Head of Post-Award Grant

Job Tittle - Head of Post-Award Grants

Department: Finance / GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation Inc

Team: Finance & Compliance

Location: London UK

Position type: Full-time Permanent

What the hiring manager says

This role is pivotal to safeguarding donor compliance and enabling the Foundation to scale. As we expand our grant portfolio and establish our European presence we need a senior post-award leader who can drive consistent high-quality grant financial management strengthen controls and coach our Post-award Financial grant managers.

Lorena Ferro

Head of Finance & Compliance

About the Team

The Finance & Compliance team provides end-to-end stewardship of the Foundations donor-funded portfolio supporting programmes from award through closeout. Working across the US 501(c)(3) and the new Belgian AISBL we partner closely with Programmes Operations Legal and People & Culture to ensure robust financial management strong internal controls and timely accurate donor reporting.

The role will be joining the established Foundation Finance and Compliance team that includes 10 professionals located in Atlanta India London and Kenya. This role will also work closely with the Director of Strategic Development and the M4D Head of programmes located in London.

About the Role

The Head of Post-Award leads the financial management compliance oversight ensuring the Foundation meets donor requirements throughout the grant lifecycle. This role provides leadership to the Post-award (FBP) team owns the post-award operating model end to end and acts as the senior point of accountability for the quality and timeliness of donor financial reporting forecasts and audit readiness.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Oversight

Lead and manage the PostAward Finance function including Post-award Managers.

Allocate portfolios based on donor complexity and workload.

Provide technical leadership on donor rules allowable costs and compliance requirements.

Act as the escalation point for donor-related financial issues.

Donor Financial Compliance (HighRisk Donors in Particular)

Serve as the internal owner of financial rules for FCDO SIDA EU GIZ US Government and other highrisk donors.

Develop and maintain donor-specific compliance guidance templates and checklists.

Ensure adherence to cost principles budget categories procurement requirements exchange rate rules and reporting formats.

Manage High risk grants

PostAward Financial Management

Oversee the financial management of all active grants from award to closeout (Manages High-Risk Grants).

Review and approve donor financial reports before submission to donors or Coalitions.

Lead quarterly Budget vs Actual reviews with Head of Program and Post-award managers.

Ensure correct grant setup in Workday (worktags budgets reporting structures).

Develops templates (budgets/forecasts/recons/lifeofgrant) and dashboards; ensures staff cost allocation integrity.

Coordinate with the Accounting team on general ledger structures reconciliations and restricted income recognition.

Governance Controls & Audit Readiness

Defines implement and maintain strong internal controls for grant financial management.

Oversee document retention standards audit trails and financial compliance files.

Lead preparation for donor audits (FCDO SIDA Gates etc.) and coordinate with auditors.

Ensure consistent application of GSMA and donors policies across US and Belgium entities.

Partnership with Subgrant Compliance Team

Work closely with the Head of Subgrant Compliance to ensure alignment between:
subgrant monitoring
expenditure verification
fund disbursement schedules
subrecipient reporting deadlines

Ensure subgrant financial data is incorporated accurately into donor reports.

Support the integration of riskbased approaches for Innovation Fund partners.

CapacityBuilding & Continuous Improvement

Coach and develop Post-award team to reach donorcompliance expertise.

Leads training for Programme teams on budgeting reporting procurement requirements and cost eligibility.

Improve operational efficiency through standard templates dashboards and automated workflows.

Lead optimization / automation of processes and improvements of Workday to enhance grant financial management.

Key Deliverables (First 12 Months)

Establish a consistent PostAward operating model and workflows.

Publish a complete donor compliance guide for all active donors.

Implement standardised financial reporting and reconciliation templates.

Deliver monthly crossfunctional grant review meetings with action logs.

Zero late or inaccurate donor financial reports.

Clean audit results across donor and statutory audits.

Leads automation projects and tooling improvements for the Foundation

Improved Workday configuration to support accurate grant tracking.

About You

Significant experience in post-award grant finance within an INGO foundation or multi-donor environment.

Demonstrated expertise with high-compliance donors (e.g. FCDO SIDA EU institutions GIZ US Government) and complex reporting requirements.

Proven people management experience including coaching and developing Post-award partners.

Strong audit management experience (donor and statutory) including preparation of PBC documentation and issue resolution.

Strong analytical skills ability to translate donor requirements into workable controls and processes.

Systems-oriented; experience with Workday financials and grant/worktag configuration is highly desirable.

Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills across programmes operations legal and leadership.

About your skills

Proactive solutionsfocused mindset

Strong attention to detail and commitment to compliance

Ability to coach and develop team members

Collaborative approach with high integrity

Comfortable working across time zones and geographies

Contract type

Worker type

Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile whatever your role. By joining the GSMA you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment working on global solutions genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.

In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities generous holiday allowances four additional days off for professional development and many others.

To learn more about the GSMA visit our career site our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.

Being You at the GSMA

We care deeply about diversity equity and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important so flexi-time and remote working is available to all staff. Were keen to ensure everyone is equal represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The sucess of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.

GSMA Values

Our values not only drive our culture they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.

Passionately driven

We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability tenacity and commitment knowing that the challenging scale pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.

Insightful leaders

We continually develop and engage our expertise insight and creativity so that were always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority agility and nuance.

Stronger together

We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own fuelling each others successes and constantly asking how we can help.

Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day in every situation. When were at our best we are collaborative considerate and compassionate to others and we create a safe space for one another to thrive assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we arent at our best and the pressure is on we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.