Senior Partnerships Finance Manager

Background: The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND:

The Syria crisis is often described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of the Cold War. Inside Syria, 7.6 million people are internally displaced and 12.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 4.8 million in hard-to-reach areas. There are 4 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. This is no short-term humanitarian episode. The devastating human consequences to huge numbers of people will endure for decades. The destruction of relationships, communities, livelihoods, homes and infrastructure will take years to repair.

IRC is offering a robust humanitarian response to the Syria crisis. With an annual budget in excess of $140 million and a rapidly expanding portfolio, supported by more than 1,250 staff in the region, IRC is undertaking programs in Syria and the neighboring countries of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in the fields of health, child protection, education, women’s protection and empowerment, NFI and food distribution, cash assistance, water and sanitation, and livelihood programming. Working in coordination with the humanitarian community and the Government of Jordan, the IRC’s assistance programs for Syrian refugees in Jordan include both camp-based and urban-based refugee assistance. Our work in these challenging settings gives rise to some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary humanitarian action, including questions of access, security, funding and coordination.

Position Overview

The Senior Partnerships Finance Manager is a key position for the Partnerships Department which provides support to IRC programs implemented inside Syria and Jordan. The position is primarily responsible for providing oversight and day-to-day financial management of the IRC Partnerships Department’s sub-awardees, in very close coordination and cooperation with the IRC’s internal Finance staff. The position will be responsible for capacity building for sub-awardees in the region to build their financial management and administrative capacity, in coordination with the partners, Partnerships Department staff, and IRC Finance staff. Senior Partnerships Finance Manager will work in close collaboration with staff in the Program teams, the Grants and Finance teams. The Senior Partnerships Finance Manager will provide support to the Partnerships Department to review sub-awardee budgets at the proposal stage, participate in pre-award vetting processes, document all financial matters related to sub-awardees’ finances to assure audit readiness at all times, and manage sub-awardee finances documents/reports including budget review, financial report review, providing guidance and training related to finance to sub-awardees in order to strengthen their capacity. The Senior Partnerships Finance Manager acts as the focal point for financial and compliance aspects of Partnerships Department for sub-awardees, including ensuring high-quality financial monitoring of sub-awardees. This position reports directly to the Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan, with an indirect reporting line to the Deputy Finance Controller.

Specific Responsibilities:

Financial Management

§ Participate in partner’s proposal review and modification process focusing on sub-awardee budget (both budget and budget narratives); review in coordination with Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan , Partnerships Manager and technical coordinators

§ Supervise the verification of partners’ financial reports and supporting documentation, making sure that expenses are reasonable, allowable and allocable to the approved budget and comply with donor’s regulations. Communicate findings to partners, and ensuring timely follow-up to provide solutions and documenting the findings. Reviews must be based on partner risk and sampling or review of full documentation, as required.

§ Ensure proactive communication with sub-awardees about the submission of their financial reports according to terms of their sub-awards. Ensure tracking of sub-awardee submission of financial reports, communicating delays to the Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan.

§ Review and validate spending plans from partners against reported expenditures, following-up with sub-awardees as needed.

§ Submit summary of reported expenditures and spending plans to Program Coordinator-Sub-Awards and Technical Coordinators, outlining follow-up steps.

§ Making sure that the sub-awardee financial reports are approved (signed) by the appropriate authority within IRC, preparing the Journal Voucher, fully coded and submitting to the Jordan Finance Department in hard and soft copy for posting into the SUN system. Respond to questions that arise from the Jordan finance team and IRC HQ regarding submitted financial reports.

§ Prepare Payment Requests for Sub-Awardee payment (advances and reimbursements), both from Jordan bank account and HQ bank account, respond to questions that arise from the Jordan finance team and IRC HQ regarding submitted payment requests. Ensure timely follow-up on the status of payments release, tracking them and informing sub-awardees in a timely manner on the status of the payments. Follow up with IRC HQ and sub-awardees confirm transfer and receipt of payments respectively.

§ Ensure the financial monitoring and spot check visits to sub-awardee offices is conducted according to IRC requirements and standards. Ensure monitoring visit plans drafted and submitted ahead of visits to Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan to review and share monitoring visit reports in a timely manner to partners, related Program team, and Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan.

