field offices and partners
• Lead Close out process and work with members to ensure awards are closed out on time
• Coordinate with auditors as necessary

Compliance (systems, processes, donor)

• Clear understanding of SCI processes, and support teams across implementing offices to ensure all opportunities, proposals, contracts and amendments follow SCI processes
• Stay up to date on key donor requirements to be able to support implementing offices in donor compliance, e.g. UNHCR and WFP agreement templates, policies, guidance, terms and conditions with advice from the Centre Donor Compliance Manager.
• Ensure that all appropriate donor formats are available in-country and staff have a clear understanding of donor requirements/expectations throughout the award cycle. Maintain donor OneNet and DRL pages for UNHCR and WFP.
• Provide second line support to implementing offices on the donor requirements and what this means through the awards cycle incl. at kick off, amendments, reporting, and close out, and any issue escalation (Awards in country as first line).
• Liaise with Centre Donor Compliance Manager for any compliance training needs or escalation support requirements
• Ensure potential issues and amendment requests are flagged promptly to the Head. Support country offices in their preparation and review donor waiver/derogation requests
• Ensure all AMS records are an accurate reflection of current award status at all times, and have all required documentation attached
• Ensure all partners and sub-award agreements undergo legal vetting, are input into and approved through AMS, and work with relevant staff to ensure relevant donor requirements are understood by implementing partners (this may include capacity building

Award monitoring and analysis

• Input to the review of fully costed budgets for award proposals from an award delivery perspective
• Review and coordinate agreement, amendment and close out approvals from the Regional Office perspective, to ensure compliance with requirements. Support Implementing Offices in their activation of PALs
• Ability to analyse financial issues i.e. variances and resolve by collaborating with other teams
• Strong financial skills including monitoring of spend across award portfolio
• Conduct monthly BVA and progress review at Regional level for high risk SCI Directly Received awards (participate in Award Review Meetings in CO as required, or conduct regional portfolio review to follow up on performance and risk).
• Actively monitor income claim follow up with donors in AMS schedules for the Directly Received portfolio and work with Finance and Operations to ensure any impact on working capital and cash position is well managed, with clear actions agreed with Implementing Office teams

Award Management leadership, portfolio management and strategy

• Ensure award management systems and processes are successfully implemented, and key controls are in place to support effective portfolio management and compliance with donor requirements.
• Ensure regular award monitoring for the directly received portfolio across implementing offices in the region, and ensure regular portfolio review of the regional Directly Received portfolio.
• Facilitate regular meetings with key stakeholders to ensure individual award performance is being tracked effectively, and that risks and issues are being recognised and action taken.
• Provide regular management information to the Head on the performance of the allocated portfolio.
• Support the Head to in the implementation of plans to address any performance issues identified through management information and KPI results for the Directly Received portfolio.

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information

Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/careers

Closing Date for Application: 31 Dec 2022

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.