Project Administration and Grants Specialist at IITA - International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

Project Planning and Budget Management:

• Coordinate preparation of project budgets for new proposals, extensions, and annual work plans.
• Work with scientists and Finance to develop realistic activity-based budgets and expenditure forecasts.
• Monitor expenditures against approved budgets, work plans, and identify significant variances, underspending, overspending, and emerging financial risks.
• Support budget revisions, reforecasting, reallocations, and project financial planning.
• Maintain consolidated financial and implementation dashboards for the program’s project portfolio.
• Support project leaders in ensuring appropriate allocation of staff time and shared operational costs across projects.

Sub-Grant and Partner Management:

• Coordinate development and processing of sub-grants, subcontracts, and other partner agreements.
• Support development and review of partner budgets, work plans, milestones, deliverables, and payment schedules.
• Maintain a database of partner agreements, reporting requirements, deliverables, disbursements, and agreement expiry dates.
• Track implementation and expenditure by partners and proactively follow up on overdue technical and financial reports.
• Coordinate internal review and processing of partner reports and requests for subsequent disbursements.
• Flag implementation, financial, compliance, or contractual issues requiring management attention.

Technical and Financial Reporting:

• Coordinate preparation and timely submission of donor technical and financial reports.
• Maintain a consolidated calendar of project reporting obligations, milestones, deliverables, and donor deadlines.
• Collate inputs from scientists, partners, Finance, and other contributors and ensure consistency between technical achievements, expenditure, and reported deliverables.
• Support preparation of annual reports, donor reviews, project steering meetings, and other project performance documentation.
• Maintain organized records of submitted reports, approvals, donor correspondence, and supporting documentation.
• Project Implementation and Operational Coordination:
• Support project start-up, including establishment of work plans, budgets, reporting schedules, procurement plans, partner agreements, and implementation trackers.
• Monitor implementation against agreed project milestones and identify potential delays requiring corrective action.
• Coordinate with Finance, Procurement, PDAU, P&C, Legal, and other institutional units on operational requirements.
• Follow up on procurement, travel, service agreements, partner payments, and other administrative actions necessary for timely project implementation.
• Support project closeout, including completion of deliverables, financial reconciliation, partner closeout, asset-related documentation where relevant, and archival of project records.

Proposal development:

• Support development of budgets and budget narratives for new funding opportunities.
• Coordinate collection of partner budgets, institutional documentation, letters of commitment, and other administrative components of proposals.
• Review proposal budgets for consistency with proposed activities, donor requirements, institutional policies, and allowable cost categories.
• Support costing of personnel, field operations, partner activities, travel, and other project requirements.

Portfolio Management and Management Information:

• Maintain an overview of the program’s active grants, budgets, partners, reporting requirements, and implementation status.
• Produce periodic management summaries highlighting expenditure, upcoming deadlines, partner performance, and major implementation risks.
• Support program-level annual planning and resource allocation.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of project-management tools, templates, procedures, and administrative systems.

Requirements

• Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Finance, Accounting, Economics, Development Management, Agricultural Economics, Public Administration, or another relevant discipline. 
• A strong candidate with a relevant bachelor’s degree and substantial experience may also be considered. 
• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in project administration, grants management, financial management, or program coordination, preferably within an international research, development, university, NGO, or donor-funded environment.

Competencies:
The ideal candidate must have:

• Demonstrated experience in developing and managing multi-year project budgets.
• Demonstrated experience in sub-grant or partner agreement administration, including budget review, disbursement tracking, deliverable monitoring, and partner reporting.
• Experience coordinating technical and financial reporting for donor-funded projects.
• Experience managing several projects, budgets, partners, and reporting deadlines simultaneously.
• Good understanding of donor compliance, allowable costs, budget management, procurement, contracting, and financial-control principles.
• Experience working with international and national partners would be a strong advantage.
• Familiarity with agricultural research or CGIAR-type research programs would be desirable.
• Strong financial and numerical skills, with excellent proficiency in Microsoft Excel and budget analysis.
• Strong organizational and project-management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple deadlines and follow through systematically on outstanding actions.
• Strong analytical ability and attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to synthesize financial, administrative, and technical information for management decision-making.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with scientists, finance professionals, institutional support units, donors, and external partners.
• Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and proactively identify implementation risks and solutions.
• High standards of integrity, confidentiality, accountability, and professional conduct.
• Experience with ERP, grants-management, project-management, or financial-management systems would be an advantage.

Benefits

• We offer highly competitive salary with equally attractive benefits and excellent working conditions in a pleasant campus environment.