§ Participate in case management meetings with the program, finance, supply chain and other staff to respond to regular issues as they arise within partner management and ensuring properly coordinated and managed responses to sub-awardee issues as they arise.

§ Reconciling the sub-grantees advances on monthly basis, reports to the Deputy Finance Controller on all over-due, unliquidated advances, update on monthly basis all tracking sheets for sub-grants finances.

§ Ensure that a sound, accurate and organized archiving system is in place, both hard and soft (electronic) copies for all financial reports and their supporting documents.

• Work with Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan and Finance team to collaborate internal and external audit to ensure proper compliance with all regulations and to ensure that all sub-awardee files in hard and soft copy are 100% audit ready at all times.

§ In coordination with Partnerships Manager and Deputy Finance Controller, obtaining approval from the Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan, develop or revise sub-awardee financial templates (including proposal budget and budget narrative formats, monthly/quarterly reporting templates, and other documents, as need).

§ Contribute to provision of guidance notes to current and potential sub-awardees for use of appropriate templates, overall budget drafting and submission as part of calls for proposals sent to potential partners. Depending on nature of call, provide appropriate level of support current and potential sub-awardees to ensure proposal budgets and budget narratives meet IRC and donor requirements within set deadlines for submission.

Sub-Grant modifications

§ Review all sub-awardee budget modifications (both budget and budget narratives) in coordination with technical coordinators, and Partnerships Manager ensuring clear action points for follow-up are communicated.

Vetting and Capacity-Building of Partners

§ Ensure Pre-Award Financial Assessment (PAAs) is conducted for all new potential partners, as well as update the PAAs for all existing partners, on annual basis. Report to the Deputy Finance Controller and the Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan on the findings and provide recommendations for improvement. Support in developing risk management action plan and suggest corrective actions to address/mitigate risks identified during the PAA process.

§ Design, update and deliver financial management training for partners’ staff, working closely with the Partnerships Capacity Strengthening Specialist, and IRC’s Finance, Human Resources and Supply Chain units on the training materials according to the needs in order to build the organizational capacity of the partner.

§ Coordinate with Capacity Building Manager to provide compliance training to partners’ staff.

§ Conduct finance and general compliance monitoring visits to partners and prepare monitoring report and action plan to submit to Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan and share with partners in timely manner for each visit.

Management

§ Take the lead on the finance and compliance section of the Grant Opening, Review and Closing meetings, making sure that the partners are fully aware of donor regulations, all financial reporting requirements in terms of required documentation, reporting templates and deadlines.

§ Represents Sub-Grants Finance in Sub-Grants Workshops, being the key facilitator and presenter for all Sub-Grants’ finance related sessions.

Staff Management and Development

§ Coach, train, and mentor staff with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and providing professional development guidance.

· Offer leadership support for successful adherence by staff to IRC’s Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures.

Other

§ Provide assistance with requests from IRC headquarters as directed by the Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan

§ Any other duties as assigned by the Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan

Job Requirements:

(Applicants missing any of the below requirements will not be considered for the position)

§ Fluency in Arabic and English.

§ Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, finance, or any related field.

§ Minimum 7 years of progressive work experience in a non-profit setting overseeing and managing partners’ projects funded by major institutional donors, particularly USAID and DfID.

§ Detailed knowledge of US Government procurement rules and regulations, OMB Circulars, and related administrative guidelines and requirements associated with funding from OFDA or USAID in particular. Knowledge of EU, UN, or DfID rules and regulation will be a plus.

§ Experience in training, capacity building, and mentoring of staff, NGOs/CBOs.

§ Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present to groups of all sizes.

§ Self-starter with ability to work independently and part of a team.

§ Demonstrated ability to work effectively under pressure and handle multiple simultaneous tasks and demands coming from multiple sources.

§ Willing to travel within the Middle-East region.

§ Hard-working, sharp and detailed oriented.

§ Exceptional interpersonal skills; tact, patience, diplomacy, and appropriate assertiveness.

§ Proficiency in MS Office software suite – including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

§ Experience working with databases and/or other tracking systems.

Key Working Relationships:

§ Position Reports to: Deputy Director of Partnerships Syria/Jordan

§ Position directly supervises: Finance Officer & Finance Assistant

§ Indirect Reporting: indirect reporting to the Deputy Finance Controller