JOB DESCRIPTION

Position: Regional Grants Manager

Division: Global Conservation Program

Reports to: Regional Business Manager with a dotted line of responsibility to the Director of Grants and Contracts Management

Location: Kigali, Rwanda

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is an international conservation NGO headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City working to save wildlife and wild lands and to meet global conservation challenges in over 60 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

To support the regional programs in East & Southern Africa and Madagascar & Western Indian Ocean, WCS seeks a dynamic, well‐organized, hard‐working, and committed team player to oversee grant administration in the region. The Regional Grants Manager will continually assess the status of grant implementation in the Regional Programs.

This position reports to the Regional Business Manager, with a dotted line of responsibility to the Director of Grants and Contracts Management. This position will liaise closely with country program staff and the country office finance/administrative staff. There will be some travel to WCS country offices within the region, and to WCS headquarters in New York (NY). The East & Southern Africa and Madagascar & Western Indian Ocean Regional Programs have country offices in the Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and Madagascar.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Oversee the administration and finances of grants in the region.
• Review country and regional‐level grant and contract proposal budgets, ensuring that the budgets cover costs and contribute to strengthening the Country and Regional Programs, working closing with the country office Finance Directors, noting that in some cases the Grants Manager will lead budget development; that budgets are in line with long‐term financial plans for the Country and Regional Program; and that budgets comply with WCS policies and undergo appropriate reviews.
• Working  with  relevant  NY  and  Regional  departments,  ensure  that  grant  proposal  budgets  are reviewed and approved in accordance with WCS signature authority policy.
• Review  all  grant  agreements and  contracts  within  the  regions  and  work  with  NY  and  Regional departments that are involved in the grant making process, such as fundraising, legal and finance, to support negotiation and final signature.
• Prepare sub‐agreements and regional sub grants, using the applicable template for the donor.
• Working with sub grant manager in NY provide, support in the assessment and monitoring of sub grantees. Coordinate sub grant compliance in the regions.
• Ensure regional grant administration is on track and support country‐level grant administration.
• Responsible  for  tracking  compliance  to  donor  requirements  with  the  assistance  of  NY‐based

compliance managers. This will include financial, human resources and procurement regulations, visibility and branding, etc., from proposal through grant close out.

• Prepare financial reports for regional grants, and review those completed by country offices which includes verifying the reports to the WCS Financial System.
• Prepare and review all internal tools related to grants management (such as Grant code request, Budget Follow-Up, …)
• Support grant audits in coordination with NY Finance and the Regional Controller, which can include

working with the external auditors.

• Support Country Programs in understanding WCS grant management processes, systems, tools, and donor compliance requirements.
• Engage as part of the WCS grants management team by collaborating with NY compliance managers and grants managers from other WCS regions, sharing and drawing from lessons learned.
• Following up with country office to ensure effort reports are on time and costs are properly allocated.
• Any other tasks assigned by the Regional Business Manager.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

The successful candidate must have excellent written and oral communication skills and be comfortable participating both as an effective contributor, leader and listener in group settings. S/He must be well organized, self‐motivated, resourceful, effective and efficient at coordinating multiple resources to get things done, with strong attention to detail; can work on multiple tasks at multiple levels and switch between them; can foresee and plan around obstacles.

• Bachelor degree required. Related program of study such as finance, accounting, or business required.
• Proven grant and financial management experience in an international organization (3+ years) in a multi‐
• funder and multi‐currency environment required.
• Experience in managing substantial (>USD 1million) USAID, EU and/or other bilateral/multilateral grants required
• Demonstrated ability to work with a diverse team. Must be solution‐oriented and have strong problem solving and analytical skills.
• English fluency required and a strong working knowledge of French language preferred. Competency in
• Portuguese is a plus.
• Excellent computer and systems skills required with respect to MS Office applications (advanced skills in
• MS Excel required) and major financial accounting and reporting software (SAP or equivalent)
• Ability to work and live in challenging environments