Head Of Humanitarian Technical And Partner Support Jobs in Dalston, Greater London
Who we are:
Muslim Aid is a UK faith-based international development organisation that provides support to communities around the world affected by disasters, conflict, or endemic poverty without regard to their social, religious, or ethnic background.
Established in 1985, Muslim Aid has facilitated the engagement of the British Muslim and non-Muslim community in support of its work in a variety of ways. Over the years, its humanitarian work has included responses to major crises around the world including, famine in East Africa, earthquakes and flooding in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
We place strong emphasis on long-term development projects that build the capacity of local people helping themselves. In addition to the 5 country offices worldwide we also work with multiple partner offices focusing on sustainable Development Programmes and providing humanitarian relief during times of crisis.
Summary of the role:
The Procurement & VFM Manager reports to the Head of Finance, serving as a technical lead on procurement and logistics matters. The role involves introducing, developing, and implementing best practices across our UK headquarters, providing technical support to Country Offices. The aim is to support Muslim Aid in delivering high-quality, accessible, and reliable emergency/humanitarian aid across its UK headquarters and Country Offices, involving challenging and encouraging engagement in the ongoing development of procurement and logistics systems, policies, procedures, and associated planning.
The post holder will manage the procurement and logistics framework and tools to strengthen the capabilities and knowledge of all stakeholders, ensuring the adoption of best practices and industry standards across global operations. Working closely with key stakeholders, the Procurement Manager will help identify and develop a robust system and framework across business operations to support ongoing logistics and procurement activities. The role also includes overseeing all education and training provided to staff, volunteers, consultants, and those associated with Muslim Aid.
About the Role:
- Manage and develop the procurement and logistics resource and strategy for UK headquarters, offering technical support to Country Offices for local strategy and planning aimed at strengthening local procurement capacity and resources.
- Assist and support UK and Country Office Focal Points, as well as wider staff, in establishing and developing local procurement networks to support local implementation
- Set up and maintain a supplier database, conduct relevant due diligence checks for Muslim Aid suppliers, partners and other stakeholders.
- Apply critical analysis to ensure that we meet and exceed our commitment to building a transparent, standardised, ethical and safe supply chain for all internal and external stakeholders and all those connected to Muslim Aid.
- Periodically review Muslim Aid’s Global Procurement policy and procedures, reporting mechanisms, risk registers and other procedures managed/supervised by UK and Country Office teams and partners.
- Lead the development and implementation of value for money strategies to ensure that the charity delivers its services efficiently and effectively.
About You:
To be successful in this role:
- Education to degree standard with a professional qualification in a relevant field.
- Experience of procurement and logistics practices within developing countries.
- Proven experience designing, facilitating, and evaluating procurement training programmes/workshops in different cultural and organisational contexts and at a range of levels.
- Good interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate and form effective partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, demonstrating patience, tact, diplomacy and sensitivity to culturally diverse environments.
- Ability to accurately and systematically assess/evaluate environments, with an eye for detail and the ability to spot inconsistencies and potential threats thereby developing solutions and tools to improve risk assessments.
- Good organisation, coordination and project management skills.
Why you should apply:
If you have a passion to support in delivering high quality, accessible, and reliable emergency/humanitarian aid across its UK headquarters and Country Offices as a Procurement and VFM Manager, then we would like to hear from you.
Benefits you will enjoy if you work for us:
- 37 days holiday (including Bank Holidays and Privilege days)
- Hybrid working
- Paid time off for medical appointments
- 2 hours lunch break on Fridays
- Time off in Lieu (TOIL)
How to apply:
Please submit your CV and Cover Letter.
To support the Programme Finance Manager in running efficient and effective programme financial accounting, programme financial management and programme financial reporting processes in relation to AKF (UK)’s programmes and grants. To provide support to the full life cycle of grants: from donor concept notes/proposals to final reports. To maintain a close working relationship with AKF (UK) finance and programme teams and relevant staff from across the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) agencies and external donors as required.
4. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND CORE TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES
4.1 Programme financial planning, management and reporting
In close consultation with the programmes/partnerships team:
• Support the design and implementation of effective quality controls to ensure compliance with donor requirements and to maintain appropriate donor stewardship, including through manuals, checklists, templates, and other tools
• Monitor spending and activity implementation and ensure regular scheduling of grants management meetings, alerting the Programme Finance Manager and Programmes/Partnerships team about significant under or overspend on a timely basis
• Maintain internal tools that track active grants, cost recoveries and cash balances and ensure they are kept up-todate
• Maintain internal tools tracking pipeline and secured funding (Awards Information Management System -AIMS) and ensure they are kept up-to-date
• Prepare financial information for internal reporting purposes, including (but not limited to) the quarterly CEO report, monthly dashboard and quarterly cash balances (co-finance) report.
