Water Programs Manager

Main areas of focus: Grants management; partnership management; rural drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); performance monitoring; international programs; cross-cultural communication.

Location: Remote - U.S. only.

Eligibility: At this time, we are only considering candidates who are eligible to work in the United States without the need of company sponsorship now or in the future.

JOB HIGHLIGHT

You’ll manage grant performance and partnerships with implementing organizations who deliver excellent WASH programs around the world.

JOB SUMMARY

As Water Programs Manager, you’ll own the grant lifecycle and partnership relationship for a set of global WASH partners. Your core focus is grants management and partner relationship management, building the kind of trusted relationships that make accountability productive rather than punitive. You’ll leverage your experience and technical knowledge of on-the-ground program implementation to support our partners and ensure that effective strategies are being evaluated and utilized while helping to build, adapt and apply a clear performance framework. You will work within an integrated team to coordinate strategies related to these partnerships, drawing on external technical resources and consultants when specialized expertise is needed.

You will report to the Associate Director of Program Partnerships, who is responsible for overall guidance on partnership strategy, portfolio-level budgeting, and final grant approval. You may manage at least one Water Programs Associate or coordinate closely with other Associates on your team to support administrative processes for the partnerships within your purview. You’ll also work closely with members of the Program Finance sub-team to oversee financial management for each partnership as well as representatives of a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning cross-cutting sub-team. Within this integrated team, you will make sure that charity: water’s funds are invested in effective WASH programs and you will manage great partner relationships to enable this work, and you will bring a continuous-improvement mindset to both how we work internally and how the work we fund through implementing partners gets stronger over time

YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR…

• Managing the multi-year grant lifecycle for a portfolio of global implementation partners, including soliciting and reviewing grant proposals, approving progress reports, monitoring implementation milestones, and managing project timelines
• Managing program performance against a defined performance framework by setting expectations up front, tracking progress against agreed objectives and indicators, reviewing progress reporting, and monitoring  work through field visits to inform grant and program decisions
• Optimizing partner program implementation through the incorporation of M&E findings and by sharing effective WASH strategies and innovations with partners where relevant
• Regularly identifying opportunities for strengthening technical and operational areas relating to program implementation, which may include management of various external technical consultants as needed
• Building and maintaining strong partner relationships characterized by trust, candor, mutual accountability and a shared commitment to quality by navigating difficult conversations across cultures and languages when needed
• Aiding the execution of portfolio or department goals and special initiatives as needed
• Driving ongoing improvements both internally (our systems, processes, and ways of working) and externally (the quality, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness of the partners’ work), all with the aim of strengthening systems that increase the efficiency, transparency, …