Partnership Specialist (ABA Consortium) in Danish Refugee Council / Danska Rada u spravah bizhenciv v Ukrayini

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is an international non-governmental organization that promotes and supports long-term solutions to the problems faced by refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide. 

DRB is currently looking for a Leading specialist in working with partnersPrograms of the Consortium on Territorial Allocation of Resources (ABA Consortium), implemented in the Kherson region (place of work — m. Mykolaiv).

General purpose of the role

The ABA Consortium supports local organizations by providing quality financing, due diligence and targeted support for capacity development. The leading specialist in working with partners will manage sub-grants within the framework of response in the Kherson direction, will carry out due diligence and classification of partners, as well as coordinate the full cycle of sub-grant agreements (agreements, compliance, monitoring and risks). The role also involves supporting partners with reporting, financial and operational requirements, fostering the development of strong, accountable and locally focused partnerships within the Consortium approach.

Your main responsibilities will:

Project cycle management for sub-grantees

• Review and approval of comprehensive reviews of sub-grantees carried out by DRB, ensuring their accuracy, completeness and compliance with the consortium methodology.
• Advising on risk mitigation measures and facilitating the development of individual support plans for partners on a tiered basis classification.
• Prepare due diligence documents and submit them to the Project Manager for approval and approval by the Steering Committee.
• Support in the preparation of sub-grant agreements (SGA) with full compliance, ensuring compliance with internal procedures and donor requirements.
• Chairing of sub-grant review meetingsfor projects under the direction of the DRB and ensuring uninterrupted coordination between sector specialists, specialists of the monitoring and evaluation department (MEAL), financial and logistics departments, security department and performance of other relevant functions.
• Control of project implementation and underholding sub-grantees responsible for identifying obstacles, risks, delays or compliance issues.
• Facilitating timely project awareness, launch and internal handover, ensuring alignment across all relevant teams on partner commitments, multi-level support and monitoring requirements.
• Providing daily guidance to internal teams on partnership processes and pathways extension.
• Coordinating with responsible persons with ACTED and NP organizations to ensure consistency of approaches of consortium members, especially regarding agreed templates and procedures, consistent application of comprehensive checks and a multi-level approach, multi-sectoral projects and joint technical support. 

Operational tools, systems and guidelines

• Identifying gaps in consortium partnership tools and working to improve them in collaboration with the Consortium Management Unit (CMU) and Head Office (CO).
• Creating or improving templates (SGA contract annexes, partner tracking systems, BFU templates, tools for comprehensive audits, multi-level support plans, etc.).
• Participation in updating the operational structure of the consortium. 
• Ensuring that the documentation of sub-grant recipients is properly prepared, updated and accessible through SharePoint and other systems.
• Ensuring accurate and timely record-keeping of sub-grant recipients (implementation, reporting, payments, changes).

Capacity-building

• Coordination of work on the creation of a multi-level system capacity building for DRB subgrantees by pooling the efforts of members of the consortium management team. 
• Ensuring that capacity building plans reflect the results of due diligence and tiering, are realistic, consistent and aligned with the consortium's operational framework.
• Track capacity building activities and ensure follow-up with relevant technical teams.
• Monitor improvements and recurring gaps to leverage this information for future support and management risks.
• Facilitating learning of lessons on the partnership model and ensuring continuous improvement of tools and approaches.

Internal and external coordination

• Providing induction briefings, mentoring and structured guidance to members of the consortium management unit involved in sub-grant management.
• Facilitating agreed upon understanding by all internal teams of project cycle management (PCM) processes for subgrantees.
• Ensuring effective coordination between consortium members (DRB, ACTED, NP) in order to implement agreed approaches and coordinated support for subgrantees.
• External coordination and communication with authorities in areas related to the processes of working with subgrantees, including registration, approvedme, compliance with requirements and coordination with regional structures.
• Collection and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned in the process of managing partnerships.

Other

• Ensuring other types of activities of the consortium or DRB in accordance with the needs and agreements with the direct manager.

About you

In addition, we also expect the following (required):

• Experience working with international NGOs, UN agencies, donors or government agencies in partnership management.
• In-depth understanding of Project Cycle Management (PCM) processes, procedures partnerships and donor compliance requirements.
• Knowledge of due diligence, risk assessment and internal partnership compliance procedures.
• In-depth knowledge of partnership processes and trends, localization approaches and funding mechanisms in the humanitarian/development sector.
• Professional contract and sub-grant management skills including review of budgets, contracts and reports.
• Ability to analyze financial and program risks related to partnerships.
• Deep understanding of data management systems, SharePoint system and other digital tools for joint work.
• Ability to ensure system improvement and optimization of processes in partnership management.
• Deep awareness and understanding of CSO work and trends in their organization in Ukraine.
• Languages: Full professional command of English (mandatory).  Fluency in the Ukrainian language.
• Computer literacy: confident user of MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint.
• Education: Master's degree in political science, international development, human rights, humanities or similar professional qualification.

We expect you to possess five core competencies in this position. DRB: 

• Strive for excellence: Focus on achieving results while ensuring process efficiency. 
• Collaboration: Engaging relevant parties and encouraging them to provide feedback. 
• Initiative: Personal control of the situation and taking the initiative, with a simultaneous desire for innovation. 
• Communication: Ability to listen and speak effectively and honestly. 
• Demonstrating integrity: Adhering to and promoting the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to DRB's values ​​and Code of Conduct, including protection against sec.social exploitation, brutal violence and harassment.

We offer:

• Contract duration:12 months with the possibility of extension depending on performance and availability of funding, subject to successful completion of a 3-month probationary period
• Level: G - non-managerial
• Job location: Mykolaiv
• Starting date: as soon as possible

Salary and working conditions comply with the Employment Conditions of the national staff of the Danish Refugee Council in Ukraine.

Application process:

All candidates must upload a cover letter and an updated resume (no more than four pages in English) to the system. 

Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Application deadline:22 December 2025