4.2 Grants management and compliance
• Maintain the grants management tracker so that grants are properly recorded and monitored, ensuring that input from the Programmes/Partnerships team and the Programme Finance Manager are incorporated on a timely basis
• Undertake administrative tasks related to grants, including setting up of grant codes (pipeline and secured), collecting and forwarding information to different units and executing follow up tasks as required
• Review budgets for concepts/proposals, ensuring the inclusion of AKF(UK) costs, make recommendations for improvements and liaise with the programme/partnerships team and field units to ensure these are complete, accurate, consistent with the narrative, compliant with donor requirements, and correctly formatted for presentation to donors
• Support the preparation, review and submission process for donor financial (and narrative as relevant, e.g. ECHO) reports to ensure compliance with donor requirements; ensure reports are produced on time to a high standard and are consistent with the narrative
• Ensure timely submission of cash requests as required by donor contracts and internal sub-grant agreements
• Prepare donor and internal sub-grant agreements with AKDN agencies, field units, and implementing partners, including (but not limited to) those with co-financing
• Ensure that donor and AKDN rules are being adhered to regarding procurement, accounting, project expenditure, and implementation of activities through regular reporting, engagement with the field, and remote spot checks
• Carry out monitoring visits and audits on specific projects as necessary
• Assist in the preparation, support, and follow up of internal or external grant audits and expenditure verifications of AKDN field units, including direct liaison with auditors as required, and ensure that management (programmes and finance) is apprised, including through maintaining and updating the audit and disallowance summary
• Develop and deliver relevant training and reference material on grants management, including procurement, donor regulations, IATI, finance and reporting for Programme, Finance, and other field-based staff; act as a resource for agencies/field units on donor regulations and compliance
• Ensure all AKF (UK) direct grants are reflected on the IATI system, and update the required information on a quarterly basis
4.3 Audit, internal controls and risk
• Contribute on programme finance to all audits and statutory compliance in line with UK and AKF/AKDN regulations and compliance requirements
• In collaboration with field units, prepare due diligence assessments for potential new partners or donors and ensure these are refreshed periodically
• Troubleshoot financial, donor compliance and procurement-related queries identified through monitoring grants or as raised by management or field units
Carry out any other duties as assigned by the Programme Finance Manager or the Head of Finance and Operations. The role will involve travel to countries in which we operate grants. Normally this could be 2 – 3 trips per year.
5. QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE, BEHAVIOURS, ATTRIBUTES
5.1 Qualifications
• CCAB qualified accountant (desirable).
5.2 Experience
• 3 years relevant experience in financial accounting and financial reporting
• Experience of designing and managing effective administrative systems and procedures
• Experience of budgeting, forecasting and cash-flow management
• Experience working in international organisations or donor agencies including field-level implementation highly desirable
• Experience working with EC, ECHO, DFID or equivalent and familiarity with the various compliance rules and regulations highly desirable
5.3 Skills
• Good interpersonal, customer care and liaison skills with a wide range of stakeholders
• First rate oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work under pressure and to manage competing priorities and deliver to tight deadlines
• Ability to problem solve, working with both internal and external stakeholders to deliver results
• Ability to work in a multi-institution network within a multi-cultural environment
• Fluent in oral and written English
• Proficient in all Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel
• Excellent numeracy, financial analysis, and financial presentation skills
• Ability to synthesise complex operational and financial details for reporting and presentation
5.4 Knowledge
• Broad understanding and experience of development issues and organisations
• Understanding of and appreciation for ADKN’s goals, values and ethics
• Knowledge of charity accounting
5.5 Attributes
• Committed to international development, improving the quality of life and promoting pluralism through civil society
• Demonstrates equity, transparency and integrity with high personal and organisational ethical standards; is fair, honest and trustworthy with respect for confidentiality; inspires and builds trust and respect
• Respectful of diversity; sensitive toward others, open and understanding toward other people’s cultures, values, autonomy, and faiths; demonstrates compassion and empathy; is courteous to others with respect for their background, religion, gender and age particularly when on international visits to the countries in which we operate
• Committed to acting ethically and upholding safeguarding standards towards all staff, volunteers and beneficiaries of the organisation.
5.6 Behaviours
• Communicates clearly and concisely, individually and across a broad scope of stakeholders and communities; expresses complex ideas and concepts in simple terms; listens to the views of others; changes communication styles to meet individual and audience needs; encourages dialogue and effective communication by others.
• Builds, maintains and deepens constructive and effective relationships with stakeholders, changes approach to achieve desired results if required.
• Has a customer focused approach, is flexible and always puts the good of others at the centre of decision making; optimises the culture of volunteerism and respect for others and is dedicated to AKF’s purpose and fulfilling the mission.
• Is a supportive team player, collaborates creating a culture of knowledge sharing and team learning. Is proactive in teamwork.
• Inspires self and others to greater performance, professional standards and results; likes to get things done; accepts new challenges and opportunities to enable self-reliance and achievement of full potential; gives and receives timely balanced feedback.
• Acknowledges creativity; adapts established methods for new uses; is focused on improving systems and processes; open to change; analyses, synthesises and challenges conventional thinking.
• Enterprising attitude that is quick to search out alternative solutions to needs or problems; creates and participates in communities of practice to establish networks of problem solving and organisational learning
Application Details:
• Must have right to work in the UK
• Must include CV and a supporting statement that outlines why they want the role, why they want to work for AKF(UK) and how their experiences and skills to date will make them the most suitable applicant for the role.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.