Background

In January 2024, War Child has formed an alliance – the international body that manages War Child’s activities across the world. The War Child Alliance is a global network of child protection actors working to safeguard and educate children living with violence and armed conflict. The Alliance includes War Child organisations from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden, Children in Conflict in the US, and implementing offices in 14 conflict affected countries.

The Challenge

This role is being launched at an exciting time for War Child, following the launch of the War Child Alliance (WCA) in January 2024. The Institutional Funding Systems and Processes Senior Team Lead is a critical role in ensuring the work of War Child Alliance (WCA) meets or exceeds established quality standards across the grant management cycle, through leading development, improvement and use of institutional funding and grants delivery policies, systems and processes across a decentralized organization. The role requires a high level of initiative, innovation, leadership and problem-solving skills, and has both internal and external impact on the WCA’s operations and programming.

The role coordinates with WCA stakeholders across fundraising members, country, regional and global programmes, as well as with IT and Finance teams, to ensure policies, systems and processes are fit for purpose and improved so that they provide effective tools for supporting quality business development, grants and associated risk management, are relevant for the new decentralised WCA set-up, and are streamlined and reduce bureaucracy.

The role also provides training and capacity development support to users to ensure policies, systems and processes are used effectively and it oversees global level reporting and information management for institutional funding and grants delivery.

Team

The role reports to the Head of Institutional Funding and Grants Delivery and it coordinates and collaborates closely with other colleagues within the Institutional Funding and Grants Delivery (IFGD) team, country, regional and global programme teams, other relevant departments, and with counterparts within War Child’s fundraising members. The role supervises two other roles which support IF information management, reporting, process administration and improvement.

The IFGD team is part of the larger Programme Implementation and Institutional Funding (PIIF) department of the WCA Foundation. Through collaboration with WCA fundraising members, global, regional and country teams, the IFGD team leads overall strategy and policy and quality assurance standards for grant cycle management across the WCA and coordinates the strengthening of internal competencies and capacities to acquire and manage institutional funds in-line with policies and quality assurance standards. In addition to this, the team coordinates global level account management with WCA fundraising members and grant management in collaboration with teams at country, regional and global levels.

The IFGD team is responsible for achieving the organisation’s ambitions through effective engagement and partnership building with institutional donors, trusts, foundations, and other strategic partners. It is directly responsible for raising and managing funds from institutional donors and foundations where there is no WCA fundraising member, exploring and developing new fundraising markets, and supporting WCA fundraising members in raising and managing funds from their respective national donors.

The IFGD team consists of strategic partnerships, quality assurance, process improvement, and proposal development specialists.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead development and improvement of effective and efficient institutional funding and grants delivery policies, systems and processes, in coordination with WCA stakeholders across fundraising members, country, regional and global programmes, as well as with IT and Finance teams, to ensure they are fit for purpose to support quality business development, grants and risk management, are relevant for the new decentralised WCA set-up, and are streamlined and reduce bureaucracy
• Convene regular meetings with colleagues from regions, fundraising members, the IFGD team and other departments to maintain ongoing coordination and information exchange on institutional funding and grants delivery policies, systems and processes
• Lead development and implementation of plans and budgets to improve policies, systems and processes, seeking technical support from IT, Finance and others as needed
• Provide training and capacity development support to users across the WCA to ensure institutional funding and grants delivery policies, systems and processes are understood and used effectively
• Review needs across the WCA and develop plans for rollout, training and capacity development for institutional funding and grants delivery policies, systems and processes where needed
• Design and deliver training and capacity development for staff across the WCA
• Ensure the availability and management of key global data for all the WCA’s institutional funding and grants delivery work through design and effective use of systems
• Work with senior management and stakeholders to design a set of essential KPIs and reports for internal performance measurement of WCA’s institutional funding and grants delivery work, as well as for global external reports, such as IATI
• Design and oversee the use of effective information management for WCA’s institutional funding and grants delivery, such as shared folder structures, information sharing protocols, etc
• Team leadership and management: As the senior team lead for IFGD policies, systems and processes within the WCA, provide leadership of this function across the WCA, directly manage a small team, and contribute to overall leadership and management of the IFGD team:
• Work closely with institutional funding and grants management colleagues across WCA fundraising members, country, regional and global programmes to coordinate work and provide expert advice and support in the area of policies, systems and processes
• Support the Head of IFGD to lead and manage the IFGD team and broader function across the WCA, including contributing to team leadership, planning, progress review and to effective coordination with other teams across the WCA

Your Profile

• Demonstrated process design and improvement expertise
• Demonstrated expertise in project, grants and contracts management, including compliance, quality assurance, performance and reporting
• At least 5 years’ experience in grant cycle management, process design and improvement, quality assurance, compliance, performance and reporting in an international organisation
• Good knowledge of and experience in NGO grants management from major institutional donors, such as such as with EC, ECHO, UN, USAID, NL/MFA, UK/FCDO, etc
• At least 3 years’ experience of managing, overseeing or delivering international development and/or humanitarian programmes in developing and/or conflict-affected countries
• Proven experience in programme operations including support for strategic planning, change projects and risk management
• Experience in team management and of strengthening the capacity and training of others
• Knowledge and understanding of project management and process design and improvement methodologies
• Process design and improvement
• Organisational performance management and reporting
• Systems and applications including Excel, Salesforce/CRM and finance systems
• Self-motivated, work accurately and efficiently to deadlines and multiple priorities with strong attention to detail.
• Experience in solving complex issues through analysis, collaboration and ensuring buy-in.
• A strong communicator with excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to build positive working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and preferably one of the following languages: Dutch, French, Arabic and/or Spanish
• A Bachelors’ degree, and preferably a Masters’ level degree, in a field relevant to the role
• Lean six sigma, or an equivalent qualification

Our Offer

• An employment contract with one of the offices where War Child is based
• The following offer is based on a Dutch employment contract, actual conditions depend on the local office
• Salary range from € 4108 – € 5197 gross per month, based on 40 hours per week (the exact step determined by the years of relevant working experience).
• 28 vacation days on full time basis (consisting of 26 vacation days plus 2 additional fixed free days, based on 40 hours work week).
• A pension scheme fully paid by War Child.
• Compensation for travel and work from home costs.
• Laptop to work from any location and monthly mobile phone contribution of € 25.
• Possibility to follow training and/or courses where relevant.
• Pleasant working conditions, good atmosphere, great colleagues and of course the meaningful purpose of our work!

Our Organisation

War Child is a young and dynamic organisation. We try to keep an informal ambiance within our office, with a lot of room for creativity, inspiration and self-initiative from employees. We practice what we preach: dynamic, innovative, integrity focused and a drive to reach the highest possible results against the lowest possible costs. War Child offers a challenging job in an inspiring workplace in Amsterdam.