Role purpose

The Grant Operations Director will design, build, and lead MBZFH’s grant operating system, ensuring that every grant, from pipeline intake and application through assessment, due diligence, approval, agreement, disbursement, monitoring, amendment and close-out, is documented, compliant, auditable, and efficiently administered.

This is a founding role; as MBZFH continues to build its grant infrastructure, the Grant Operations Director will be responsible for establishing the systems, standard operating procedures, templates and controls that other functions will rely on as the Foundation scales. The role sits within Operations, reporting to the Chief Operations Officer.

Working closely with Programs, MEL, Legal Affairs, and Audit & Risk Management, the Grant Operations Director will ensure that grant processes are robust, scalable, and technology-enabled, giving MBZFH’s leadership and governance bodies confidence that grant funds are well controlled, accurately tracked, and demonstrably delivering value.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

Design and Own MBZFH’s Grant-making Strategy

• Design and oversee MBZFH’s grant-making strategy, ensuring funding approaches, instruments and portfolio-level decisions are aligned with the Foundation’s mission and funding priorities.
• Translate MBZFH’s strategic priorities as set by the DG, leadership team and Strategy & Planning function into a coherent grant-making approach, including funding instruments (e.g. grants, technical assistance), eligibility criteria and portfolio balance.
• Advise the Chief Operations Officer, Chief Programs Officer and DG on how grant operating design choices (e.g. disbursement structures, reporting requirements, risk tiering) should reflect and reinforce the Foundation’s strategic and funding priorities.
• Represent the grant-making strategy and operating model to governance bodies and external partners as needed, ensuring funding decisions are explainable, consistent and defensible.

Design and Lead MBZFH’s Grant Operating System

• Develop and maintain the policies, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), templates and approval workflows that govern the grant lifecycle, from pipeline entry through close-out.
• Establish a grant operating model that is disciplined and controlled, but also practical and fit for a fast-scaling philanthropic organisation.
• Own the standard grant agreement terms and conditions, budget and costing guidelines, and disbursement request templates, working with Legal Affairs and Programs to keep them current.

Manage Grant intake, applications and assessments 

• Establish and oversee the process for grant intake, application, eligibility screening, proposal assessment and funding recommendation, ensuring consistent criteria, documentation, scoring and decision record.
• Ensure grant opportunities and proposals are assessed against the Foundation’s strategic priorities, eligibility requirements, feasibility, risk profile and funding criteria before progressing to due diligence and approval. 

Govern Grant Approval and Decision Making

• Establish and maintain grant approval workflows in accordance with MBZFH’s Delegation of Authority, including approval thresholds, committee processes, conflict-of-interest requirements, conditions of approval and decision records.
• Ensure grants are presented to the appropriate governance or approval bodies with complete assessment, due diligence, financial, risk and programmatic documentation.

Ensure Documentation, Compliance and Audit Readiness

• Ensure strong documentation, compliance and audit readiness across the entire project lifecycle, so that every grant can withstand internal and external scrutiny at any point.
• Define auditing and verification requirements for grants in collaboration with the Audit & Risk Management function and ensure these are reflected in grant agreement standard terms.
• Maintain a complete grant record system, audit trail and reporting repository that supports both day-to-day operations and periodic audits.
• Own and maintain MBZFH’s grant due diligence framework, processes and coordinate its execution across Programs, MEL, Legal Affairs and Audit & Risk Management, ensuring assessments, documentation, risk findings, mitigation actions and approvals are properly sequenced and recorded.
• Establish a risk-based due diligence approach that classifies grants and partners according to financial, operational, programmatic, compliance, geographic and reputational risk, with proportionate review, monitoring, reporting and assurance requirements

Own Grant Systems, Data Integrity and Technology

• Oversee configuration of MBZFH’s grant management system(s), including workflows, user permissions and data integrity controls.
• Define IT-enabled CRM, workflow and data system requirements for grant operations, working with Business Operations/IT to implement and maintain them.
• Build systems that can scale with the Foundation’s growth in grant volume, complexity and geographic reach.
• Develop and maintain portfolio-level grant reporting and executive dashboards covering pipeline, approvals, commitments, disbursements, utilisation, forecasts, performance, risk, compliance, amendments and close-out status.

Manage the Grant Lifecycle: Agreements, Disbursements, Amendments and Close-Out

• Support grant agreement drafting and ensure agreements are properly recorded in MBZFH’s systems once executed.
• Track reporting and compliance during implementation, and manage the disbursement workflow, including performance-based disbursements where applicable.
• Establish escalation and exception management protocols for material underperformance, reporting delays, non-compliance, financial irregularities, audit findings, significant budget deviations and other issues requiring remediation, suspension, recovery of funds or termination.
• Manage re-programming, amendments and close-out documentation, and review close-out documents for completeness prior to archiving.
• Support archiving of project evaluations and ensure institutional memory is preserved for future programme design and renewals.

