Awards, Partnerships & Project Management Lead

BACKGROUND

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC works with people forced to flee from war, conflict and disaster and the host communities that support them, as well as with those who remain within their homes and communities. In the MENA region (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen) IRC responds to displaced people’s acute and longer-term needs with integrated programs that improve health and safety, prioritize children’s education, foster economic wellbeing, and empower communities to regain control over their lives.

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development Portfolio

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development (ECD) portfolio builds on over seven years of programming, starting with the Ahlan Simsim and Play to Learn initiatives, launched in 2018. These initiatives reached millions of children and caregivers with ECD services, generated a library of high-quality ECD content, and established a resource bank of proven program models. Partnerships with Ministries of Education, Health, and Social Development produced co-designed programs that are now embedded within government services across the region.

The portfolio today spans multiple grants and donors across the MENA region, with an overarching aim of supporting the youngest children and their caregivers — particularly those affected by crisis and conflict — with high-quality, scalable, and sustainable interventions. Interventions target children directly and through their caregivers and communities. The portfolio also strengthens the capacity of the ECD workforce — including teachers, multi-sector facilitators, and health workers — advances national systems and policy through advocacy efforts, and delivers innovative digital technology solutions. The IRC works alongside key public and private stakeholders across health, protection, education, and economic recovery and development to co-design and expand partner-led interventions. For more information on the IRC's ECD work in the region, visit: https://www.rescue.org/ahlansimsim.

The MENA regional ECD team manages core regional grants, supports country programs on country-specific awards, and actively contributes to business development efforts to expand programming reach, deepen impact, and mobilize resources from a growing base of public and private donors. The team also supports country programs in program quality and fidelity, content development, research and monitoring, policy, advocacy and communications, project and financial management, and digital technology solutions.

THE ROLE

Reporting to the Regional Project Director, the Awards, Partnerships & Project Management Lead is responsible for the operational backbone of the regional ECD portfolio. This encompasses the full lifecycle management of regional awards, the development and management of strategic partnerships, financial oversight, and project management. The role plays a critical part in ensuring smooth coordination and communication across IRC teams, partners, and donors at country, regional, and global levels, and contributes to business development efforts to sustain and grow the portfolio. The role directly manages an Awards & Project Manager and a Finance Coordinator, and may manage additional staff as the portfolio grows.

