JOB OVERVIEW

 

The Senior Partnerships Manager is a key position supporting the Ukraine country program. With the overall objective of achieving high quality and compliant programming, the main goal of this position is to manage a partnership portfolio of national partners and support IRC Ukraine as a whole to ensure effective sub-grants management and build strong, sustainable partners. The Senior Partnerships Manager will coordinate the daily management of sub-awards under their management and invest in their sustainable growth and capacity for the Ukraine portfolio. In line with the decentralization reform, the Senior Partnerships Manager will also provide strategic guidance and support to the partnerships teams in IRC field offices (Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipro) and will serve as a backstop for the Partnerships Coordinator.

 

This position will be based in Kyiv, with occasional travel to other locations in Ukraine as permitted. The Senior Partnerships Manager will report directly to the Partnerships Coordinator.

 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Promote Effective Partnerships

Promote and apply the IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results system (PEERS). Contribute to building a strong understanding of PEERS throughout the Country Program, and to ensuring that IRC’s partnership principles, skills and approaches are applied by staff across programs and projects with partners. Facilitate systematic partner feedback on IRC’s management of the partnership relationship, including the documentation of, and response to partner feedback. Support in building a culture of effective and respectful partnerships. Foster and Promote attitudes and values conducive to collaborative partnerships across the field staff and among partners based on a clear and shared understanding of IRC’s strategy, role and approach, and IRC’s core partnership principles. Ensure that IRC’s partnership principles, skills, and approaches are applied across programs and projects. Offer support and guidance to Partnerships team members, and provide backstopping support for the Partnerships Coordinator as needed.

 

Partnership Management

·       Cultivate relationships with national partners and lead the partner engagement process.

·       Facilitate and coordinate all partnership management processes to ensure well planned, timely, coordinated and coherent partnership management.

Lead in the overall management of all national-level partnerships and all PEERS processes/documentation. Conduct & coordinate Partner Identity and Background Review (Vetting) processes, including completion of the vetting report. Coordinate and co-lead Partnership Capacity Analysis (PCA) processes, including contributing to and facilitating the collaborative risk analysis and management. Support facilitation of Partnership Project Cycle: Opening, review and Closing Meetings. Coordinate narrative and finance reporting processes, including reviews and feedback. Support IRC functional teams to ensure timely and effective partner program, finance, and compliance review and reflection (monitoring). Process sub-awards modifications in a timely manner ensuring that the relevant IRC units (in-country and at the HQ) provide their inputs and approve the modification. Facilitate management processes to ensure the smooth close out of partner projects, as applicable. Maintain complete and organized partnership files for each partner, and ensure Partnership Project Tracker / Monitoring & Reporting Schedule and other trackers are kept up-to-date. Foster ongoing learning, honest dialogue, and reflection at team level to strengthen safeguarding, wellbeing and duty of care, and to promote IRC values and adherence to IRC policies. Lead by example and support IRC’s commitment to taking all necessary preventive measures and creating an environment where people feel safe and can report misconduct.

 

Partner Support and Capacity Sharing

Facilitate the collaborative development and delivery of the partner project support plan, ensuring that it appropriately addresses issues identified in the due diligence process, and coordinate with relevant departments for the timely, quality implementation of the plan.  Identify capacity sharing needs (both new and existing skills) of partners on an ongoing basis, and work with the appropriate IRC teams to address them.  Ensure IRC understands partner capacity strengthening priorities, and identifies opportunities and plans for IRC to support partner capacity strengthening efforts.  Support the resourcing of organizational development support where appropriate for partners; coordinate organizational development support to partners.  Collaborate with technical coordinators to integrate technical capacity sharing approaches, including how IRC can learn from local partners.  Promote and identify ways for continual learning between IRC staff and partners. 

 

 

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

 

Position reports to: Partnerships Coordinator

Position directly manages: N/A

 

JOB REQUIREMENTS

 

Education:

BA degree or equivalent in International Development or Affairs, Finance, Business or related field; Advanced degree a plus – or equivalent work experience

 

Experience:

·        Experience with I/NGOs (desired)

·        Demonstrated successful experience working with partners, including managing partner projects/sub-awards and following up on key project deliverables/KPIs

·        Knowledge of key donor rules and regulations (in particular U.S. Government, SIDA, ECHO and UHF)

·        Highly organized, close attention to detail, and ability to effectively prioritize tasks in a fluid environment

 

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

·        Excellent proficiency in Ukrainian and English, with at least an upper-intermediate level or higherAbility to work well independently but also coordinate with other teams

·        Willingness to travel frequently to field offices and partner locations

·        Very strong computer skills.

 

 

WORK ENVIRONMENT AND OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

This role requires full-time work in the office or hybrid type of working is possible after probation period Travel to other locations is needed up to 30% of time Exempt from overtime Sometimes work on weekends may be required Work in the matrix organization Fast pace of working, multitasking and stressful work The organization cares about staff and provides flexible working options (start early-finish early, start later-finish later, remote work) Staff can ask for accommodation of a workplace. Specific requests can be discussed with HR.

 

IRC employees are eligible to the following benefits:

 

Competitive salary Purposeful job and development opportunities English classes and unlimited online training courses Life Insurance Medical insurance for staff and family members Free psychological support to employees and their family members 30 calendar days of annual vacation with flexibility beyond the legally set minimum requirements Up to 10 days of paid medical leave