Head of Post-Award Grant

GSM Conference Services • Atlanta, GA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

This role is pivotal to safeguarding donor compliance and enabling the Foundation to scale. As we expand our grant portfolio and establish our European presence, we need a senior post-award leader who can drive consistent, high-quality grant financial management, strengthen controls, and coach our Post-award Financial grant managers. The Head of Post-Award leads the financial management, compliance oversight ensuring the Foundation meets donor requirements throughout the grant lifecycle. This role provides leadership to the Post-award (FBP) team, owns the post-award operating model end to end, and acts as the senior point of accountability for the quality and timeliness of donor financial reporting, forecasts, and audit readiness.

Requirements

• Significant experience in post-award grant finance within an INGO, foundation, or multi-donor environment.
• Demonstrated expertise with high-compliance donors (e.g., FCDO, SIDA, EU institutions, GIZ, US Government) and complex reporting requirements.
• Proven people management experience, including coaching and developing Post-award partners.
• Strong audit management experience (donor and statutory), including preparation of PBC documentation and issue resolution.
• Strong analytical skills, ability to translate donor requirements into workable controls and processes.
• Systems-oriented; experience with Workday financials and grant/worktag configuration is highly desirable.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills across programmes, operations, legal and leadership.
• Proactive, solutions‑focused mindset
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to compliance
• Ability to coach and develop team members
• Collaborative approach with high integrity
• Comfortable working across time zones and geographies

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Workday financials and grant/worktag configuration is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Post‑Award Finance function, including Post-award Managers.
• Allocate portfolios based on donor complexity and workload.
• Provide technical leadership on donor rules, allowable costs, and compliance requirements.
• Act as the escalation point for donor-related financial issues.
• Serve as the internal owner of financial rules for FCDO, SIDA, EU, GIZ, US Government, and other high‑risk donors.
• Develop and maintain donor-specific compliance guidance, templates, and checklists.
• Ensure adherence to cost principles, budget categories, procurement requirements, exchange rate rules, and reporting formats.
• Manage High risk grants
• Oversee the financial management of all active grants from award to closeout (Manages High-Risk Grants).
• Review and approve donor financial reports before submission to donors or Coalitions.
• Lead quarterly Budget vs Actual reviews with Head of Program and Post-award managers.
• Ensure correct grant set‑up in Workday (worktags, budgets, reporting structures).
• Develops templates (budgets/forecasts/recons/life‑of‑grant) and dashboards; ensures staff cost allocation integrity.
• Coordinate with the Accounting team on general ledger structures, reconciliations, and restricted income recognition.
• Defines, implement and maintain strong internal controls for grant financial management.
• Oversee document retention standards, audit trails, and financial compliance files.
• Lead preparation for donor audits (FCDO, SIDA, Gates, etc.) and coordinate with auditors.
• Ensure consistent application of GSMA and donors policies across US and Belgium entities.
• Work closely with the Head of Subgrant Compliance to ensure alignment between subgrant monitoring, expenditure verification, fund disbursement schedules, and subrecipient reporting deadlines.
• Ensure subgrant financial data is incorporated accurately into donor reports.
• Support the integration of risk‑based approaches for Innovation Fund partners.
• Coach and develop Post-award team to reach donor‑compliance expertise.
• Leads training for Programme teams on budgeting, reporting, procurement requirements, and cost eligibility.
• Improve operational efficiency through standard templates, dashboards, and automated workflows.
• Lead optimization / automation of processes and improvements of Workday to enhance grant financial management.

Benefits

• fantastic learning & development opportunities
• generous holiday allowances
• four additional days off for professional development
• flexi-time
• remote working

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed