The Specialist, Emergency Operations, Food Assistance, manages the proposal and agreement process for Save the Children’s in-kind and cash transfer food assistance and nutrition programs funded by the UN World Food Programme (WFP). Responsibilities include overseeing the submission, tracking and approval of relevant award documentation on Save the Children US (SCUS) and Save the Children International (SCI) online award management systems for WFP awards for a discrete set of countries. The Specialist is expected to effectively manage a portfolio of medium to high risk awards (risk defined by dollar value, funding mechanism and donor requirements) from start up to close out and work closely with his/her supervisor on implementation of high risk awards in accordance with Save the Children and donor guidelines. While the day-to-day responsibilities of the Specialist will be on management of WFP awards, the position may also include monitoring and engagement visits to country offices to support WFP program implementation, as well as deployment to humanitarian emergencies to provide surge capacity support appropriate to a given response.
Award Management (85%)
Proposal Development and Award Processing:
- Support call for proposal, opportunity tracking, and positioning/engagement discussions with WFP
- Conduct proposal development and review
- Coordinate and consolidate Technical Assistance, Finance and Contracts and Grants inputs and approvals for proposals
- Review and provide input into Field Level Agreements (FLA) and amendments (narratives, budgets, work plans) to ensure proposal packages are coherent and in line with submission requirements
- Track and facilitate approvals for FLAs and amendments
- Prepare, review, and ensure the posting of relevant WFP documentation on relevant internal systems, including budgets, agreements, fund summaries, and amendments
Technical Support and Donor Compliance:
- Monitor humanitarian/development context for current events and changes to operational environment and potential impacts on current or future programming (FEWSNET projections, new displacement, assessments, extreme weather conditions, etc.)
- Ensure Country Office (CO) capacity building support (such as technical advice, award management, donor information/compliance, SCUS structure) needed from SCUS is identified and coordinate with the relevant SCUS departments and staff (Food Operations Technical Unit (FOTU), International Programs (IP), Finance, and Account Managers) to meet those needs
- Monitor award implementation and reporting to ensure compliance with donor requirements, and provide needed compliance support to country offices
- Provide regular guidance to COs on navigating/resolving implementation issues, ad-hoc requests from WFP, and program quality concerns
- Develop resources and facilitate trainings for country office on donor requirements, as well as compliance to SCUS and SCI policies and procedures
- Update WFP account tracking and management tools
- Provide input into various WFP account presentations and reporting formats
Reporting and Financial Management:
- Track WFP reporting requirements and assist COs in report reviews prior to submission to donor
- Maintain regular communication with country offices regarding active programs and potential opportunities
- Coordinate with the FOTU and finance teams in the tracking and reporting of food commodities in portfolio
- Track and monitor award budget versus actual expenditures to ensure expense charges are allowable, allocable and reasonable; follow up to ensure any errors are corrected
- Track invoices submitted versus payments received for projects in portfolio
- Support completion of the SCI and SCUS Closeout Checklists and help ensure that awards in are closed/deactivated as required
- Escalate issues or risks as appropriate
Travel internationally to respond to critical humanitarian award management needs and emergencies (15%):
- Conduct period field visits to Save the Children country offices for proposal development and positioning for new opportunities, or to provide technical support and award management guidance to existing WFP programs
- Deploy in emergencies, as needed, in relevant capacity to Save the Children humanitarian responses worldwide
- Professional level of specialized knowledge to manage complex tasks, programs or projects.
- 3-5 years program and/or grant management experience in humanitarian/international development contexts
- Experience in proposal development, project management and budgeting
- Excellent inter-personal skills with the ability to work within large and diverse teams in frequently stressful environments
- Ability to manage a complex and varied workload, while adhering to tight deadlines
- Proficiency in MS Office suite and ability to master new systems and templates
- Excellent written and spoken English skills
- Willingness and ability to travel internationally as required (~15%)
Preferred Qualifications
- BA/BS in Humanitarian/International Affairs, Business Administration or related field
- Advanced degree
- Language skills in French and/or Arabic
- Experience with WFP or similar food programming, including cash and voucher programming
- Experience with a range of assessment techniques
- Experience with large, international NGO
- Field experience in humanitarian/development activities
- Meaningful work, with a knowledge that you are changing the lives of children all around the world
- A family friendly work environment
- Highly collaborative and innovative teams
- Generous paid vacation days, holidays, family leave days, and sick time
- Healthcare plans including medical, dental, and life insurance
- Retirement savings account with matching company contributions
- Structured and formalized management development and coaching programs for mid and senior level managers
- Extensive e-learning opportunities on a variety of topics offered through our affiliation with several prestigious universities as well as language learning opportunities.