Grants, Subcontracts and Procurement Director

Position

Grants, Subcontracts and Procurement Director

Period of Performance

Life of Project

Base of Operations

Dubai, UAE / Hybrid

Position Reports to

Chief of Party

• Background
  
  

DAI Global, LLC (DAI) is implementing a new USAID-funded agriculture program which aims to reinvigorate agricultural livelihoods and catalyze private sector engagement to address food insecurity, income gaps, target populations empowerment, and communities resilience to climate change. The activity actively facilitates implementation with and through local systems actors (such as anchor firms, business development and advisory service (BDAS) providers, education and financial institutions, and local communities). This approach centers a competitive, performance-based Partnership Facility (PF) to design interventions that: incorporate local Afghan knowledge, engage target populations, and leverage resources to ensure local ownership and sustainability. Utilizing performance-based grants, DAI will partner with stakeholders to achieve the below three objectives.

Using a private sector-led, market systems development (MSD) approach, the activity is aimed at driving local system actor behavior change. In doing so, the activity endeavors to meaningfully improve Afghan lives and agriculture sector performance through the following objectives:

Objective 1: Food Security Improved Through Increased and Inclusive Resilience, Productivity, Diversification, and Stability of Agricultural Value Chains

Objective 2: Enhanced Communities Resilience to Climate Change-Induced Shocks, Specifically Water Stress

Objective 3: Target Population Economic Empowerment Strengthened

• Purpose
  
  

The Grants, Subcontracts and Procurement Director will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the WAMA Grants and Procurement Team and execution of the WAMA Partnership Facility, a large grants pool (10 million USD), ensuring grants, procurements and subcontracts are executed in compliance with USAID regulations, DAI policy, and the WAMA Partnership Facility Grants Manual. This position will lead the strategy, learning, and process improvement for WAMA grant design, competition, and award management. This position has management responsibilities for local staff and may also include local and international consultants.

• Scope of Work
  
  

The duties of the position include but are not limited to the following:

• Oversee the design of grants under the WAMA Partnership Facility within WAMA's strategic framework, working alongside the other program teams to translate project objectives into grants.
• Supervise, onboard, manage, and train a team of grants and procurement staff, provide on the job training and mentorship, and ensure they are carrying out their duties in compliance.
• Design and pilot innovative grant making approaches to meet the needs of private sector partners within the USAID compliance framework, and update grantmaking practices to include lessons learned, best practices, and effective approaches.
• Oversee grants and procurement staff to ensure proper evaluation, due diligence, and technical and budget negotiations are carried out in compliance with the USG regulations, WAMA Grants Manual and DAI policies.
• Review USAID approval requests, selection memos, and grant agreement terms and conditions.
• Identify capacity building for grantees and ways to minimize risk.
• Work closely with the department leads to ensure that MEL, Communications, Environmental Compliance functions are efficiently coordinated in all parts of grants, subcontracts and procurements.
• Oversee proper use of the grants and procurements management system and provide accurate, on-time financial and progress reporting on the grants portfolio.
• Assists with breaking activities down into tasks, delegation of tasks, tracking the status of implementation and following up on these tasks to ensure completion. Escalates bottlenecks, problems, and possible reasons for the delay to management.
• Regularly review DAI grants and procurement management processes, forms, and system to find ways to be more efficient, compliant, and meet the technical objectives of the Contract.
• Perform regular spot audits of grant files to ensure completeness, accuracy, and compliance.
• Writes Scope of Work, and technical inputs for solicitations (RFPs and RFAs) with the input of team members, working closely with sub-contracts and grants team.
• Develop customized templates for WAMA for grants and procurement-based actions for utilization by a team of local national staff members.
• Assist in the preparation of contractual Modifications and Close Out Reports.
• Other duties as assigned by the COP.
• Qualifications
• A minimum of 10 years of relevant project experience, preferably in USAID or USG-funded international development programming required, with at least 5 years of staff management experience required.
• Experience in developing grants under contracts for a USAID-funded program required, preferably for a grants program in excess of 5 million USD.
• Clear knowledge and understanding of procurement policies, frameworks, and regulations under USAID-funded programs required.
• Experience developing and monitoring activity-level and program-level budgets required.
• Experience in working in Afghanistan is highly desirable; work in the region and/or conflict/post-conflict regions preferred.
• Demonstrated familiarity with USAID rules and regulations, in addition to DAI processes and requirements, for contractor compliance required.
• Strong communications and presentation skills with fluency in English required. Very strong English writing, editing and proof-reading required.
• Ability to work well in a team environment and to communicate, coordinate and collaborate effectively with various stakeholders.
• Ability to maintain effective working relationships with all levels of staff and local partners.
• Ability to synthesize information and produce deliverables for different audiences.
• Ability to serve as a key liaison and project representative to project stakeholders including local/domestic enterprises and vendors, USG representatives, and other relevant groups/individuals.
  
  

This position is currently open; qualified applicants are encouraged to apply immediately for consideration.