With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 33,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

💼 Employee Contract Type:

Local - Fixed Term Employee (Fixed Term)Job Description:

The Sr Manager RDM will provide leadership in the development and implementation of the WV Sierra Leone Resource Development Strategy and in the acquisition of new government, multilateral, foundation and private grants to enable WVSL to increase its contributions to child well-being and National Office (NO) strategic objectives through increased revenue in the key priority sectors of WV Sierra Leone Strategy.

The Sr Manager ensures resource diversification, strengthened donor networking and improved resource acquisition capabilities for WV Sierra Leone. Working closely with RDM team members, technical leads, relevant programmes and support function staff, he or she will be responsible for the implementation and coordination of grant acquisition processes, leading in pre-positioning, proposal development and donor liaison and will track grants acquisition performance metrics. He or she will build the capacity of other staff in resource acquisition, and provide backstopping support to projects as needed.

🧾 MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Strategic Resource Development

- Support the delivery of national level initiatives for technical branding and evidence, such as development of key messaging guides, capacity statements, and donor briefs.

- Utilize donor insights, knowledge of broader development trends, or otherwise leveraging partnership best practices and learning to offer recommendations on win strategies to increase competitiveness for new opportunities.

- Contribute to WV Sierra Leone’s national and sector strategy development. Ensure grant projects align and contribute to country strategy outcomes and targets.

• Grants Acquisition/Resource Development

- Monitor, identify, review and pursue steady stream of grant funding opportunities and document intelligence related to the donor competitive landscape and potential funding opportunities

- Review grant funding opportunities, provide strong analysis of donor Calls for Proposals.

- Facilitate go-no-go decision-making processes with the SLT team and National Director (ND).

- Facilitate cross-functional project teams to develop strong grant project designs.

- Ensure WV Sierra Leone minimum project design standards and documentation standards are met.

- Lead and manage proposal development processes with established RACIs in place

- Lead teaming negotiations for advancing local partnerships and consortia building; including facilitation of the partner assessment processes

• Donor Engagement/Stakeholder Relationship Management

- Network to broker new partnerships and build new relationships with public donors, multilateral and private donors and potential consortium partners in Sierra Leone.

- Maintain regular dialogue and conduct regular meetings with GC and Support Offices and donors to build relationships, trust and strategically position WV Sierra Leone as a priority partner for funding opportunities.

- Develop strategies and plans for effective stakeholder relationship management

- Advise on donor relationship, and elevate WV’s profile. Support to foster donor relationships at the National Level

- Map and manage donor landscape analysis, plans and meetings; especially with key Bilateral & Multilateral Donors (FDCO, USAID, EU, 3UN)

- Support networking and participation in relevant donor led meetings or working groups.

- Draw upon intelligence and analysis of the funding landscape to recommend opportunities for prepositioning concepts

• Staff Management

- Ensure that GAM systems are in place using adequate tracking tools to support effective grant compliance and support the grant teams and NO staff to understand systems and support compliance

- Support grants Start-Ups and Closeouts with grant staff and relevant field staff

- Support selected staff to maintain the overall “health” of the grant including for instance monthly and on a quarterly basis actual expenditure and compare them with the implementation model, budget requirements and support overall donor regulation compliance requirements (reporting, procurement, hiring, budget monitoring, etc.

- Ensure integration of all programs/projects and grants such that a holistic approach to transformational development is found in the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of these projects.

- Monitor compliance with donor requirements and conduct regular field monitoring visits

• PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE/EDUCATIONAL/SKILLS REQUIREMENTS

• Professional Experience

- Minimum five experience with government and multilateral organisation’s procedures and regulations;

- Minimum five years’ experience in successful proposal writing and management of proposal development teams, preferred European, US, UK, EU and multilateral donors including UN donors.

- Experienced networker with an ability to maintain a good up to date knowledge of the grant opportunities and trends in the development and humanitarian sector; demonstrable prior successes in grant submissions/tendering

- Excellent English written and spoken communication skills are essential;

• **Required Education, training, license, registration, and certification

- Relevant Graduate degree (e.g. international or development studies; economics, social science disciplines, management etc.);

Desirable: Postgraduate Masters qualifications in relevant filed of study.

• Preferred Knowledge and Qualifications

- Experienced in leading development of complex Health (WASH, Maternal Child Health), Child Rights & Protection and or Income generation and Livelihoods grant project proposals including design, writing and partnering and consortium building

- Good knowledge and experience of project management with government and multilateral agencies grant funded projects and experience of grant compliance procedures for major bilateral (EU, FCDO, USAID, GAC, etc.) and multilateral donors.

- High performance and quality standards; negotiation skills; ability to motivate teams and inspire teamwork;

- Relationship building and networking, with experience in working with donors or other business development expertise

- Strong financial awareness, with the ability to build and interpret complex budgets and financial reporting

• Working Environment/Conditions

- Minimum of 10% International travel as required.

- Minimum 30% local travel as required