Job title: Grants and Compliance Officer
Location: Lodwar, Turkana County, Kenya
Employment type: Full-time
Workplace type: Hybrid
Company Description
Amref Health Africa, founded in 1957, is the largest African-based international health development organisation. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref implements programmes across 35 African countries, reaching more than 40 million people, with a strong operational presence in Africa and advocacy and fundraising offices in Europe and North America.
Guided by its vision of lasting health change in Africa, Amref’s mission is to catalyze community-led, people-centered health systems and address the social determinants of health. Amref believes sustainable health transformation is driven from within communities and works to strengthen health systems while empowering communities to demand and access quality, affordable healthcare.
Job Description
The Grants Officer supports effective, compliant, and timely management of programme sub-grants across multiple countries, ensuring that grants function as reliable enablers of programme delivery and donor accountability.
Working under the guidance of the Grants Manager, the role is responsible for day-to-day coordination, documentation, tracking, and quality assurance of sub-grant processes across the grant lifecycle—from pre-award review and start-up through implementation, reporting, and close-out. The Grants Officer works closely with programme teams, Finance, MEL, and sub-grantees to support compliance with donor and Amref requirements, strengthen grant management practices, and maintain audit-ready grant files.
The role requires strong attention to detail, sound professional judgement, and the ability to operate confidently within evolving donor, regulatory, and programme environments, while escalating risks and issues appropriately and contributing to continuous improvement of grants systems and ways of working.
Key Responsibilities
Programme Sub-Grant Administration and Coordination
- Support the management of active programme sub-grants across countries, ensuring alignment with approved objectives, budgets, and delivery models.
- Maintain accurate, complete, and up-to-date sub-grant documentation, trackers, dashboards, and audit-ready grant files.
- Monitor sub-grant expenditures against approved budgets and flag variances, risks, or anomalies to the Grants Manager.
- Review sub-grant agreements and amendments to extract key obligations, milestones, reporting requirements, and compliance considerations.
- Support the maintenance of accurate sub-grant management documentation, trackers, dashboards and audit-ready files.
Sub-Grantee Engagement Support
- Serve as a first point of contact for day-to-day grants-related queries from country teams and sub-grantees, providing practical guidance within established policies and escalating complex issues as required.
- Support sub-grantees to understand and comply with agreement terms and conditions, reporting requirements, and budget management expectations.
- Assist in implementing partner onboarding processes, including documentation checks, compliance verification, and orientation to grants management tools and templates.
- Contribute to partner capacity strengthening efforts by identifying recurring gaps or support needs and feeding these into targeted capacity-building plans.
Financial Coordination and Reporting Support
- Coordinate with Finance teams to support accurate budget set-up, expenditure tracking, and reconciliation for sub-grants.
- Coordinate funds disbursement to sub-grantees and ensure appropriate cash flow management practices are in place.
- Conduct quality checks on sub-grantee financial reports to ensure completeness, accuracy, and consistency with approved budgets before submission or review.
- Support the preparation and consolidation of grants-related inputs for donor financial and narrative reports, ensuring timelines and quality standards are met.
Compliance, Risk Monitoring and Audits
- Support implementation of grants compliance standards by applying agreed tools, templates, and procedures consistently across programme countries.
- Assist with sample-based reviews of sub-grantee reports and documentation to identify compliance risks or areas requiring corrective action.
- Support audits, compliance reviews, and spot checks by coordinating documentation, responding to information requests, and tracking follow-up actions.
- Proactively identify and escalate grant-related risks—financial, compliance, delivery, or reputational—to the Senior Grants Manager in a timely manner.
Entrepreneurial Mindset and Continuous Improvement
- Demonstrate curiosity and proactive problem-solving in day-to-day grant administration, identifying inefficiencies, process bottlenecks, or recurring compliance risks and proposing practical solutions.
- Identify opportunities to simplify documentation, improve tracking tools, or enhance clarity of communication with sub-grantees, country teams and internal teams, including Finance and MEL where needed.
- Capture lessons learned from grant implementation, reporting, audits, and partner engagement, and support integration into improved practices.
- Contribute actively to testing and refining grants management tools, templates, and systems, providing feedback grounded in implementation experience across countries.
- Support programme-wide initiatives related to Organisational Development and System Strengthening (ODSS) as they relate to partner and sub-grants management.
People and Performance
- Take ownership of individual performance objectives aligned to programme grants priorities, demonstrating accountability for quality, timeliness, and compliance of assigned sub-grant portfolio responsibilities.
- Contribute actively to a high-performing grants function by collaborating effectively with peers across HQ and country programmes, sharing knowledge, and reinforcing consistent application of tools, templates, and standards.
- Model Amref’s values, leadership behaviours, and safeguarding commitments in all grants-related interactions, contributing to a respectful, accountable, and inclusive working environment.
- Proactively identify areas for self-development, including evolving donor regulations, financial controls, and grants systems, and pursue learning opportunities that strengthen individual and team capability.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (SUCCESS MEASURES) – Building the right platform and creating lasting impact
1. Donor compliance and risk awareness: Grant compliance risks within assigned sub-grants are identified early, documented clearly, and escalated appropriately to the Grants Manager. Donor rules and agreement terms are accurately reflected in trackers, reporting templates, and partner guidance materials. Reporting deadlines are consistently tracked and met, with minimal avoidable compliance gaps.
