Role Mission
The Contract Management & Liaison area serves as the central interface between Member Associations (MAs) and the International Development Support (IDS) units. The team manages the full support delivery lifecycle, from planning and contracting to coordination of delivery and follow-up. It ensures that MAs' requested demand is translated into clear support requests, funding arrangements, and available capacity. By maintaining a holistic overview of MA engagements, the team supports effective coordination across support domains, and consistent MA relationship management. The goal is to ensure that MAs receive timely, coherent, and value-adding support while enabling efficient planning, proper governance, compliance, and reporting, and to build trusted partnerships to achieve the overall SOS mission.
The Head of the Contract Management & Liaison (CML) Unit provides strategic leadership, governance, and coordination of the IDS contractual engagements across the federation. The role leads the federation-wide coordination of strategic support & service agreements, cooperation frameworks, externally funded engagements, and operational partnership mechanisms between IDS, Member Associations (MAs), Promoting & Supporting Associations (PSAs), donors, and internal functions.
The position leads the integrated IDS engagement including Member Association liaison structures, support planning coordination, demand capture processes, strategic portfolio oversight, governance frameworks, operational escalation coordination, and digital contract management systems.
The position acts as a central liaison and relationship management function within IDS, ensuring alignment between federation, IDS, members' priorities, contractual commitments, operational delivery, financial sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. Working closely with the IDS Leadership Team, the role provides strategic advisory support to the COO and senior leadership on contracting models, MA engagement trends, service demand management, operational risks, delivery coordination, and partnership sustainability across the federation landscape.
The role also drives the evolution of the federation’s integrated contract management ecosystem, including governance frameworks, digital tools, reporting mechanisms, demand capture processes, support planning coordination, and strategic portfolio oversight.
Key Tasks and Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Federation Contracting Coordination
- Provide strategic leadership and direction for the CML unit. Lead and manage a globally distributed CML team operating within a complex international matrix.
- Provide strategic direction, coaching, prioritization, and performance oversight to MAs Relationship Advisor, contracting advisors, and coordination staff.
- Advise the COO, Executive Board, and IDS Leadership Team on strategic contractual governance, operational coordination, and Member Association relationship matters.
- Promote strong collaboration and alignment between IDS, MAs, PSAs, donors, and internal support structures.
- Provide strategic analysis, briefing materials, risk assessments, and scenario modelling to support leadership decision-making.
Contract Portfolio Leadership & Governance
- Provide strategic oversight of the IDS agreement portfolio, including Support Domain Agreements (SDA), Cooperation Agreements (CA), Externally Funded Agreements (EFA), Actual Use Agreements (AU) frameworks.
- Ensure effective coordination of agreement lifecycles from demand capture through planning, implementation coordination, amendments, monitoring, reporting, and closure.
- Oversee contract governance, compliance, risk management, and escalation mechanisms across agreement types.
- Coordinate with Legal, Finance, MA IDS Leads and operational teams on strategic contractual matters and governance decisions.
- Support standardization, simplification, and continuous improvement of contracting and engagement processes across IDS.
Demand Capture, Service Planning & Operational Coordination
- Lead federation-wide coordination of the IDS demand capture and support planning process.
- Ensure strategic alignment between MA demand, operational capacity, resource availability, funding outlooks, and service delivery priorities.
- Support scenario planning and operational modelling related to funding risks, MA participation trends, and service sustainability.
- Guide optimization of support catalogues, service packages, operational coordination models, and engagement frameworks.
MAs Liaison & Relationship Management
- Lead the strategic relationship management and liaison framework between IDS and Member Associations across the federation.
- Serve as a senior engagement focal point for National Directors, MA leadership teams, PSAs, and key federation stakeholders regarding IDS services, support frameworks, and operational coordination.
- Ensure proactive engagement, communication, follow-up, and relationship continuity with MAs throughout the lifecycle of support planning, contracting, implementation coordination, escalation handling, and service delivery follow-up.
- Support early identification and management of relationship risks, operational concerns, funding uncertainties, dissatisfaction trends, and escalation cases requiring leadership intervention.
Digital Transformation & Operational Excellence
- Lead design and utilization of dashboards, Power BI reporting, analytics tools, portfolio insights, and management information systems.
