ROLE PURPOSE:
The Head of Awards, Localisation and Partnerships is responsible for delivering an efficient, effective, and high-quality award management function across the Kenya Country Office. The post holder will provide strategic leadership for award management throughout the award lifecycle, ensuring compliance with donor requirements, Save the Children policies, and organisational standards.
The role leads the management of all awards and partnerships within the Country Office, ensuring robust systems, processes, and controls are in place to support effective programme delivery, donor compliance, portfolio performance, and risk management. The Head of Awards, Localisation and Partnerships will establish and promote best-practice award management processes, working closely with the Programme Development and Quality (PDQ), Finance, Operations, and Programme teams to ensure the successful implementation and oversight of awards.
In addition, the role provides strategic leadership on localisation and partnership development, strengthening engagement with local actors and ensuring the Country Office's localisation commitments are embedded throughout programme design, implementation, and partnership management. The post holder will serve as the focal point for members and donors on award-related matters, fostering strong relationships and ensuring responsive, solution-oriented communication.
The Head of Awards, Localisation and Partnerships is accountable for the performance of the award portfolio, monitoring risks and opportunities, driving timely corrective actions, and ensuring award management systems and processes are consistently applied across all departments. Through effective leadership, coordination, and stakeholder engagement, the role contributes to the achievement of programme objectives, sustainable partnerships, donor confidence, and the overall strategic growth of the Kenya Country Office.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Country Director
Staff reporting to this post: 4 staff - Awards and Partership Coordinator, Awards and Finance Officer, Awards and Partnership Assistant and Awards and Partnership Intern..
Budget Responsibilities: None
Role Dimensions: The Head of Awards, Localisation and Partnerships is responsible for managing a portfolio of high-, medium-, and low-risk awards within the Kenya Country Office, providing strong leadership and oversight, particularly for high-risk and complex awards. The role requires extensive internal and external coordination, stakeholder engagement, and strategic support across all aspects of award management, including award contracting, donor compliance, reporting, and portfolio performance management.
The post holder is accountable for ensuring compliance with Save the Children's Award Management Essential Standards and Award Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across the Kenya portfolio. Acting as the central coordination point between PDQ, Finance, and Operations, the Awards Manager ensures effective award management throughout the entire award lifecycle. The role serves as the primary focal point for Members and donors, maintaining responsive, solution-oriented communication and fostering strong working relationships.
The Head of Awards, Localisation and Partnerships leads the partnership portfolio and locally led delivery modality, ensuring high-quality programs are delivered at scale through strategic and equitable partnerships. The role drives the operationalization of the localisation strategy across its seven dimensions and embeds partners throughout the full programme cycle, from design to implementation and learning, while strengthening systems, processes, and risk-sharing practices. The role is responsible for monitoring award performance, proactively identifying and escalating risks and issues, and ensuring timely implementation of mitigation measures. The position also ensures that award management systems, processes, and controls are effectively implemented and adhered to across all departments, with a particular focus on donor compliance, reporting quality, financial stewardship, and timely delivery of award obligations. Through strong coordination and leadership, the role contributes to maximizing funding opportunities, reducing compliance risks, and enhancing the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the Country Office portfolio.
Travel: Occasional
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :
Portfolio Planning, Development, and Management:
- Coordinate the submission of all required information and documentation into AMS by relevant functions in a timely manner as new funding opportunities are identified.
- Review award agreements to identify potential risks and provide summaries of key risk areas.
- Participate in go/no-go decision-making processes with Members and the Senior Management Team (SMT), including opportunity and risk assessments.
- Develop funding optimization strategies in collaboration with the Finance team, including match plans, CAM, and other funding mechanisms.
- Support the Country Director (CD) and SPD Manager in strengthening engagement and relationship management with Members and donor representatives on award management and compliance matters.
- In collaboration with the PDQ team, provide strategic portfolio information to the SMT and Save the Children Members through a monthly portfolio analysis report, highlighting pipeline opportunities, active awards, awards under amendment, high-risk awards, and closed awards.
Award Management and AMS Management:
- Ensure all award lifecycle processes are completed through AMS workflows in a timely manner and that all relevant information is accurately maintained within the system and in hard-copy files where required.
- Liaise directly with Members to ensure timely issuance of workflows and fund summaries following award approval.
- Establish mechanisms for disseminating award information to ensure all key staff understand award requirements and expectations throughout the award lifecycle.
- Ensure kick-off meetings are conducted promptly for all new awards and that coding structures and budgets are effectively communicated to budget holders.
- Lead Member engagement and relationship management as the SCI focal point for awards, coordinating SCI/Member reviews and revisions of proposals, budgets, and agreements.
- Provide regular updates to the Finance Manager on new awards that impact Master Budget gap analysis and co-lead the maintenance of the CAM calculator.
- Lead the analysis of Budget versus Actual Expenditure (BVA) reports for monthly award review meetings. Work with budget holders to develop and implement corrective action plans and monitor progress against agreed actions.
- Coordinate monthly award review meetings and maintain a tracker of action points and outstanding issues.
- Provide guidance on budget coding and reallocations in collaboration with budget holders.
- Coordinate budget realignments, amendments, cost extensions, and no-cost extension requests to Members and donors in a timely manner.
- Work closely with Programme Operations to ensure timely award close-out meetings. Ensure all meetings are documented, minutes are filed in AMS, and follow-up actions are completed.
- Ensure AMS is accurately maintained, up to date, and provides a complete audit trail for all awards and sub-awards.
- Support Programme Managers in budget development, cost allocation, budget monitoring, phasing, and forecasting, ensuring that phased award budgets are uploaded into Agresso.
Reporting to Members and Donors:
- Coordinate the award reporting process to ensure high-quality reports are submitted within agreed timelines.
- Share the award reporting schedule with the Extended Senior Management Team on the first working day of each month.
- Support the preparation of financial reports, with responsibility transitioning to Finance once appropriate staffing capacity is established.
- Review all award reports prior to submission to Members and donors to ensure completeness, accuracy, and compliance.
- Share Members' qualitative feedback on reports with relevant stakeholders on a monthly basis.
- Ensure donors and Members are informed of any significant award-related issues.
- Manage contractual relationships with donors and Members through effective communication on reports, contracts, amendments, and audits.
- Collaborate with relevant functions and Members to strengthen project staff capacity in quality reporting.
Donor Compliance:
- Ensure donor compliance requirements, including reporting deadlines, amendment procedures, audit requirements, and SCI award management policies, are clearly understood and adhered to.
- Ensure potential compliance issues and amendment requests are promptly communicated to donors through the relevant Save the Children Member.
- Develop business cases and support negotiations where donor waivers or derogation requests require detailed justification.
- Collaborate with Member focal points to ensure all donor compliance requirements are captured in AMS before fund summary workflows are initiated.
Localisation:
- Lead the implementation of the Country Office Localization Strategy, in line with Save the Children’s Global Partnership Framework, Localization Policy, Grand Bargain commitments, and CHS standards.
- Ensure partnership and localization priorities are fully integrated into country strategic planning, annual plans, and humanitarian response strategies.
- Drive the operationalization of localization across its seven dimensions, identifying and addressing operational bottlenecks and influencing systems, processes, and decision-making.
- Coordinate periodic self-assessments on partnerships and localization, ensuring action plans are developed, implemented, monitored, and reported to SMT
Partnership Management:
- Provide capacity-building and compliance support to both new and existi...