Global Awards and Project Support (GAPS) Director II

Catholic Relief Services | CRS•Baltimore, MD

5h•$135,857 - $166,084

About The Position

The Global Awards and Project Support (GAPS) team advances CRS’s strategy by providing integrated leadership and support in global and multi-country award management, operations, surge staffing, project management, contracting, compliance, and organizational learning. The GAPS Director provides strategic leadership, direction, and oversight for the department; stewards CRS’s global award portfolio; strengthens agency-wide project and award management standards; and ensures consistent, high-quality delivery across the award lifecycle. The Director leads governance of complex global opportunities and oversees Project Support and Delivery, the Field Management Response Team, the Project Management Unit, Contracts, and the World Bank Support Unit. The role promotes responsible growth through strong portfolio performance, risk management, learning, and engagement with donors and multilateral development banks. The Director sets and implements GAPS strategy through 2030, leads the GAPS Senior Management Team, oversees departmental performance and staffing, and establishes governance and ways of working across the agency. The role is accountable for award compliance, portfolio performance, financial and operational risk, project management standards, partner engagement, organizational learning, global opportunity management, responsible business development, and donor representation. The position supervises staff and leaders across GAPS units and works closely with internal agency leaders, regional and country programs, donors, development banks, and other partners. The role requires a bachelor’s degree in development, a related sector, or equivalent experience; at least eight years of relevant international work experience, including project management; at least five years of management experience; and experience with multiple donors and their requirements. A master’s degree and more extensive experience are preferred. Fluency in written and spoken English is required; French is a plus. The position requires willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 15%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in development, a related sector, or equivalent work experience.
Minimum eight years of relevant international work experience, including a history of project management.
Minimum five years of management experience.
Experience with and knowledge of multiple donors, including their practices, preferences, and applicable regulations.
Fluency in written and spoken English.
Willingness and ability to travel internationally and domestically up to 15%.
Excellent strategic, analytical, systems-thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Strong executive judgment and ability to assess delivery capacity, financial exposure, operational risk, and reputational implications.
Excellent relationship-management and negotiation skills, with the ability to represent CRS and influence senior-level stakeholders.
Extensive knowledge of multiple donors and multilateral development banks, including practices, preferences, procurement approaches, contracting modalities, and applicable regulations.
Strong knowledge of U.S. Government grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts, and familiarity with World Bank Group-funded operations and requirements.
Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders and clearly communicate complex portfolio issues.
Strong people leadership, coaching, and mentoring skills for managing leaders and staff at different career levels in a diverse global workforce.
Ability to establish governance, decision rights, performance measures, and cross-functional ways of working in a complex, multicultural organization.
Ability to use evidence, learning, and portfolio data to drive continuous improvement, responsible growth, and organizational change.
Proficiency with Microsoft products and familiarity with enterprise project, award, finance, and information-management systems.
Ability to sign and adhere to CRS’s Code of Conduct.

Nice To Haves

Ability to work effectively in French.
Master’s degree in international development, business administration, public administration, or a related field.
Minimum 10 years of relevant international work experience, including substantial project, award, or portfolio management responsibility.
Minimum eight years of progressively responsible management experience, including management of Chiefs of Party, Project Directors, or senior technical and operational leaders.
Previous experience as a Chief of Party, Project Director, or senior portfolio leader for high-value public donor-funded programs relevant to CRS’s operating context.
Demonstrated success in business development, capture, proposal governance, donor negotiation, and transition from award to implementation.
Experience with U.S. Government awards and contracts and with other donors and institutions such as the Global Fund, Gavi, World Bank Group, United Nations, regional development banks, and foundations.
Experience leading complex, geographically dispersed teams and managing a diverse portfolio of grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts.
Experience with Oracle products.

