Senior Grants Associate

Senior Grant Associate

 

Position Overview:

The Finance and Operations team at J-PAL enables J-PAL’s mission to efficiently translate research by J-PAL affiliates into actionable poverty alleviation policies around the world. We are looking to hire staff who combine a strong passion for working with organizations around the world to inform development policy with solid administrative abilities to further our mission.

The Senior Grant Associate provides financial and grant administrative support within the Finance and Operations group.

Under the supervision of the Finance Account Manager, the Senior Grant Associate provides crucial operational support to J-PAL’s growing organizational and grant management capabilities.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions**):

Grant Administration

●     Requests and organizes the materials that are needed from the research team in order to establish sub-awards, including the preparation of a checklist for requisitions and proactively confirming all necessary details, including sub-awardee and administrative information.

●     Creates the requisitions in the MIT online procurement portal and will monitor the progress and inform the research teams and J-PAL teams of any issues or delays.

●     Track, update, and locate grant-related documents within Salesforce or Foundation Connect, confirming all documents are accessible.

●     Surfaces any new information to the F&O Manager and creates documentation. 

●     Communicates directly with the research teams and the various teams at J-PAL and MIT in order to answer questions and submit the correct paperwork.  Must have good judgment to know when to escalate an issue and must be diplomatic in all communications.

●     Submits the materials required for no cost extensions once approval is given to move forward. 

●     Ensures that all paperwork and emails are attached to the correct files in Salesforce

●     Creates amendments for subawards each year for new year obligated amounts and end dates. 

●     Assist in requesting the information needed for closing awards and will submit all required materials to MIT. Will update the Salesforce entries.

●     Assists with data cleaning and with entering grantee reporting in Salesforce.

●     Other tasks as assigned by the Manager of Finance and Operations.

Financial Office Support

●     Provides assistance with office finances as needed, including:

○     Processes invoices in a timely manner. Resolves adjustments and changes (escalating when necessary).

○     Procurement requisitions for non-subawards

○     Checks and verifies records and prepares invoices

○     Processes travel expenses

 

Supervision Received:

 

The Finance Associate reports directly to the Finance Accounts Manager.

 

Supervision Exercised:

Does not supervise any direct reports.

Qualifications & Skills:

●          Education: High School (in US) diploma or equivalent (in other countries) required. Bachelor’s degree preferred.

●          Experience:  Candidates should have at least 3 years of relevant experience, preferably in grant management, research administration, finance, accounting, procurement, with demonstrated proficiency in administrative roles

●          Communication: Ability to utilize verbal and written skills to effectively communicate a message particular to an audience and to meet relevant goals, using clear, concise, and appropriate language.  Provides frequent status updates for research teams awaiting next actions.  Proactively provides information in anticipation of needs or questions. 

●          Time Management: Proven ability to handle several different projects/tasks at one time, to successfully complete tasks assigned, and to meet deadlines. Self-motivated and a willingness to learn will be essential for doing well in this position.

●          Attention to Detail: Strong ability to self-manage workflow while maintaining high quality output and accuracy with details.

●          Software proficiency: Comfort learning computer applications, including Salesforce. Previous professional experience working with any procurement software, Salesforce and Google Workspace is a plus.

●          Attitude: You love learning. You are self-motivated, work hard, continuously improve yourself and processes, and enjoy working in teams.

●          Cultural competencies: You are comfortable and adept at working in a diverse and multicultural remote work environment with colleagues, partners, and policymakers from around the world. You display cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

●     40 hours of work per week is expected.

○     Work hours must overlap with Eastern Standard Time work hours for a minimum of 4 hours per day.

■     8 hours per day plus 1 hour unpaid lunch break: 2:00 PM - 11:00 PM IST with 1 hour break [equivalent to 8:30am - 12:30pm ET]

●           Communication: Fluent written and verbal English language skills are required.

Share your CVs at- iabedin@povertyactionlab.org

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