The Senior Manager: Grants & Compliance provides strategic, organisation wide leadership for donor compliance, award lifecycle management, and grants governance across all m2m entities. The role ensures that m2m meets the highest standards of donor accountability, contractual compliance, and risk management, and that systems, processes, and staff capacities are in place to support high quality implementation at scale.
This position serves as m2m’s authoritative source of donor compliance expertise, leading cross functional collaboration with Finance, Programmes, Business Development, Operations, and the Office of the General Counsel. The Senior Manager drives consistent, high quality award management from proposal to closeout and strengthens organisational systems to support donor stewardship and sustainable growth, consistent with INGO best practice.
As the most senior Grants & Compliance role, the position provides direct leadership to HQ G&C staff and technical leadership to country teams, ensuring alignment, capacity building, and strong compliance performance across the global network.
Key Performance Areas:
Donor Compliance Leadership
- Serve as m2m’s primary authority on donor rules and regulations (e.g USAID, CDC, FCDO, Global Fund, foundations, multilaterals).
- Provide organisation wide advisory support and interpretation of donor requirements, ensuring clarity, consistency, and compliance.
- Lead donor compliance strategy, setting standards, frameworks, tools, SOPs, and guidance.
- Oversee quality assurance for donor submissions including reports, milestones, modifications, prior approvals, waivers, and closeouts.
- Engage directly with donors on compliance matters and escalate issues requiring senior decision making.
- Monitor evolving donor requirements and disseminate updates across m2m.
Award Lifecycle Management (Pre Award → Closeout)
- Lead the full lifecycle of award management.
- Provide pre award compliance review for proposals, budgets, certifications, and partnership arrangements.
- Support Resource Development in ensuring proposal packages meet donor eligibility and compliance requirements.
- Lead donor contract negotiation, working closely with the CFO and General Counsel.
- Conduct award start up briefings and ensure Award Summaries are prepared and shared.
- Guide teams through modifications, cost/no cost extensions, donor approvals, and compliance critical decisions.
- Lead closeout processes, ensuring audit ready documentation, sub-recipient closeouts, and compliance with donor expectations.
Matrix Technical Leadership & Country Support
- Provide technical leadership to all country team members supporting the G&C function, ensuring consistency in compliance, reporting, documentation, and donor engagement.
- Establish technical standards, workflows, tools, and templates across all countries.
- Offer high level troubleshooting and compliance risk guidance to CDs and country finance/programme teams.
- Lead capacity building for country teams on donor rules, reporting, and compliance systems.
- Review and approve compliance critical deliverables from country teams.
- Serve as escalation point for noncompliance concerns
Subrecipient / Sub award Oversight
- Lead due diligence assessments for partners and subrecipients.
- Establish risk based monitoring plans and support staff conducting compliance reviews.
- Ensure sub-recipient agreements, reporting, and accountability mechanisms meet donor standards.
- Build partner capacity on compliance, financial management, and documentation.
- Ensure sub-recipient performance is monitored and corrective actions implemented where required.
Compliance Risk Management & Internal Controls
- Identify compliance vulnerabilities and coordinate mitigation actions, consistent with global risk and compliance roles.
- Collaborate with Senior Finance Director to address audit findings, develop corrective action plans, and track follow through.
- Ensure compliance issues are handled consistently across countries and escalated where appropriate.
- Maintain compliance risk registers and lead periodic compliance reviews.
- Report emerging risks to the CFO, General Counsel, and Executive Management Committee.
Systems Strengthening & Process Improvement
- Lead development, rollout, and maintenance of m2m’s G&C systems, tools, templates, and compliance databases.
- Strengthen processes for donor reporting, documentation, approvals, sub-recipient oversight, and audit readiness.
- Drive ongoing process improvements to ensure efficiency, quality, and alignment with donor expectations.
- Ensure award documentation and compliance records are organised, secure, and audit ready across all offices.
Strategic Leadership, Cross Functional Collaboration & Team Management
- Provide senior leadership across the organisation to strengthen grant compliance, reporting quality, and donor stewardship.
- Lead cross-functional collaboration with:
- Finance: ensure allowability, cost principles, forecasts, burn rates
- Programmes: compliance with implementation requirements and deliverables
- Business Development: proposal compliance, donor rules, budgets
- General Counsel: contract terms, compliance risk, regulatory obligations
- Operations: systems, tools, and organisational processes
• Lead organisation wide capacity development on donor compliance, award management, and risk mitigation.
• Provide direct line management to HQ G&C staff, including recruitment, supervision, coaching, and performance management.
• Oversee the G&C Unit’s annual work plan, KPIs, and budget; ensure effective resourcing and high-quality delivery.
• Foster a culture of compliance, accountability, professional development, and operational excellence across the G&C function.