Major Responsibilities

• Business Development
- Contribute to business development efforts to sustain and expand the portfolio, maintaining an active understanding of the public and private ECD funding landscape and flagging relevant opportunities to the Project Director in collaboration with the Regional Head of Business Development, Senior Support Manager for Private Partnerships, and Regional Technical Leads. - Once funding opportunities are identified, lead the pre-award development process including Go/No-Go assessments, proposal design and coordination, budget development in close collaboration with the Finance Coordinator, and coordination of inputs from relevant internal and external stakeholders. - Support regional and country teams with donor engagement. - Ensure that lessons learned, program evidence, and portfolio data are systematically documented and readily available to strengthen future proposals and donor positioning.
• Award Management & Compliance
- Oversee all award management aspects across the portfolio, providing direction and oversight to the Awards and Project Manager. - Lead post-award activities across the portfolio through IRC's Project Cycle Management (PCM) process, including project set-up, facilitating regular PCM meetings, monitoring program and financial progress against targets through effective budget vs. actuals (BvA) review routines, maintaining award tracking systems, and coordinating internal and external reporting. - Own the portfolio's donor compliance environment by maintaining a thorough working knowledge of applicable donor rules and regulations across all awards, developing and managing a compliance tracker that captures key requirements, deadlines, restrictions, and risk areas, and ensuring compliance requirements are consistently understood and applied by relevant team members and partners. - Proactively raise potential compliance issues to relevant teams and keep the Project Director informed of any projected inabilities to meet contractual obligations. - Coordinate with IRC country, regional, and global awards management, finance, and partnerships focal points to ensure timely and quality reporting, prompt resolution of compliance questions, and consistent adherence to IRC and donor requirements across the portfolio. - Ensure the team maintains accurate and complete award management files and systems, with documentation systematically organized and accessible to relevant stakeholders.
• Financial Management
- Oversee all financial management functions across the portfolio, including budgeting, financial reporting, and accounting coordination, providing direction and oversight to the Finance Coordinator. - Ensure internal and external budgets, spending plans, and financial reports are accurate, up to date, and reviewed by relevant regional and global finance teams in a timely manner. - Review budget vs. actuals with the Finance Coordinator and relevant team members, flag variances to the Project Director, and ensure corrective actions are tracked and followed up. - Oversee annual budget planning processes and the review of monthly and quarterly spending reports and spending plans across the portfolio. - Ensure sub-award financial management processes for regional partners are efficient, compliant, and clearly documented with support from the Finance Coordinator.
• Partnership Management
- Oversee, with support from the Awards and Project Manager, the full partnership cycle from identification and due diligence through to close-out, in line with IRC's Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS). - Support the Project Director and Deputy Project Director in the process of partner identification and mapping. - Serve as the primary operational point of contact for regional partners, coordinating with internal team members and donors on partner-related matters as needed. - Lead pre-award partnership processes including supporting the Project Director and Deputy Project Director in program design and partner proposal development, and leading on donor approvals, due diligence, and partnership agreement set-up. - Lead post-award partnership processes including monitoring of partner reporting, compliance, and deliverable tracking.
• Project Management & Operations
- With support from the Awards and Project Manager, maintain systems for tracking deliverables, milestones, and risks, and establish clear escalation processes for key issues to project leadership. - Ensure consistent team adherence to established project management norms, systems, and tools, including project management software and document management platforms. - With support from the Awards and Project Manager, oversee administrative and operational aspects of the regional portfolio, including procurement planning, consultant and vendor recruitment and contract management, and event and travel coordination, in close coordination with relevant admin, supply chain, HR, and finance teams.
• Coordination & Information Sharing
- Serve as a central coordination focal point across IRC country programs, regional HQ, and global teams on all awards, partnerships, finance, and project management matters. - Lead knowledge management for the portfolio, ensuring project files, trackers, reports, and meeting documentation are systematically maintained and accessible to relevant team members. - Organize and facilitate regular team and coordination meetings, including scheduling, agenda-setting, and documentation of decisions and action items. - Consolidate inputs for internal and donor updates, ensuring high-quality and consistent reporting across teams. - Support the Policy, Advocacy and Comms Lead and Comms Officer as needed in internal and external comms activities for the project.
• Team management and capacity sharing
- Directly manage the Awards and Project Manager and Finance Coordinator, providing clear direction, regular one-on-ones, and ongoing performance feedback. - Set clear individual and team goals aligned with the portfolio workplan and organizational priorities, and monitor progress against them. - Support staff professional development by identifying learning opportunities and creating space for growth within their roles. - Foster a collaborative, accountable, and inclusive team culture that models IRC values. - Ensure adequate team capacity and flag gaps or risks to the Project Director proactively. - Provide support, training, and guidance to country program grants, partnerships, and finance teams as needed on reporting, donor compliance, and award and sub-award management across the portfolio.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to: Regional Project Director
• Position Manages: Finance Coordinator; Awards & Project Manager; potentially additional staff as the portfolio grows

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

• Internal: Various relevant regional, country, and HQ program, awards management, operations staff and technical units
• External: partners, donors, consultants, volunteers and service providers

Requirements:

• At least 7 years of experience in program administration, business development, awards, partnerships and financial management, and project management at an NGO
• Knowledge and expertise in the use of project management methodologies and tools, resource management practices and change management techniques
• Self-directed, able to independently set priorities and solve problems with minimal guidance
• Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to successfully work in a fast-paced environment, within and across departments/functions and develop positive relationships with locally and remote based staff
• Experience working in conflict and crisis settings and knowledge of humanitarian programming
• Ability to prioritize trade-offs between on-time, on-scope or on-budget project delivery
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex project budgeting, monitoring and mitigation planning
• Knowledge of early childhood development or education is a plus
• Knowledge of the Middle East regional context, with experience working in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria or Palestine strongly preferred
• Fluent in written and oral English and Arabic

Working Environment:

• Standard office work environment
• Travel approximately 15% of the time, including to country program offices across the MENA region
• Position can be based in the IRC Regional Office in Amman, Jordan OR IRC’s Office in Beirut, Lebanon OR IRC’s Office in Damascus, Syria

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.