Responsibilities

Play an active leadership role within the Global Programs Leadership Team.
Set and implement the GAPS strategy through 2030, translating agency priorities into annual plans, performance measures, resource allocations, and accountabilities.
Lead the GAPS Senior Management Team and integrate the Global Awards, Project Support and Delivery, Project Management Unit, Field Management Response Team, Contracts, and World Bank Support Unit.
Establish roles, decision rights, governance, and ways of working across GAPS and with agency departments, regions, and country programs.
Supervise Global Award Project Directors and GAPS unit leaders, including performance management, coaching, succession planning, staff wellbeing, workload management, and talent development.
Coordinate matrix management and equitable departmental support for GAPS staff with their geographic homes.
Oversee departmental performance, operational challenges, staffing capacity, and progress toward goals.
Communicate GAPS’s value proposition and represent its needs and contributions across the agency.
Ensure awards comply with donor requirements, CRS policies and procedures, program management standards, and internal controls.
Monitor portfolio performance, expenditures, reach, deliverables, risks, and corrective actions through regular award performance and budget reviews.
Establish escalation and decision-making mechanisms for awards at risk and ensure timely, documented corrective action.
Oversee award negotiation, start-up, implementation, modification, transition, and close-out, ensuring commitments are translated into executable plans.
Ensure Project Support and Delivery provides full-lifecycle support for US Government and non-US Government awards, including reporting, compliance, negotiation, modifications, close-out, donor relationship management, and audit-response support.
Build sustainable service and cost-recovery models for Project Support and Delivery and strengthen CRS capacity to pursue, negotiate, manage, and close grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts.
Ensure early involvement of Project Support and Delivery and Contracts in opportunity and award design and provide contracting readiness and compliance support.
Review new or updated CRS policies and procedures, identify implications for global programs, and work with policy owners to address operational and contracting challenges.
Coordinate with global, regional, and country program operations on budgeting, resource stewardship, contingency planning, and support to Project Directors and Chiefs of Party.
Balance portfolio growth with institutional and delivery capacity, escalating investment, staffing, and risk decisions when needed.
Lead agency-wide project management standards, guidance, tools, templates, onboarding, training, coaching, and communities of practice.
Integrate project management with ProPack, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning, safeguarding, partnership, internal controls, and program-quality standards.
Ensure appropriate technical assistance is incorporated into global awards and coordinate short-term technical and operational support through the Field Management Response Team and other mechanisms.
Identify portfolio-wide gaps in resources, staffing, systems, or oversight and develop and implement corrective actions.
Set expectations for country, regional, government, and partner participation, ensuring local leadership and subsidiarity inform award design, governance, staffing, implementation, and transition.
Oversee strategic partner selection, negotiation, due diligence, relationship management, and capacity strengthening.
Develop a pipeline of project management leaders and strengthen staff and partner capacity to deliver complex awards.
Capture and share lessons, successes, failures, and emerging practices, using portfolio evidence to improve policies, systems, tools, staffing models, and business development decisions.
Maintain GAPS information platforms and dashboards and promote learning on donor mechanisms, contracts, milestone-based awards, global mechanisms, and locally led delivery.
Provide senior leadership and decision-making for complex global and multi-country opportunities in coordination with agency stakeholders.
Oversee opportunity intake, country consultation and selection, strategic-fit and capacity assessment, go/no-go decisions, capture, proposal governance, review, submission, negotiation, and transition to award start-up.
Approve or escalate proposed management structures, staffing arrangements, partner strategies, risk assumptions, resource requirements, and investment decisions.
Maintain and prioritize a global business development pipeline, positioning and capture strategies, and an up-to-date business development strategy.
Ensure documented handover from business development to award start-up and implementation, with clear ownership of commitments, risks, deliverables, and decisions.
Oversee Global Opportunities and Multi-Opportunity Mechanisms in Gateway and ensure timely, accurate information for decision-makers.
Oversee the World Bank Support Unit’s full-cycle support for World Bank Group-funded work, including positioning, capture, proposals, negotiation, delivery, compliance, risk management, and learning.
Guide CRS engagement with the World Bank Group and regional development banks and ensure readiness for applicable procurement, contracting, environmental and social, and third-party implementation requirements.
Nurture strategic partnerships with peer organizations, research institutions, government entities, faith actors, and private-sector partners.
Improve business development processes and tools and use award performance and learning to pursue responsible follow-on funding.
Maintain strategic relationships with current and prospective donors, especially the World Bank Group, U.S. Government, Global Fund, Gavi, foundations, corporations, and other donors supporting global awards.
Represent CRS in donor negotiations, formal award discussions, major donor functions, and relevant World Bank and faith-based working groups.
Exercise delegated decision-making and signatory authority as assigned, making or escalating time-sensitive decisions affecting major awards, financial exposure, delivery, and agency reputation.
Brief senior leadership and governance bodies on portfolio performance, opportunities, risks, and investment decisions.
Maintain strategic relationships with primes, consortium partners, research institutions, and private-sector partners supporting global awards.
Ensure marketing and communication plans communicate global award results, lessons, and impact and support future positioning.
Represent GAPS with relevant internal stakeholders.