2. Operational judgement: Demonstrates initiative in identifying process inefficiencies, documentation gaps, or coordination bottlenecks across grants, finance, and programme interfaces. Applies sound professional judgement in balancing flexibility and compliance in routine grant administration decisions. Anticipates operational issues (budget variances, reporting delays, documentation gaps) and acts early to prevent escalation.
3. Efficient and audit-ready sub-grant administration: Sub-grant files, trackers, and documentation are complete, well-organised, secure, and audit-ready at all times. Financial and narrative reporting inputs are accurate, reconciled, and submitted on time. Audit requests and compliance reviews are supported efficiently, with minimal documentation gaps attributable to the assigned portfolio. Corrective actions related to assigned sub-grants are tracked and closed promptly.
4. Sub-grant portfolio coordination: All assigned sub-grants are actively tracked across lifecycle stages (start-up, implementation, amendments, close-out). Budget variances and milestone risks are flagged early, with clear documentation and follow-up actions. Country programme teams demonstrate clarity on reporting timelines and sub-grant obligations for assigned grants. No critical reporting or contractual milestones are missed due to gaps in coordination.
5. Implementing partner and Cross-functional collaboration: Sub-grantees demonstrate improved understanding of reporting expectations and documentation standards. Coordination between Grants, Finance, MEL, and Communications is smooth for assigned portfolio elements. Stakeholder queries are addressed professionally and within agreed timelines. Escalations to the Grants Manager are timely, well-documented, and solution-oriented.
6. Country programme and team capability building support: Country teams demonstrate reduced need for repeated clarification on routine grants processes within the Officer’s assigned portfolio. Knowledge sharing contributes to improved consistency in grants documentation and tracking across countries. The Grants Officer is recognised internally as reliable, responsive, and technically competent in sub-grant administration.
7. Continuous improvement & governance support: Lessons from implementation, reviews, or audits are documented and fed back into process improvements. Governance discussions are supported with accurate, well-prepared grants data and documentation. Improvements in tools or workflows are implemented consistently within the assigned portfolio.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in international development, Public Administration, Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Project Management, Public Health, or a related field
- CPA (K), ACCA, CFA, CMI, CA or other internationally recognized professional qualification(s) required, with proven experience applying professional accounting standards in multi-country, donor-funded programme environments, including practical understanding of country-level financial operations and regulatory contexts
- Credentials such as Certified Grants Management Specialist (CGMS) are an added advantage
Experience
- Four (4) to six (6) years of relevant experience in grants management within the social impact/development sector
- Proficiency in financial, CRM systems or software and Microsoft Office suite
- Demonstrable experience in managing grants, sub-grants, procurement, and compliance with donor regulations
- Demonstrable experience in prefunding assessment, contract design, compliance management, data analysis and budget & report review for multi-country programmes
- Experience managing complex donor grants, sub-grants and partner compliance
- Fluent in oral and written English
Core Competencies
- Applied planning and execution: Establishes an action plan for self and others to complete work efficiently and on time by setting priorities, establishing timelines, leveraging and optimizing resources. Commits to a course of action to accomplish a goal after developing alternatives based on logical assumptions, facts, available resources, constraints and Amref values.
- Ownership and accountability: Demonstrates initiative in identifying inefficiencies, compliance risks, and process gaps within day-to-day grant administration. Proposes practical improvements and adapts quickly within evolving donor and programme environments. Balances flexibility with accountability by applying sound professional judgement in routine grant decisions.
- Enabling change: Encourages self and others to implement better approaches to address problem and opportunities; leads the implementation and acceptance of change for self and team. Supports country teams and sub-grantees through donor amendments, reporting shifts, or regulatory updates by translating new requirements into clear, practical guidance. Maintains composure and clarity when programme conditions evolve, ensuring continuity in grant administration and documentation.
- Driving results: Takes personal accountability for accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of sub-grant documentation and reporting. Monitors assigned deadlines and follows through proactively to ensure milestones are met. Demonstrates persistence in resolving documentation gaps, report inconsistencies, or coordination bottlenecks.
- Collaborative engagement: Builds constructive working relationships with Finance, MEL, Communications, country programme teams, and sub-grantees. Communicates clearly, professionally, and respectfully across functions. Escalates risks and issues appropriately while contributing to a culture of shared accountability.
- Creating an inclusive environment: Makes decisions and initiates action to ensure that programme policies leverage the capabilities and insights of individuals with diverse backgrounds, cultures, styles, abilities and motivation. Applies fairness, confidentiality, and transparency in documentation and reporting processes.
- Proactive Learner: Actively seeks feedback and learning opportunities to strengthen technical knowledge of donor regulations, financial controls, and grant systems. Applies new knowledge to improve accuracy, coordination, and compliance within assigned portfolio. Reflects on mistakes constructively and integrates lessons into future practice.
Additional Information
Your application should include your CV highlighting your relevant skills, experience and qualifications, along with a cover letter outlining your suitability for the position.
The application deadline is on Monday 16th November 2026 at 23:59 EAT.
Amref Health Africa does not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment and selection process and has not appointed any agent to facilitate recruitment on its behalf. While vacancies may occasionally be advertised on external job boards, all legitimate opportunities are published on our official website and social media channels. Please note that official Amref communications will come from an @amref.org email address.
If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an Amref recruitment process, please treat the request as fraudulent.
Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is dedicated to diversity and is an equal-opportunity employer with a non-smoking environment policy.