Procurement and Grants Manager At Ark Group

ABOUT ARK:

ARK is a social enterprise, empowering local communities through the provision of agile and sustainable interventions to create greater stability, opportunity, and hope for the future.

We believe that resilient communities are the foundation of local, national, regional and international development and stability – and ultimately a safer, peaceful and more prosperous world. At ARK, we have delivered research and programmatic interventions validating this approach in over twenty countries since 2008. As a social enterprise we work in partnership with communities, our donors, and other implementers to build local capacities, generate opportunity and bring about sustainable change.

PURPOSE OF POSITION:

Under the supervision of the Head of Corporate Services, the Procurement and Grants Manager will head the Group’s Logistics and Procurement Department, leading on sub-granting, procurement and asset management for all country offices. Primary responsibilities include oversight of sub-recipient contracting and compliance, managing procurement staff in the field, providing advice on donor rules and regulations and leading on the overall professionalisation and development of the department. The role is heavily focused on sub-granting (approximately 50% LOE), services procurement and contracts management (30% LOE). Logistics and asset management is a minor part of the role (20% LOE).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Grants Management

• Assist with subgrantee selection compliance requirements, and support with grantee proposal evaluation process.
• Oversee and provide guidance on subgrantee Organisational Capacity Assessments.
• Review and approve subgrant agreements.
• Provide technical guidance on subgrantee capacity building and monitoring requirements.
• Provide compliance guidance on subgrantee financial reporting and support with review and approval of financial reporting as needed.
• Act as oversight and quality assurance for subgrant close-out process.
• Lead on continuous improvement of ARK’s subgrants policies and procedures.

Procurement

• Oversee and develop procurement policies and procedures to ensure compliance with industry and donor standards.
• Maintain and continuously improve ARK’s procurement system.
• Provide procurement policy guidance to project staff in accordance with the ARK procurement manual and donor guidelines.
• Advise staff on the development of specifications and Statements of Work documents, drafting competitive tenders and the evaluation of technical and cost proposals for the procurement of goods and services.
• Draft and review supplier and service provider contractual agreements.
• Oversee procurement planning in conjunction with project staff during bid development and project kick-off meetings.
• Review and approve payment requests initiated by the procurement team.
• Line manage and mentor staff responsible for procurement and logistics tasks.
• Provide periodic procurement reporting to the Head of Corporate Services against agreed departmental KPIs.

Logistics

• Responsible for ARK’s asset management and inventory.
• Oversee ARK’s asset management database, supervising asset entries done at country level.
• Ensure period inventory checks take place both at country and project level.
• Oversee asset management policies and procedures, including goods delivery, handover, depreciation and disposal.
• Supervise office lease administration across the Group.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• Minimum of 7 years of relevant work experience with at least 3 years in a management role.
• Knowledge of international donor procurement rules and regulations, US and UK preferred.
• Extensive knowledge of US Government sub-recipient compliance is mandatory.
• Demonstrated experience in supplier and service provider contract drafting and management.
• Demonstrated experience of international procurement and supply-chain best-practice. IACCM practitioner and/or CIPS qualification an advantage.
• High standard of integrity.
• Ability to apply knowledge and independent judgement to resolve complex problems.
• Proactive, problem solving approach.
• Excellent Outlook, SharePoint, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint skills.

Desirable

• Arabic language.
• Donor compliance background.
• Ability to leverage existing IT tools and platforms to design and implement efficient solutions for departmental processes.

MORE ABOUT OUR COMPANY:

What Makes Us Different

We pride ourselves on being the first people able to access and operate in challenging fragile and conflict-affected environments. We are expeditionary by design and our systems and structures enable flexible and agile responses while ensuring safe, effective and compliant delivery.

Working with and through teams drawn from the communities in which we operate enables us to deliver impactful interventions built on intimate local understanding. In collaboration with our global network of international and local experts, we integrate nuanced understanding of the challenges we aim to solve with best practice and field-leading innovation to deliver programming that meets short-term stabilisation objectives and builds the evidence base and knowledge needed to lay the groundwork for long-term peacebuilding and development programming.

What We Do

We enjoy sectoral experience in civil society development, good governance, protection and human rights, refugees and migration, stabilisation, gender, security and justice, as well as cross-cutting experience in programme design and learning, organisational development and management, research and analysis, needs assessments, monitoring and evaluation, communications and capacity building.

Our People

Today, our team covers a diverse range of professional backgrounds; from diplomacy, humanitarian, development and the military, to the UN, civil society groups, multilateral organisations, journalism and the private sector.

They bring sectoral expertise in civil society development, good governance, protection and human rights, refugees and migration, gender and security and justice, as well as practical experience in programme design and learning, organisational development and management, research and analysis, needs assessments, monitoring and evaluation, communications and capacity building. The multi-disciplinary and multi-national nature of our team means the research we undertake and the programmes we deliver are grounded in empirical need and deliver measurable and sustainable impact.

ARK Group is an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek a diverse applicant pool and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. ARK Group does not discriminate on the basis of ability, age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation. We welcome all kinds of diversity. ARK Group places human dignity at the centre of its development and stabilisation work and is thus committed to the protection from sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adults. All ARK Group employees and related-personnel are expected to share this commitment, and only those who also uphold these values will be recruited as part of our team. This vacancy is therefore subject to a range of due diligence checks.