Operations Officer

Job Vacancy 

We are hiring to fill a vacancy for the position of Operations Officer. To fill this position, we are looking for a highly motivated person who is passionate about women’s rights in Africa, excited about African feminisms, and embraces African women’s diversity to join our team.

 

➢ Operations Officer

 

Background 

As a pan-African feminist fund, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) resources, strengthens and upholds women’s rights and feminist organisations and movements across Africa, in order to make gender justice a reality for all on our continent and worldwide. 

Over the past 24 years, AWDF has  awarded approximately USD 100 million to women’s rights and feminist organisations throughout Africa (and in selected Middle Eastern countries through one of our initiatives). Through its grantmaking, programmatic and advocacy work, AWDF has supported work that led to changes in law and policy, social norms, narrative, and movement-building for gender justice. 

Building on its strong track record, in 2023 AWDF launched Lemlem, a ten-year strategic framework (2023-2033), which guides its efforts to advance gender equality and gender justice for girls, women and gender-diverse people across Africa.  At its core, the strategy’s focus is on resourcing, nurturing and strengthening those who are best placed to achieve transformative change: African women’s and feminist groups, organisations and movements. 

 

Operations Officer: 

 

Are you a dynamic individual  with experience in Salesforce administration and interested in supporting the redesign and maintenance of other technology improvements,  planning,   communication, testing and troubleshooting,  documentation and training?

 

Are you excited about supporting the project management initiatives including organisational planning processes and coordination as the administrator of the Project Management Tool (Asana)?

 

Are you  keen to contribute to organisation-wide  project management through the project management tool,  tracking and collaborating across the organisation  to ensure AWDF delivers on its commitments both internally and  externally? We would like you to join our team! 

 

TEAM PURPOSE/ RATIONALE/MANDATE 

The operations team  works across the entire organisation  by contributing to strengthening  AWDF's organisational systems structures and processes. The team is focused on  improving the quality and efficiency of organisational  tools and systems to support our staff, grantee partners and ways of working with the goal of developing and maintaining fit for purpose IT infrastructure across AWDF to deliver our ambitious agenda. The team is responsible for managing day to day systems operations including software, hardware and other tools needed to do our work efficiently and effectively as well as ensure data quality, protection and security. The team contributes to providing insights and guidance on dealing with identified systems operational challenges, supporting efficient workflows and organisational systems change management processes.

 

Job Summary 

The Operations Officer will work in close collaboration across the organisation with programmes and operations teams to support AWDF's grant application and donor management information and process flow, to continually improve and enhance our Salesforce platform as an integrated system, gathering requirements and feedback, designing scalable best practice and integrated solutions, and managing the product road map with the support of external consultants. AWDF’s Salesforce user experience is of great importance to the organisation, therefore the Operations Officer should be committed to and enjoy all aspects of user management including  training, and designing solutions with user satisfaction as a priority. The Officer also supports the project management initiatives including organisational planning processes and coordination as the administrator of the Project Management Tool (Asana). The Officer reports to the DoO and DoP and her/their role is crosscutting between Programmes and Operations. 

 

Specific Duties 

Salesforce Data and System Administration 

• Serve as the Administrator and support the  redesign and maintenance of   - Salesforce  and other technology improvements  plans  and timelines,  communication, systems testing and troubleshooting, documentation and training  
• Administer the current and future resourcing and donor management database  systems in Salesforce including managing data quality, retrieval, coding and  reporting  
• Customise  resourcing templates as well as online forms on Salesforce or any other online sites in English, French, and possibly Portuguese and Arabic. 
• Develop and maintain online correspondence and notification 
• Implement and maintain protocols for testing and reconciling data and making accurate and timely database changes
• Manage system upgrades, troubleshooting and rollout of updates including staff notification and training
• Manage Salesforce configuration changes, including (but not limited to): Flow, fields, page layouts, record types, custom settings, dashboards and reports
• Develop training materials and maintain electronic manuals  and document system procedure changes and train users on any  update.  
• Support the administration of the resourcing process  working closely with other members of the  Programmes team 
• Support the generation of periodic reports and analyses of  grantmaking activities including applicant and grants statistics,  grantees summaries, reports on trending issues, desk reports, donor  reports as well as other special reports

Grant Management and Programmes Support

• Support the Resourcing  team to monitor grants portfolios as well as  track grantees at various grant stages 
• Support Agency and Resilience team to track organisations (pre  applicant and/or grantee) at various stages and ensure links  between Agency and Resilience  and Resourcing 
• Monitor and document the  Resourcing workflow processes, forms,  templates, reports and data to assure full compliance with internal  controls 
• Liaise with the DoO to ensure adequate paper and electronic document retention. 
• Liaise with the DoP to ensure data and information on programmes (Nurturing Cluster Initiatives) is integrated and linked to the Programmes learning agenda 
• Evaluate evolving user needs on an ongoing basis and make  modifications to the grant database as needed and an ongoing  maintenance of data integrity and accuracy .