Oversee Program Finance

• Establish and oversee financial management requirements for grants, including budget review, cost reasonableness, value for money, cash-flow requirements, disbursement readiness, financial reporting, reconciliation, unspent balances and financial close-out.
• Work closely with corporate finance (Business Operations) to ensure coherence between program-level and institutional-level financial controls.

Support Partners, Training and Change Management

• Support implementing partners on process requirements and maintain clear user guidance and training materials for both internal teams and external grantees.
• Lead onboarding of new partners and internal teams to MBZFH’s grant processes as the Foundation’s portfolio and partner base grow.
• Anticipate and manage the change-management challenges of introducing new systems and controls into a still-forming organisation.
• Establish a structured partner management approach covering onboarding, capacity assessment, risk classification, performance history, remediation and escalation for recurring or strategic grantees.

Build and Lead the Grant Operations Function

• Build, lead and develop a high performing Grant Operations team, establishing clear roles, responsibilities, service standards, performance expectations and capability requirements as MBZFH grant portfolio scales.
• Develop team capability in grant governance, due diligence, financial oversight, systems, partner management and portfolio reporting.

First 12 Months – Success Outcomes

• Grant policies, SOPs and approval workflows are established, consistent and being followed across the project lifecycle.
• A functioning grant management system is in place, with reliable data, reporting and audit trail.
• Complete, accurate programmatic and financial documentation is maintained across the grant lifecycle, with disbursement readiness checks completed reliably and on time.
• Grant Operations is seamlessly coordinating with Programs, MEL, Legal Affairs and Audit & Risk Management, with clear, agreed handoffs at each stage of the project lifecycle.
• Partners and internal teams are efficiently onboarded to MBZFH’s grant processes, supported by clear user guidance and training.
• Grant budgets across the portfolio represent value for money and are fully accounted for.
• A risk-based due diligence and grant classification framework is operational and consistently applied across the portfolio.
• Executive grant portfolio reporting and dashboards provide reliable visibility over approvals, commitments, disbursements, performance, risk and compliance.
• The Grant Operations function is established with clear roles, responsibilities and service standards.

Profile

Education

• Advanced university degree in finance, business administration, public administration, international development or another relevant discipline.
• Professional certifications in grants management, financial management, audit or programme management (e.g. CPA, ACCA, CIA, PMP) are an asset.

Experience

The successful candidate will bring significant senior-level experience in building or running grant operations, fund administration, or programme compliance functions within a foundation, donor agency, or development assistance organisation, ideally including experience establishing systems and controls at an early or growth stage.

• 12+ years of experience in grant management, fund operations or programme compliance within a foundation or development assistance agency.
• Strong understanding of grant systems, processes and documentation standards, including experience building or improving grant processes, digital workflows, and grant data repository systems.
• Familiarity with audit procedures, due diligence and donor compliance requirements, and experience coordinating auditing requirements with co-funding partners.
• Detail-oriented, structured and comfortable working across functions, with the ability to ensure accountability with senior-level counterparts in Programs, MEL, Legal Affairs and Audit & Risk Management.
• A strong understanding of how grant systems translate into disciplined, auditable funding on the ground.
• Experience working with or building IT-enabled grant management systems, CRMs or comparable case-management platforms is strongly preferred.
• Experience designing grant governance, approval, due diligence, and risk-management frameworks for significant institutional or philanthropic funding.
• Experience presenting grant recommendations, portfolio performance and material risks to executive leadership or governance committees.

Key Competencies 

• Strong systems-building orientation, with the ability to design grant operating infrastructure from the ground up in a still-forming organisation.
• Deep understanding of grant management, fund operations and donor/programme compliance, including audit and due diligence practice.
• Ability to hold cross-functional accountability with senior counterparts in Programs, MEL, Legal Affairs and Audit & Risk Management, without formal authority over those teams.
• Detail orientation combined with the judgement to balance rigour against operational efficiency.
• Comfort operating in a start-up or scale-up philanthropic environment where systems, governance rhythms and ways of working are still being built.
• Strong written communication skills, particularly for policies, SOPs and training materials that will be used by both internal teams and external partners.
• Strategic and commercial judgement with the ability to balance impact, risk, value for money and operational practicality.
• Strong people leadership and team-development capability.
• Strong financial acumen and ability to critically assess grant budgets, financial risks and value for money.

Languages

Fluency in English is essential. 

Terms of Appointment

This is a two-year renewable contract.

Role Location

The role is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with occasional travel.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please ensure you complete the Application Form provided below by 14 September 2026 (23:59 hrs, GMT +4). It is essential that you submit your CV in English, specifically in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx), not exceeding 10MB.

Applications in other languages or formats will not be considered.

Rest assured, all information will be handled with the utmost confidentiality.

SRI Executive is exclusively retained by the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity to undertake this assignment.