Senior Grants & Business Development Coordinator MENAU

International Rescue Committee; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

A global humanitarian organization is looking for a Senior Grants and Business Development Coordinator to enhance program efficiency and development. The ideal candidate will possess strong skills in proposal writing, grants management, and an ability to foster donor relationships. This role requires travel up to 60% of the time and a clear focus on compliance and partnership management. Fluency in English is essential, with Arabic as a desirable skill. A competitive salary up to £61,000 is offered based on experience.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in NGO setting, especially in humanitarian or post-conflict contexts.
• Successful experience in developing projects and writing proposals for various donors.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Fluent in English, Arabic is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Support proposal development by coordinating tasks and writing non-technical sections.
• Manage donor relationships and ensure compliance with regulations.
• Train country program teams on reporting and compliance.
• Provide surge support to various country programs when required.

Skills

Experience with NGOs

Proposal writing

Grants management

Fluent English

Interpersonal skills

Education

Experience in humanitarian/conflict settings

Job description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department (CRRD): The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department (CRRD) have a portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs under their remit. This work focuses support in five key areas: ensuring safety from harm, improving health, increasing access to education, improving economic well-being and ensuring people have the power to influence decisions that affect their lives. In all these programs, there is a drive to address the unique needs of women and girls (who represent the majority of those displaced) – and the universal barriers they face.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is one of four pillars within CRRD. The unit is responsible for identifying, securing, and supporting the management of all funding from statutory/government donors. The AMU is a bridge between donors and country programs: providing expert technical advice to the country teams, while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency and compliance and manage risk. This pillar ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently and supports all staff working across the award management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources.

The Middle East, North Africa, and Ukraine (MENAU) region includes Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen with oPt scheduled to join the region in early 2026.

The Purpose of the Role:
Where additional support is required by the countries in the region, the Senior Grants and Business Development Coordinator is deployed to work as part of the grants, partnerships and/or program teams in country offices. This could include acting as a temporary member of the grants, partnerships and/or program team (e.g., as Grants Coordinator), or to provide surge support to assist in the development of proposals as well as donor reports, and to perform general grants management functions during peak periods.

Scope and Authority:
No line management. However, when the position is deployed there could be line management responsibilities depending on the function performed in-country.

Key Working Relationships:
The Senior Grants and Business Development Coordinator reports to the Senior Program & Award Advisor (SPAA) and works closely with Grants, Partnerships, Programs and Finance teams in country, as well as other members of the Regional Program and Award Support (RPAS) team, and other AMU team members, as well as country office and regional staff. When deployed, the Senior Grants and Business Development Coordinator will also be accountable to the relevant line manager in the respective country program,

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Grants and Business Development Coordinator is deployed (remote or in-person) to support specific country programs or the RPAS team, and may be responsible for the following, as assigned:

• Proposal development
  • Work closely with country programs to support specific proposal development coordination and tasks, such as developing proposal work plans, writing non-technical sections, consolidating and editing written inputs, developing annexes, writing budget narratives, and other tasks as needed, providing additional bandwidth, or backfilling for country grants staff when needed to support these processes.
  • Act as proposal development lead, writer and/or coordinator, as identified by country programs and the regional team.
  • Facilitate design sessions in coordination with country grants teams and key country program, partners, regional and HQ teams, and ensure proposal design is in line with the country program Strategy Action Plan (SAP).
  • Liaise with the AMU’s Global Business Development and RPAS teams to ensure proposals are of high quality, meet internal and donor standards and are submitted on time to the donor.
  • When in-country – and in coordination with the Director of Awards Management, the Head of Business Development, Program Development Advisors, and others – support the country team in the cultivation of donor relationships at the country level and support country offices in the capture and pre-positioning for upcoming BD opportunities.
• Awards management and compliance
  • Work with country teams to develop donor reports and other award deliverables (e.g., workplans, M&E plans) and ensure they are high quality, coherent, accurate and submitted on time in accordance with donor and IRC internal requirements, providing additional bandwidth, or backfilling for country grants staff when needed to support these processes.
  • Manage and/or support agreement and amendment/modification reviews and negotiations, and support award close-out, as needed.
  • Provide technical guidance on donor rules and regulations to country team to ensure compliance.
  • Proactively raise potential compliance issues to country team and keep senior management and regional team informed of any projected inabilities to meet contractual obligations and of spend rates/significant budget variances.
  • Monitor and support the use of award management tools such as monthly financial reports, procurement plans, and activity plans amongst program teams to ensure accurate tracking of implementation and timely alerts to potential challenges/obstacles. Where support is required, act as focal point in facilitating the review of donor deliverables and approvals by technical advisors and other relevant persons at HQ and/or the region.
  • Participate in and support the coordination of country programs’ Project Cycle Meetings (PCM), as well as donor and partner meetings, as required.
• Partnerships
  • Where necessary, support the management and implementation of partnership responsibilities including partner identification for positioning or proposal development processes, due diligence, partnership agreement package development and reviews, partnership agreement amendments and close-out in line with the IRC’s partnership management system (PEERS) and relevant donor requirements.
  • Support country programs to strengthen existing systems and structures around PEERS implementation in-country and provide coaching and mentoring to country teams for a deeper understanding and effective implementation of PEERS.
• Training/capacity building and regional/global initiatives
  • Contribute to the development of training materials/modules. Adapt and contextualize training resources and materials to respond to in-country needs.
  • Train and support country program teams on reporting, donor compliance, proposal development, and award and sub-award management (i.e., PCM and PEERS).
  • Contribute to contextualizing global/regional initiatives and initiative roll-out in country programs.
  • Support country programs in the use of PCM guidance and provide capacity building to the teams for effective implementation.
  • Train and onboard new Grants, Partnerships and other team members within country programs, as needed.
  • Support and facilitate (as appropriate) regional and country program PEERS related trainings.
  • Capture best practices and lessons learned and support cross-learning opportunities across the region and globally.
  • Contribute to country program SAP development and implementation, or other strategic initiatives, as requested.
• Regional support
  • When not deployed in a country program, cover and provide surge support for other positions within the RPAS team or targeted support to different country programs.

Person Specification

Skills, Knowledge, and Qualifications:

• Demonstrable experience working with non-governmental organizations in humanitarian/conflict or post-conflict settings in the areas of program development, grants management, and/or project management, preferably in the region.
• Successful experience developing projects, writing proposals, and developing budgets for private and public donors – including US, European, and other donor governments, UN donors, and others – and with partner organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize high volumes of work to meet tight deadlines.
• Fluent English written and verbal communication skills. Arabic language skills desirable.
• Ability and willingness to travel to country offices across the region (up to 60% of the time).
• Enhanced interpersonal skills and ability to work in a diverse team setting.

Recruitment Process

The recruitment process for this role will be as follows:

• Screening call online
• First round panel interview online (with assessment)
• Second round panel interview online

Compensation

Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

• UK Pay Range: £ 54,000 - £ 61,000

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.