Senior Program Development Officer

To support WaterAid’s global mission and programs and establish WaterAid America as an effective partner, the Sr. Program Development Officer manages and delivers high-impact grants, awards and contracts to donors across the entire award lifecycle, from program development to implementation to project close-out, ensuring that funds are well accounted for and used in compliance with donor requirements.

Expectations:

The successful candidate will be a bilingual (English + Spanish and/or French) and collaborative problem-solver who thrives in working autonomously, can deliver on deadlines, takes ownership of their work, and has high personal expectations. The Sr. Officer is expected to act with a high degree of autonomy, think and act across multiple levels of the organization simultaneously, while exercising judgement and responsiveness to elevate or escalate concerns where needed.

The Sr. Officer must possess a detail-oriented and analytical approach, as well as strong communication and interpersonal skills. The successful candidate must be able to adapt their personal style to get the best out of others and build relationships across WaterAid’s international network of offices and programs.

As a trusted role responsible for safeguarding WaterAid’s assets, the Sr. Officer is expected to demonstrate honest and ethical practices and a commitment to the WaterAid Global Code of Conduct.

Responsibilities:

The Sr. Program Development Officer is responsible for supporting the development of new business and managing an existing portfolio of grants, awards and contracts funded by WaterAid America’s diverse set of private, large family and corporate foundations, government, and multi-lateral donors.

Across the project lifecycle, the Sr. Officer is responsible for reviewing project components, monitoring delivery, ensuring effective coordination of project resources, and working with WaterAid teams to build common understanding and expectations of the award. The Sr. Officer works closely with WAi counterparts to build cooperative relationships and establish WaterAid America as an effective and valued partner.

To strengthen WAA’s program management, the Sr. Officer also takes on special projects and provides expert insight and analysis, proposes solutions, and leads on their implementation.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Develop proposal narratives and budgets, assessing that deliverables and restricted funds can and will be accounted for in compliance with donor requirements.
• Manage newly secured grants and support relationship managers to create stewardship and growth plans for the donors they manage.
• Serve as WaterAid America’s resident expert for specific grants, awards and contracts; identify opportunities to co-create impact; support relationship managers to represent, advocate and influence donors on behalf of WAi implementing offices.
• Review donor grant agreements, amendments and draft internal Member-to-Member agreements.
• Facilitate grantees’ understanding of grant, reporting, and audit requirements across US and WAi teams and functions (sales, communications, and finance); set and manage timelines to produce high-quality, comprehensive reporting packages.
• Monitor program activities and financials to track implementation and expenditures, including cost allocations of restricted funds (indirect and direct expense budgets); proactively addresses issues potentially affecting project delivery and/or donor relations (such as programmatic delays, over or under-spend).
• Delivers timely and accurate reporting; keep relevant stakeholders informed, provide updates and, as necessary, escalate risks.
• Support on the delivery of timely, high quality and accurate donor stewardship resources including presentations, program reports, case studies and country briefings within a variety of formats in collaboration with sales and communications teams.
• Support the day-to-day administration of grants in Raiser’s Edge and other internal systems, ensure key communications, reports, milestones, and deliverables are recorded.
• Facilitate start-up workshops; provide logistical support for program-related events including donor field visits.
• Uphold consistent implementation of policy and procedure; lead in the development of capacity building tools, policies and procedures to contribute to the promotion of learning and documentation of experience and good practices across the organization

Skills and experience

Essential skills and experience

• Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of four (4) years’ relevant work experience in international development and/or international grants management.
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English and French and/or Spanish language proficiency
• Demonstrated success
• Superb attention to detail and project management skills: creative approach to problem-solving, ability to prioritize, manage and execute numerous projects simultaneously.
• Positive and flexible approach to collaborating across teams and functions; experience in training and/or supporting others to learn and adopt new systems and practices.
• Exceptional analytical skills, high degree of proficiency in MS Office (especially Excel) with an appetite to continually learn new tools and commitment to professional development.
• Sound judgement and proven ability to exercise discretion and maintain confidentiality.
• Professional manner and the ability to work positively in a team environment, towards shared goals.
• Model and champion WaterAid’s values; exercise discretion, sound judgement and maintain confidentiality; ensure the safeguarding of organizational assets.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally, flexibility to work across time zones (with varied work hours) and maturity to achieve and maintain work/ life balance.
• Demonstrated relationship-building skills and cross-cultural sensitivity: ability to interface with external constituents from a variety of backgrounds.

Desired skills and experience

• Professional experience living/ working internationally in a region or country in which WaterAid currently operates
• Experience managing USAID / US Government funds (such as via cooperative agreements or contracts))
• Advanced coursework in a relevant technical area (such as program monitoring & evaluation, project management, etc.)