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ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS

Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has worked in 800+ villages in 6 countries and has pioneered a community-driven development model in sub-Saharan Africa. Spark works with NGO and Government partners to scale the model's adoption and impact on rural communities - on their own terms. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyse local action and institution building. Read more about our Approach, Impact and Values on our website.

Spark seeks a strategic and seasoned leader with experience recruiting and managing talent, leading organizational improvements and implementing risk management systems. This role requires working with our Country Directors, Department Heads and other key colleagues to grow organizational talent and engagement to meet the needs of high quality program implementation at a national scale while ensuring organizational safeguards and compliance with local laws and donor policies.

OUR WORK

The foundation of our approach is the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), where rural communities are led through regular facilitated meetings to organize, conceptualize and implement local development projects, which are supported by a microgrant to fund them. The FCAP has been designed to improve local livelihoods, enhance social cohesion, and improve citizen engagement.

Our operating model is based on an international team of functional advisers (e.g. finance team, training team, design team) who support country teams. Country teams co-design the FCAP with local partners and government, train partners, and support quality monitoring and oversight. The size and scope of country teams depend on the needs of our partners. In Rwanda, for example, Spark is partnering with the Government of Rwanda to implement the Advancing Citizen Engagement (ACE) Project, supported by the Japanese Social Development Fund, the World Bank and Comic Relief. The midline results for external evaluations show encouraging positive change on multiple dimensions of economic development and social inclusion.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a seasoned professional with significant expertise in program implementation. You are excited to join us at a crucial juncture in our growth when we are investing in swift expansion, growing our program and in-country partnerships, and focused on maintaining sector-leading quality as we scale. You will lead our talent recruitment and teams in supporting our partners to incorporate technology into the program delivery while maintaining quality approaches to facilitation and training design. The right candidate will not want to do ‘development as usual’ but question how aid works and ensure that Spark is ultimately accountable to the villages we serve.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Reporting to the CFO, the Director of Talent and Organizational Effectiveness (DTOE) is a key leadership role responsible for overseeing the talent acquisition and management of the organization to ensure Spark has the human resources needed to execute ambitious programmatic targets and strategic plans. A successful DTOE will work closely with the senior leadership team to anticipate talent needs and design effective programs to increase internal skills acquisition, leadership development and staff engagement. The DTOE will roll out risk mitigation protocols and ethics and accountability frameworks to ensure that Spark Microgrants is compliant with local laws and donor regulations, anticipates and prepares for internal and external shocks, and that both Spark and Spark’s implementing partners meet the highest standards of ethical conduct. The DTOE will be an action oriented strategic thinker, a collaborative facilitator for organizational change and dedicated to ensuring communities have agency and control over their own futures.

Talent Management

Year 1 Goal: Design an updated compensation and benefits plan.

• Lead global HR projects, such as HR system implementations, HR process harmonization, and global talent acquisition strategies
• Collaborate with senior leadership to understand immediate hiring priorities as well as long term talent needs and succession planning
• Advise executive management on market trends in talent acquisition and retention, recommended updates to compensation plans and benefits.
• Verify that compensation and benefits are applied consistently and equitably across the organization
• Provide guidance and support on employee relations matters, including dispute resolution, disciplinary actions, and terminations
• Foster a positive work culture that promotes diversity and inclusion, and creates a culture of engagement, collaboration and mentorship

• Collaborate with country teams to support employee skill development, career growth, engagement and wellness initiatives
• Oversee vendor relationships including: insurers, benefit providers, legal advisors and external recruiters

Ethics & Compliance

Year 1 Goal: Roll out of an Ethics Reporting System.

• Monitor employment regulations in all countries where Spark operates, stay informed of changing employment regulations and update policies and procedures accordingly
• Ensure human resource manuals, contracts, and HR tools and templates are updated regularly and consistently followed
• Review safeguarding policies and procedures for alignment with global best practices and donor requirements
• Design and implement a global ethics reporting system that enables stakeholders to report suspected misconduct, abuse or fraud. In coordination with the Impact team, incorporate the Grievance Redress Mechanism into an organization-wide accountability system.
• Form a case management system for responding to allegations and conducting investigations

Risk Management

Year 1 Goal: Creation of an Organizational Risk log and institutionalize a process for regular updates.

• Continuously evaluate and improve the organization's processes, policies, and procedures. Identify lessons learned and implement corrective actions to strengthen risk management practices.
• Create an organizational risk log and develop risk mitigation plans and strategies.
• In coordination with the Program Team, ensure strong implementing partnership engagements and oversight. Review pre-award and risk management assessments and tools and recommend risk mitigation strategies.
• Support the Growth Team in responding to due diligence assessments.
• Ensure appropriate background checks are done on employees, contractors and vendors to comply with international safeguarding, anti-terrorism and money laundering regulations

Qualifications, experience & skills:

• 10+ years of experience managing international development programs, particularly in Africa, with a focus on human resources, compliance, capacity building and organizational effectiveness.
• Familiarity with multilateral donor regulations and compliance standards
• Strong track record of managing talent acquisitions for program implementation start-up or organizational scale-up

• Proven experience working on complex employee relations and handling sensitive information
• Experience managing organizational ethics and safeguarding programs including trainings, investigations, disciplinary hearings and donor incident reporting
• Excellent communication skills. Strong facilitation and presentation skills. Ability to concisely and clearly convey complex topics to all levels of the organization.

• Able and willing to travel to various Spark office locations as needed

OTHER INFORMATION

Reporting: Reports to CFO

Job Location: Flexible

Start Date: As soon as possible

Probation period: Three months probation period with learning and performance objectives

How to Apply: https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/120

SAFEGUARDING

Our safeguarding follows a do-no-harm principle. All Spark staff are expected to respect and uphold the safeguarding procedures and principles to minimize harm to stakeholders, program participants, and the environment in compliance with the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework and national legislation in the countries where we operate.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Spark Microgrants provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Spark are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Spark does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by the law. Spark will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.