Head of Grants and Contracts

• Provides strategic leadership and oversight of the grants and contracts portfolio throughout the award lifecycle.
• Leads post-award management processes and ensures compliance with donor regulations, contractual obligations, and organizational policies.
• Oversee the development, review, and monitoring of project budgets and coordinates the annual consolidated budgeting process.
• Monitors portfolio performance and expenditure to ensure effective utilization of resources and compliance with donor requirements.
• Leads contract, subaward, and amendment negotiations and administration in collaboration with relevant departments.
• Strengthens grants management systems, policies, internal controls, and processes to enhance operational effectiveness and mitigate risk.
• Oversees subrecipient due diligence, risk assessments, monitoring, compliance reviews, and capacity strengthening initiatives.
• Ensures organizational readiness for donor reviews, audits, and assessments, and support audit preparedness activities.
• Prepares and presents periodic reports on grants portfolio performance to senior management and the Board.
• Ensures effective collaboration with project teams, investigators, directors, support departments, donors, government ministries, auditors, and implementing partners.
• Leads workforce planning, coaching, mentoring, and performance management within the department.
• Drives continuous improvement initiatives and the adoption of technology solutions that enhance grants management and operational efficiency.
• Represents the organization in engagements with donors, partners, and other key stakeholders as required.

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Public Health, or any other relevant field.
• Minimum of five years’ experience in a senior management position with responsibility for grants, contracts, or research administration.
• Demonstrated experience in grants and contracts management within the nonprofit, research, programmen and/or international development sector.
• Extensive experience in financial management, budgeting, forecasting, and donor financial reporting.
• Strong knowledge of donor regulations, compliance requirements, and award management practices for agencies such as NIH, CDC, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, WHO, EDCTP, the Gates Foundation, and other international donors.
• Proven experience managing complex donor-funded portfolios and multi-partner awards.
• Excellent analytical, financial management, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with senior stakeholders.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, and experience using grants management systems and databases.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Demonstrated leadership, team management, coaching, and capacity-building skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams and foster strong internal and external partnerships.

Suitably qualified candidates are invited to apply. However, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted