Program Manager, Partnerships and Systems

ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS

Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has worked in 800+ villages in 6 countries and has pioneered a community-driven development model in sub-Saharan Africa. Spark works with NGO and Government partners to scale the model’s adoption and impact on rural communities – on their own terms. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyse local action and institution building. Read more about our Approach,
Impact and Values on our website.

Spark seeks an experienced Program Manager for Partnerships and Systems to lead the development and implementation of Spark’s organizational systems for partner management, program risk mitigation and cost optimization. The role will strengthen Spark’s ability to work effectively with its implementing partners by building standardized approaches and tools, providing training and quality control to ensure compliance and quality, and supporting cost-effective program design and delivery.

The Program Manager will work closely with Country Directors and their teams to create or strengthen and execute fit-for-purpose systems for partner management and oversight. They will provide quality control throughout the selection and engagement of new partners or subawards. The Program Manager will also work with these teams to build and maintain the systems for risk mitigation and cost rationalization within country programs and for cross-cutting program departments within the Global Programs unit. This role combines systems building with technical support and coaching to country teams and global program departments. The role is ideal for someone with experience in managing subgrantees throughout a project life cycle, partnership systems design or strengthening, and implementing cost rationalization activities across countries.

OUR WORK

The foundation of our approach is the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), where rural communities are led through regular facilitated meetings to organize, conceptualize and implement local development projects, which are supported by a microgrant to fund them. The FCAP has been designed to improve local livelihoods, enhance social cohesion, and improve citizen engagement.

Our operating model is based on an international team of functional advisers (e.g. finance team, training team, design team) who support country teams. Country teams co-design the FCAP with local partners and government, train partners or directly implement the design, and support quality monitoring and oversight. The size and scope of country teams depend on the needs of our partners and the portfolio size and complexity.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a team-oriented professional with experience in partnerships, grants or subaward management, risk management and strengthening organizational processes within nonprofit organizations. You are comfortable with assessing and strengthening organizational systems and providing hands-on technical support to colleagues, helping teams strengthen their partner management practices and make operational and financial decisions. You are comfortable leading country teams through cost rationalization exercises to improve cost efficiency while preserving quality of delivery. You are detail-oriented, a pragmatic problem solver, and collaborative. You are motivated by building systems to enable organizations to implement and scale their operations efficiently and effectively and enjoy working closely with country teams to understand operational realities. The right candidate will not want to do ‘development as usual’ but question how aid works and ensure that Spark is ultimately accountable to the villages we serve.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Responsibility: Partner Management Systems Building

Duties:

• Assess Spark’s current partner management system and procedures and design standardized systems, tools, and guidance for partner selection, onboarding, risk assessment, and implementation oversight across programs
• Develop and maintain partner management documentation, including templates and standard operating procedures
• Strengthen systems for partner budget review and negotiations to support cost efficiency and alignment with program design
• Lead validation and organizational rollout of updated partner management tools and procedures across relevant teams.
• Represent the Global Programs Unit in cross-functional discussions to align partner management systems and standards across the organization
• Advise on strategies for assessing organizational capacity, both internally for expansion and non-NGO partners like district and central government

2. Responsibility: Surge Support and Quality Assurance throughout Partner Life Cycle

Duties:

• Provide quality assurance and technical review throughout the partner lifecycle, including partner capacity assessments, budget negotiations, subaward reviews, and implementation oversight.
• In coordination with country teams, review partner scopes of work, subawards, and budgets to ensure alignment with program design and cost expectations.
• Provide surge support to country teams in partner identification, selection, and negotiation processes, as needed.

3. Responsibility: Lead Cost Rationalization Workstream

Duties:

• Lead cost analysis and rationalization exercises across country programs, including analyzing program and partner costs, identifying cost drivers and inefficiencies, and developing cost efficiency analyses
• Using analyses, develop recommendations for Spark leadership and country programs and work with country programs to adjust the delivery model to implement quality programs more efficiently
• Build and institutionalize tools and practices to support ongoing cost rationalization at the country-level

4. Responsibility: Program Risk Mitigation
Duties:

• Lead the setting and enacting of a process for identifying, assessing and mitigating risk across country programs
• Contribute to Program designs and proposal development relating to risk identification and mitigation
• Where necessary, lead cross program work streams to minimize and mitigate identified risks

5. Responsibility: Cross-Organizational Skill-Building and Support

Duties:

• Provide ongoing support and coaching to country teams on the partner management and cost rationalization systems through proactive identification of challenges, gaps, and opportunities for improvement
• Develop and deliver training and support to other relevant departments, including Design and M&E, on skills and systems related to partner selection/management, risk assessment, and cost efficiency

REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications, experience & skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field
• Minimum 5 years of experience in international development, including experience in project backstopping, grants or subaward management, program operations, or partnership management
• Demonstrated experience managing subawards or partner agreements across the full lifecycle, including partner selection, due diligence, subaward development, budget review and negotiation, and implementation oversight.
• Experience leading or supporting cost rationalization, cost efficiency, or value-for-money exercises
• Experience developing and strengthening operational systems, tools, templates, and standard operating procedures to improve consistency, compliance, and efficiency in partner or grant management.
• Strong analytical skills and excellent written and verbal communication skills to interpret financial and operational data and translate and clearly communicate findings into recommendations.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple priorities across countries or teams.

Safeguarding

Our safeguarding follows a do-no-harm principle. All Spark staff are expected to respect and uphold the safeguarding procedures and principles to minimise harm to stakeholders, program participants, and the environment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Spark Microgrants provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Spark are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Spark does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by the law. Spark will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.

OTHER INFORMATION

Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda; Kampala, Uganda; Lilongwe, Malawi; Accra, Ghana; or Remote, USA

Estimated start date: As soon as possible

Application closing date: On a rolling basis, we reserve the right to close this recruitment process anytime.

How to Apply: https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/156