About Palladium:

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

Project Background

Palladium International, LLC is implementing the $250 Million, 5-year USAID CATALYZE contract which offers a facilitated partnership model that will craft solutions to crowd in $2 Billion in blended finance (i.e., blended concessional and commercial finance) to USAID partner countries; it can work in any development sector or region. Launched in October 2019, CATALYZE is a buy-in mechanism that allows USAID Bureaus and Missions to efficiently deploy investment facilitation solutions that respond to the needs of specific sectors, issues, and geographies. 

USAID CATALYZE Market Systems for Growth (MS4G) focuses on creating transformative outcomes in the food security and WASH sectors to benefit all Ethiopian people. To achieve these goals, the activity engages youth, mobilizes capital, increases access to finance, connects enterprises to markets, and supports stakeholders to self-advocate towards policy change which will promote opportunities for the private sector community. The project supports activities in Addis Ababa and secondary cities.

To strengthen the private sector in the food security and WASH sectors, MS4G uses a market-based approach to enhance enterprises’ performance, product/service delivery, and inclusion. The activities are designed to build institutional capacity, enhance knowledge and skill transfers through workforce development initiatives, advance the business enabling environment, accelerate digital transformations and scale best practices to increase productivity and quality.

Location:

The position is based in Palladium’s Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Office

Estimated Start Date: 

This assignment is expected to commence September 16, 2024.

Reporting and Supervision:

The CATALYZE MS4G Grants Advisor will report to the CATALYZE MS4G Grants Manager.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

The Grants Advisor will be responsible for ensuring the project’s compliance with palladium and USAID policies, rules and regulations.

Specific responsibilities of CATALYZE MS4G’s Grants Advisor include, but are not limited to: 

• In accordance with Palladium’s USAID-approved Grants Under Contract (GUC) manual, develop and execute all aspects of the GUC process

• Provide staff with guidance on and interpretation of USAID regulations, terms, and conditions as they relate to the grants life cycle and administration of grants

• Coordinate with the Grants Manager, to ensure process standardization and compliance with Palladium policies and procedures

• Ensure effective liaison between project staff and grant recipients and refer technical issues encountered during grants implementation to the Grants Manager. 

• Monitor the completion of grants, ensure the completeness of deliverables, and facilitate timely payments and report any issues that are hampering the smooth implementation of grants to the Grants Manager. 

• Monitor activity expenditures and updating grants activity and expenditure trackers regularly.

• Facilitate the evaluation of grants proposals by organizing the evaluation committee, preparing the necessary scoring sheet and negotiation memo and ensure that the required grant documentation is maintained and complete for each grant activity.

• Check eligibility requirement, perform Due diligence work. prepare grant packages and submit to MS4G Grants Manager

• Co-develop grant budgets with grantees and monitoring of same during grant implementation.

• Maintain audit-ready grant files and facilitate external grants audits as required.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all disputes with CATALYZE: MS4G grantees Under portfolio. 

• Resolve in a timely manner internal and external issues/problems related to grants administration.

• Conduct training and capacity building, as needed, for grantees and those unfamiliar with USAID funding.

• Contribute to the project’s financial forecasts by closely tracking grantees’ expenditure projections.

• Participate actively in periodic meetings to assess compliance with terms and conditions of awards and assume leadership in ensuring that deficiencies in compliance are corrected.

• Prepare grant close out package for completed grants.

• Other duties as assigned by MS4G’s Grants Manager

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: 

Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success, and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss. 

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Job Requirements

You and Your Career:

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in supervising program activities, we are interested in hearing from you. 

We are a learning organization and provide growth opportunities from the start.  We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Professional Expertise Required:

• Bachelor's degree or above in Project/business or higher preferably in Business administration, project management, or related fields. 

• At least 6 years of work experience in grants administration on large-scale, experience in USAID-funded project a plus.

• Experience building relationships with local organizations and building their capacity to administer large donor grant funds.

• Strong financial and operational management experience.

• Track record in developing large budgets.

• Expert level knowledge of various types of Grants (ADS 303).

Key Competencies Required 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills 

• Excellent interpersonal, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills. 

• Excellent organizational skills and attention to details 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. 

• Ability to use the computer and Microsoft Office efficiently. 

• Ability to work independently and in a team.

How to Apply

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit their resume/CV to THIS LINK