Awards, Grants, and Partnership Manager

Job Posting Organization:
Relief International (RI) is an international non-profit organization established to partner with communities affected by conflict, climate change, and disasters. The organization aims to save lives, build resilience, and promote long-term health and well-being. With a workforce of over 4,000 staff and local volunteers, RI operates in 14 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, focusing on Health and Nutrition, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), Education, and Livelihoods programming. RI has been operational in Sudan since 2004, implementing various programs that integrate health services with protection, WASH, nutrition, and livelihoods through both direct implementation and partnerships.

Job Overview:
The Awards, Grants, and Partnership Manager for Sudan and Chad plays a crucial role in the strategic development, management, and growth of Relief International's portfolio across both countries. This position is responsible for leading the full awards management cycle, which includes business development, proposal design, implementation, reporting, compliance, partnership management, and close-out. The role requires adherence to donor regulations and RI policies while enhancing organizational systems, supporting quality programming, and fostering effective partnerships. The post-holder will serve as a key liaison with donors, partners, and internal stakeholders, providing strategic oversight of awards, grants, compliance, and partnerships in a rapidly evolving humanitarian context. The ability to manage both strategic priorities and operational details is essential for supporting the continued growth and quality of the country portfolio.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Accountability and Complexity: Balance multiple priorities while ensuring timely and accurate task delivery. Lead and coordinate awards, grants, and partnership management across Sudan and Chad throughout the award lifecycle. Ensure compliance with donor regulations, contractual obligations, RI policies, and audit requirements. Manage competing priorities and deadlines across a complex multi-donor portfolio. Provide strategic advice to senior leadership on portfolio performance, compliance risks, donor engagement, and business development opportunities. Serve as the principal focal point for donor communications related to award management, implementation, reporting, and modifications. Strengthen systems, processes, and coordination mechanisms that support effective awards and partnership management across both country programs.
• Awards Management: Oversee the full award lifecycle for all grants and contracts in Sudan and Chad, ensuring compliance with donor and organizational requirements. Maintain accurate awards tracking systems, reporting schedules, and grant documentation. Lead award start-up, regular monthly reviews, modifications, and close-out processes, ensuring timely completion of all donor and organizational requirements. Coordinate internal award review processes and facilitate cross-departmental collaboration to address implementation challenges and compliance risks. Support audit readiness and ensure implementation of audit recommendations and corrective actions. Ensure effective records management, documentation, and archiving of all award-related files and communications. Provide technical guidance to program and support teams on awards management tools, procedures, and donor regulations.
• Donor Compliance: Act as the primary resource on donor regulations, compliance requirements, and RI awards management procedures. Ensure proposals, budgets, reports, modifications, and implementation processes comply with donor and organizational requirements. Monitor compliance risks and recommend corrective actions to maintain award performance and accountability. Promote a strong culture of donor compliance and quality assurance across program and support functions.
• Donor Reporting and Communication: Oversee donor reporting processes across Sudan and Chad, ensuring high-quality and timely submission of all deliverables. Coordinate and quality assure donor reporting, consolidating inputs from program, MEAL, finance, and support teams. Maintain effective communication with donors regarding program progress, reporting requirements, amendments, and approvals. Coordinate donor visits, meetings, presentations, and briefing materials in collaboration with relevant teams. Ensure reporting schedules and donor communication records remain accurate and up to date.
• Proposal Development: Lead the development and submission of high-quality proposals, concept notes, and strategic funding opportunities for Sudan and Chad. Coordinate design processes involving program, technical, operations, finance, and HQ stakeholders. Support donor engagement, opportunity tracking, and portfolio growth in alignment with country and organizational priorities. Ensure proposal packages are technically sound, operationally feasible, evidence-based, and donor compliant. Support value-for-money approaches and promote effective program design and resource allocation. Facilitate Go/No-Go decision-making processes and contribute to strategic funding positioning efforts.
• Partnership Selection and Management: Lead partnership management processes across Sudan and Chad, including partner identification, mapping, selection, due diligence, contracting, monitoring, and close-out. Serve as the primary focal point for partnership coordination and localization efforts. Ensure partner agreements comply with donor and organizational requirements. Strengthen relationships with national and international partners, government institutions, and other stakeholders. Support partner performance monitoring, capacity strengthening, and organizational development initiatives. Ensure effective partnership documentation, compliance monitoring, and risk management throughout the partnership lifecycle.
• Capacity Building and Information Data Management: Strengthen staff understanding of awards, compliance, partnership, and donor management processes. Deliver training and mentoring to program and support teams on key donor requirements and RI procedures. Support effective award monitoring, financial oversight, and information management. Establish and maintain robust filing, documentation, and knowledge management systems. Promote continuous learning and the sharing of donor guidance, tools, templates, and best practices across Sudan and Chad.
• People Management & Capacity Strengthening: Provide effective leadership, supervision, mentoring, and performance management for direct reports. Foster a collaborative, accountable, and high-performing team culture. Promote cross-departmental coordination and strengthen teamwork across program and support functions. Support staff professional development and capacity strengthening initiatives.
• Safeguarding, Gender & Inclusion: Uphold and promote Relief International's safeguarding commitments and policies. Ensure all activities are implemented in accordance with safeguarding, protection, and Do No Harm principles. Maintain a safe and accountable environment for communities, partners, and staff.

Required Qualifications:
Essential criteria include a relevant Bachelor and/or Master degree, a minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in awards, grants, compliance, business development, and partnership management within humanitarian or development organizations. Candidates should demonstrate experience managing complex multi-donor portfolios and funding mechanisms, possess strong knowledge of major institutional donors (including US Government donors, European donors, UN agencies, and other institutional funding bodies), and have proven experience leading proposal development, donor reporting, and awards management processes. Experience managing partnerships, sub-awards, due diligence, and partner capacity strengthening initiatives is also required. A strong understanding of donor compliance requirements, risk management, audit preparedness, and internal controls is essential, along with excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, strong analytical, organizational, and stakeholder management skills, and experience working in complex humanitarian or conflict-affected environments.

Educational Background:
Candidates must possess a relevant Bachelor and/or Master degree to qualify for this position. This educational background is essential to ensure that the candidate has the necessary theoretical knowledge and understanding of the complexities involved in managing awards, grants, and partnerships in humanitarian contexts.

Experience:
The position requires a minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in awards, grants, compliance, business development, and partnership management within humanitarian or development organizations. This level of experience is crucial for effectively managing the complexities of multi-donor portfolios and ensuring compliance with various donor regulations and organizational policies.

Languages:
The mandatory language for this position is English, with strong written and verbal communication skills required. Additionally, knowledge of French and Arabic is considered desirable, particularly for candidates with previous experience in Sudan or similar complex contexts, as these languages may facilitate better communication with local partners and stakeholders.

Additional Notes:
The position is full-time and involves significant responsibilities in managing awards and partnerships across Sudan and Chad. The role may require international travel and engagement with various stakeholders, including donors and local partners. Compensation and benefits details are typically provided during the hiring process, and candidates should be prepared for a dynamic work environment that requires adaptability and resilience.