Donor Management support 

• Work closely with the Partnerships and Philanthropy ( P & P) team to track donor  funding allocations (specifically donor spending and grant conditions throughout the grant period
• Support the P&P team to create reports and dashboards for analysis to help management to effectively track donor spending and allocations

Project management 

• Work closely with the DoO and DoP in organisation-wide project management through the project management tool tracking and collaborations to ensure AWDF delivers on its commitments both internally and  externally 
• Support the maintenance of an integrated platform between the grants database and the resource mobilisation database etc
• Ensure relevant AWDF Staff receive on-going training and  support on use of the Salesforce system and project management tools

Knowledge,  Learning and Evaluation

• Keep abreast of relevant systems updates, share knowledge  and learning with team members and other internal and external  stakeholders as appropriate 
• Produce information and analysis about AWDF’s grants and  other Programmes  processes and other project updates 
• Work with the Impact and Learning team to ensure the system supports the  collection, analysis and storage of data and information for efficient  and robust monitoring, evaluation and learning.  

 

Essential Knowledge and Experience 

• Demonstrated experience working with Salesforce, and a systems mindset 
• Knowledge of Salesforce Non-profit Starter Pack will be an asset
• Ability to manage projects from inception to completion with an ability to synthesise  information in an analytical and systematic manner
• Knowledge of women’s rights and gender equality issues. 
• Knowledge and work experience in the African women’s rights, grant making and/or civil  society environment.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral. This includes the ability to make effective  presentations to internal and external stakeholders as required.
• Good interpersonal relationship skills and strong team player 
• Ability to work with diverse groups of people
• Demonstrated ability to initiate and manage projects, 
• Strong time-management skills and ability to multi-task
• Ability to work with minimal supervision, and provide a high level of professionalism
• Ability to work flexible working hours 
• Ability to travel within Africa and internationally when necessary
• A passion for women’s rights and a commitment to AWDF’s feminist values

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree or other relevant qualification. 
• At least 5 years relevant working experience  with Salesforce and any project management tools etc.
• Minimum of two years of experience as a Salesforce administrator : Salesforce Admin (ADM201 and ADM211) certified 
• General experience in working in the development/ human rights fields in Africa; experience of  working in grant making and management will be advantageous 
• Excellent command of oral and written English  

Job Location 

AWDF House, Accra – Ghana or work remotely from any African country where you have the legal right to work from. 

Organisational Competencies: 

All staff members must demonstrate AWDF Core values in all their professional relationships and any interactions that may reflect on AWDF: 

Accountability & Integrity 

Solidarity & Collective care 

Intersectionality & Meaningful Inclusion 

Learning & Adaptability 

Courage & Joy 

Creativity & Curiosity 

AWDF has a Zero Tolerance Approach to all forms of corruption which is an offence for which immediate dismissal without benefits will result. 

 

Salary range: USD  24,824 - USD  43,443 (annually) 

● Midpoint: USD 34,133  (annually) 

● In practice, we only make offers between the entry point and the midpoint of our salary scale (i.e. between  USD  24,824 - USD  34,133 (annually) 

 

How to Apply: 

Qualified and interested persons should send: 

A cover letter of not more than 2 pages to the Human Resources Manager explaining their interest and excitement in applying for the position to work for AWDF; and highlighting their experience and competencies as they relate to the specific areas of duties indicated in the vacancy to demonstrate a good fit for the role. 

A CV of not more than 3 pages outlining their educational qualifications and employment records with key achievements on relevant positions held. 

Applications for the vacancy should reach AWDF no later than Wednesday, 11th December 2024. Due to the volume of applications that may be received, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for additional information and interviews. 

In line with AWDF’s Mission, qualified African women are encouraged to apply.