- Lead modernization and digitalization initiatives related to contract lifecycle management, stakeholder coordination, service tracking, workflow automation, e-signature solutions, and reporting systems.
- Support implementation of integrated digital platforms for operational coordination, contract governance, effort tracking, and portfolio management.
- Promote operational excellence, process simplification, scalability, and standardization across federation engagement and coordination processes.
Responsibilities to uphold safeguarding standards and promote a safe environment
- Commit to the Code of Conduct and reflect on the safeguarding implications of your work on an ongoing basis.
- Actively participate in team discussions to identify risks and share and apply preventative and mitigation measures and strategies.
- Integrate safeguarding principles into your daily decisions and tasks.
- Report any safeguarding concerns promptly and in line with procedures.
- Promote values-based culture, accountability and zero tolerance of harm.
Job Requirements
- Undergraduate degree in Business Administration, International Development, Law, Finance, or related field.
- Desirable: Postgraduate diploma or Master’s degree in Contract Management, Procurement, Project Governance, or a related field. Professional certification such as Contract Management Certification (CCMP) or equivalent, Procurement certification, or Project Management certification (PMP/PRINCE2).
- Minimum of 8 to 10 years of experience including 4+ years of experience in senior leadership or Lead/ Head of unit roles within international NGOs, donor funded programs or other international organizations.
- Experience in contract management, procurement, office management, or business administration within international NGOs or donor-funded programmes.
- Demonstrated expertise in drafting, negotiating, and managing contracts in compliance with donor regulations and organizational policies.
- Experience conducting compliance reviews, identifying risks, and supporting mitigation measures.
- Exposure to financial coordination tasks such as budget verification and assessing the cost implications of contractual decisions.
- Knowledge of financial management practices, including financial impact assessments, cost–benefit analyses, and managing budget implications related to contractual decisions.
- Experience contributing to risk management and audit readiness, including the implementation of compliance processes and support for contract audits.
Technical Skills & Competencies
- Contract lifecycle management and compliance – Advanced
- Contract drafting, coordination, and negotiation – Intermediate
- Negotiation and dispute resolution in multi-stakeholder environments – Intermediate
- Contract amendment and renewal processes – Intermediate
- Compliance and governance frameworks – Intermediate
- Working knowledge of e-signature and workflow automation platforms (e.g., DocuSign, Adobe Sign) – Beginner
Other Competencies and Soft Skills
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships and influence diverse stakeholder groups.
- Accountability and ownership of assigned contracts, ensuring accuracy and compliance.
- Negotiation capabilities to manage complex discussions with professionalism.
- Critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address complex and ambiguous situations.
- Strong attention to detail and organizational skills to ensure accuracy, compliance, and timely delivery.
- Cross-cultural competence and ability to work effectively with diverse international teams.
- Adaptability to changing priorities.
- Emotional intelligence, including the ability to recognize and respond constructively to the perspectives of others.
- Result Orientation: Ability to deliver against contracting KPIs, timelines, and compliance standards.
Ways of Working
- Global collaboration and communication – Working effectively across countries, cultures, and time zones by maintaining clear communication, transparency, and shared understanding within distributed teams.
- Cross-functional collaboration – Working closely with colleagues across different functions and areas of expertise to combine knowledge, solve problems collectively, and deliver meaningful outcomes aligned with the organisation’s mission.
- Effective collaboration within matrix structures – Working constructively within solid and dotted reporting lines by maintaining open communication, aligning priorities with both line and functional managers, and ensuring clarity on roles, responsibilities, and expectations to support coordinated delivery across teams.
- Flexibility and adaptability – Remaining responsive to evolving contexts and adjusting priorities, approaches, and ways of collaboration as projects, services, or organisational demand evolve.
- Ownership and accountability – Taking responsibility for advancing tasks and initiatives, proactively addressing obstacles, and ensuring that commitments, decisions, and actions are carried through to completion, taking initiative within your scope of responsibility rather than waiting for direction.
- Strengthening member associations and their autonomy – Ensuring that knowledge, tools, and lessons from projects and services are shared with member associations so they can learn from the work carried out and progressively strengthen their capacity and independence.
- Continuous feedback and transparency - Contributing to a culture where feedback and data are shared openly and constructively, enabling teams and stakeholders involved to reflect, learn, and continuously improve their work and impact.
