Manager – Project Finance

ICRISAT seeks applications from dynamic professionals for the position of Manager – Project Finance, who will be responsible for managing Projects and provide support to project finance team members in the Headquarters and locations in Africa. The new incumbent will oversee the projects team in the provision of result-oriented services. The reporting will be directly to General Manager – Global Finance. This position will be based at ICRISAT’s Headquarters in Patancheru, Hyderabad, India.

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi- arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems.

ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on its mandate crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on the drylands and in protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid. Please visit – www.icrisat.org .

Responsibilities :

• Serve as subject matter expert, providing guidance on award management during implementation to ensure compliance with donor requirements, working directly with project management staff and other grants and contracts compliance staff at Headquarters and Locations.
• Ensure that staff understand award prior approval requirements and follow up to ensure that they are met.
• Review prime awards, post awards and sub-agreements issued there under
• Contribute to development of Financial department operations and compliance guidance documents as requested, reinforcing donor/client requirements, reflecting best practices and award monitoring tools and templates.
• Project Accounting and Project Management, Review of Financial Reports in compliance with Audit requirements, Review of Monthly MIS Project Reports
• Maintaining overall grants statements and provide required information to be presented in financials
• Management of receivables
• Support project finance team members and locations in Africa.  Oversee projects team in the provision of result-oriented services
• Demonstrated professional judgment and proficiency with grants management concepts, supervisory responsibilities, and emerging leadership skills.
• Liaison with Donor, Internal and External Auditors
• Inter departmental liaison (Liaison with Scientists, PI’s, RPDs and location staff) Work closely with BDU and PMU, and highlighting important issues which need special attention
• Coordinate with HR department on budget clearances, project code creation in HR records and NPDF and other fellowship grants coordination.
•  Provide accurate and timely information to the Management for decision making purposes like MIS on project budgets, trends, estimates, aging of receivables, project burn rates, pre-finance risk, due diligence of partners etc.
• Provide effective and collaborative due diligence and oversight of grant programs, as well as taking on additional responsibilities and special tasks as assigned by supervisor.
• Responsible for managing adherence to donor rules and regulations from pre-award to contract close-out such as report submission on utilization and Audited project reports.

Requirements :

• Qualified CA / MBA in Finance, ICWA
• 12 years of Experience with atleast 08 years of Supervisory or Managerial position
• Strong knowledge of accounting, in-depth knowledge of accounting standards and reporting requirements including IFRS.
• Attention to detail and accuracy
• Acumen for process improvement
• Strong communication skills and ability to translate numbers into actionable insights
• Strong people management skills including team leadership and stakeholder management
• Ability to deliver analytical outputs in order to address stakeholders’ varying needs
• Results oriented and with keen eye for details

General:

This is Contractual position initially for a period of three years (36 months) renewable based on the performance of the incumbent and the institute’s continuing need for the position.

How to apply:

Applicants should apply on or before 07 November 2024, with the latest Resume, and the names and contact information of three references that are knowledgeable about their professional qualifications and work experience. All applications will be acknowledged; however only short listed candidates will be contacted.

ICRISAT is an equal opportunity employer.