Grants and Compliance Officer

About

The Grants Officer supports compliant and timely management of programme sub-grants across multiple countries, from pre-award review and start-up through implementation, reporting and close-out. Working under the Grants Manager, the role coordinates documentation, tracking and quality assurance, and works with programme teams, Finance, MEL and sub-grantees. Applicants require a relevant bachelor's degree, a listed professional accounting qualification, and four to six years of relevant grants-management experience in the social impact/development sector.

How to apply

Apply online through the official advert page on SmartRecruiters. Your application should include your CV highlighting your relevant skills, experience and qualifications, along with a cover letter outlining your suitability for the position.

Responsibilities

• Support the management of active programme sub-grants across countries, ensuring alignment with approved objectives, budgets, and delivery models.
• Maintain accurate, complete, and up-to-date sub-grant documentation, trackers, dashboards, and audit-ready grant files.
• Monitor sub-grant expenditures against approved budgets and flag variances, risks, or anomalies to the Grants Manager.
• Review sub-grant agreements and amendments to extract key obligations, milestones, reporting requirements, and compliance considerations.
• Support the maintenance of accurate sub-grant management documentation, trackers, dashboards and audit-ready files.
• Serve as a first point of contact for day-to-day grants-related queries from country teams and sub-grantees, providing practical guidance within established policies and escalating complex issues as required.
• Support sub-grantees to understand and comply with agreement terms and conditions, reporting requirements, and budget management expectations.
• Assist in implementing partner onboarding processes, including documentation checks, compliance verification, and orientation to grants management tools and templates.
• Contribute to partner capacity strengthening efforts by identifying recurring gaps or support needs and feeding these into targeted capacity-building plans.
• Coordinate with Finance teams to support accurate budget set-up, expenditure tracking, and reconciliation for sub-grants.
• Coordinate funds disbursement to sub-grantees and ensure appropriate cash flow management practices are in place.
• Conduct quality checks on sub-grantee financial reports to ensure completeness, accuracy, and consistency with approved budgets before submission or review.
• Support the preparation and consolidation of grants-related inputs for donor financial and narrative reports, ensuring timelines and quality standards are met.
• Support implementation of grants compliance standards by applying agreed tools, templates, and procedures consistently across programme countries.
• Assist with sample-based reviews of sub-grantee reports and documentation to identify compliance risks or areas requiring corrective action.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, Public Administration, Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Project Management, Public Health, or a related field.
• CPA (K), ACCA, CFA, CMI, CA or other internationally recognized professional qualification(s) required, with proven experience applying professional accounting standards in multi-country, donor-funded programme environments, including practical understanding of country-level financial operations and
• Credentials such as Certified Grants Management Specialist (CGMS) are an added advantage.
• Four (4) to six (6) years of relevant experience in grants management within the social impact/development sector.
• Proficiency in financial, CRM systems or software and Microsoft Office suite.
• Demonstrable experience in managing grants, sub-grants, procurement, and compliance with donor regulations.
• Demonstrable experience in prefunding assessment, contract design, compliance management, data analysis and budget & report review for multi-country programmes.
• Experience managing complex donor grants, sub-grants and partner compliance.
• Fluent in oral and written English.
• Applied planning and execution: Establishes an action plan for self and others to complete work efficiently and on time by setting priorities, establishing timelines, leveraging and optimizing resources.
• Ownership and accountability: Demonstrates initiative in identifying inefficiencies, compliance risks, and process gaps within day-to-day grant administration.
• Enabling change: Encourages self and others to implement better approaches to address problem and opportunities; leads the implementation and acceptance of change for self and team.
• Driving results: Takes personal accountability for accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of sub-grant documentation and reporting.
• Collaborative engagement: Builds constructive working relationships with Finance, MEL, Communications, country programme teams, and sub-grantees.
• Creating an inclusive environment: Makes decisions and initiates action to ensure that programme policies leverage the capabilities and insights of individuals with diverse backgrounds, cultures, styles, abilities and motivation.