Summary
Date Posted: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
The Vines Project, implemented by CRS Uganda, is a five-year, $13 million Food for Progress project that will make Uganda the world’s next leading supplier of high-quality vanilla. Vines will leverage the expertise of CRS and its partners to enhance the production of safe, pure vanilla and develop sustainable market links with US vanilla companies, directly transforming the lives of 16,200 farmers, 836 supply chain actors and create 15,820 new jobs to reach 32,856 vanilla stakeholders. The Vines strategy reflects best practices in sustainable development and will leave Uganda with a robust vanilla farming community resilient to the boom/bust nature of the market and a cadre of private sector agricultural extensionists to support more sophisticated production, processing, and marketing needs.

Job Summary
The successful candidate will lead, manage and supervise all aspects of program operations for the VINES Project. Reporting to and in coordination with the Chief of Party, you will be responsible for generating financial reports (including donor reports), tracking expenses, overseeing the administration of sub-awards, managing the solicitation and award process for the Vanilla innovation and expansion fund (VIEF), managing grants and compliance staff at the Kampala office and supporting staff in field offices. Forecasting for donor reporting, sub-recipient management and compliance; as well as operational risk management to increase the effectiveness of program execution.

You will lead operational excellence with a focus in the areas of procurement and contracting, general management, and operations. This position requires strong demonstrated experience in the areas of program and budget management, as well as a strong knowledge of donor, especially USG, contracts/grant agreements, funding mechanisms and requirements The position will provide direct supervision to the VIEF Project officer and Administrative officer, with a strong emphasis in mentoring, and coaching.

Job Responsibilities
Management and Administration for VINES Project:
• Use appropriate project management tools to superivse the planning, reviewing, and tracking of progress on project implementation and utilization of project resources
• Identify management system weaknesses, establish priorities, provide recommendations for improved operations performance and ensure compliance.
• Ensure timely dissemination of new initiatives and policies and monitoring of implementation and compliance.
• Participate in donor calls and assist the COP to respond to donor requests and to proactively raise issues and questions to the donor on grant management issues.
• Coordinating internal project, CP and other internal CRS staff efforts to further support financial and operational systems strengthening to project sub-awardees.


Financial
• Lead and supervise participatory monthly budget analyses with technical leads, and partners to ensure resources are being deployed on time and on budget to meet workplan and targets and to drive accurate monthly forecasts.
• Prepare and upload the cash forecast/spending plan for VINES.
• Lead and supervise, with the support of finance team, the monitoring of budget variance closely and ensure proactive communication and action regarding contractual budget flexibility.
• Lead and supervise the timely review and submission of donor financial reporting, including the commodity report and forecast, and quarterly and annual reports

• Lead and supervise the budget revision/amendment process and oversee the production of monthly budget variance analytics ensuring collaborative participation of finance team in support of the COP and technical leads to ensure budget is realistic and appropriate to meet contractual workplan and logframe indicator targets.

Sub-award and sub-contract management oversight:
• Manage and supervise the development, approval and signing of the contractual agreements between CRS and the vendors and consultants to include the negotiation and execution in coordination with the relevant departments of CRS.
• Lead the proactive coordination of all contributors to the contractual donor reports (internal and external, program and finance) ensuring they understand the timeline and adhere to deadlines.
• Ensure adequate sub-award and sub-contracting development processes, monitoring and management systems are in place to ensure effective and timely issuance, reporting and oversight of all sub-awards/sub-contracts in line with project financing instrument.
• Take lead in solicitation of grants applications for the Vanilla innovation and expansion fund, - conduct due diligence, and provide guidance and technical oversight during the award process.
• Innovatively manage the Vanilla innovation and expansion fund (VEIF), from solicitation through contracting/award, ensuring that there’s proper guidelines and all necessary templates for effective utilization of the grants.
• Management of VIEF post award processes that include roll-out, coordination, partners’ monitoring, review of partners semi-annual financial/narrative reports and provision of feedback back to the partners.
• Monitor the effective oversight and support to recipients of sub-awards and sub-contracts by the project to ensure consistent compliance with the terms of their agreements including financial management and compliance with donor regulations;
• Development of MoUs with partners and follow up on executions in line with CRS and donor requirements.
• Monitor the timely submission of accurate financial and activity reporting by sub-award recipients, including training and mentorship for key sub-awardee staff in preparations and review of standard USAID financial reporting.

Audit Follow-up
• In collaboration with CRS Uganda’s Grants Management Unit, ensure that the Consortia provide accurate and timely inputs into the program and project audits.
• In close collaboration with CRS Head of Operations, ensure timely closure of audit recommendations; document and ensure discussion and preparation of a plan of action.
• Monitor implementation of action/corrective action plans relative to both internal and external audits and report back to COP and CRS Head of Operations.

Required Education Background and Experience
• Master’s degree in in international development, finance, business administration or similar field required.
• Minimum 5 years relevant work experience with an NGO, of which 3 years should be in USG finance and compliance.
• Experience managing USG and/or other donor grant awards
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Personal Skills, Knowledge and Abilities
• Excellent command of spoken and written English.
• Demonstrated ability in building capacity and providing training and technical assistance.
• Proven ability to be an effective supervisor of staff of varying levels of responsibility, when applicable.
• Proficient in MS Office (Word, Excel and other appropriate software).
• Self-guided, strong organizational and planning skills
• Ability to work independently and under pressure.
• Excellent communication, coaching and facilitation skills.
• Good planning, organizational and time management skills.
• very good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ethical conduct and ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.

Travel
Require Willingness and able to travel up to 30%.

Key Working Relationships
• Supervisory: VIEF Project officer and Admin Officer
• Internal: Country Representative, Chief of Party, Head of Operations, Finance Manager, Head of Programs, SCM, HR Manager, Risk & Compliance Manager.
• External: Partners, Vendors, Service Providers.

Agency-Wide Competencies (for all CRS staff)
These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.
• Serves with Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship.

Disclaimer Clause: This job description is not an exhaustive list of skills, effort, duties and responsibilities associated with the position. CRS’ recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation, CRS takes all allegations of abuse and exploitation seriously.

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 60

Level of Education: Postgraduate Degree

Job application procedure
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