Business Manager, Budgets, Contracts, and Grants

Job Summary

HarvestPlus, a program of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), seeks a Business Manager for Budgets, Contracts, and Grants. This role is pivotal in managing and overseeing the financial operations for HarvestPlus, including budget, allocations, financial reporting, and donor grants and contract management. HarvestPlus enhances nutrition and public health by advancing biofortified food crops and contributing to CGIAR’s mission for a food-secure future.

The Business Manager will lead the budget and contracts team, manage financial transactions, and work closely with HarvestPlus country offices, its partners, as well as the IFPRI finance team. This position will be based in Washington, D.C.

Essential Duties

• Financial Management:
  • Oversee all aspects of financial management, coordinate annual budgets, financial forecasts, and management reports, ensuring alignment with internal and external reporting requirements.
    • Develop and manage the budget for IFPRI HarvestPlus Program, estimated at $12M - $18M annually, with a focus on allocating budgets by funding source, monitoring, and ensuring appropriate allocation of all financial transactions.
    • Develop, coordinate and review HarvestPlus unit budgets administered through host centers (Alliance/CIAT, IITA, ICRISAT, and ILRI).
    • Review, monitor, and facilitate fund requirements and transfers to host centers, in accordance with respective project activities.
    • Prepare and provide budget updates to the HarvestPlus Leadership team and HarvestPlus advisory board and other financial reports such as the annual Supplemental Schedule on HarvestPlus Statement of Cash receipts and Disbursements, as required.
    • Facilitate transition of delivery operations to the new spin off entity, HarvestPlus Solutions (HPS) working in collaboration with the HPS controller / CFO.
• Grant and Contract Management:
  • Manage core and restricted grants (currently about 12 – 15 grants annually), proposal budgets, and financial communications with donors and implementing partners.
    • Prepare and/or review annual, mid-term or quarterly financial reports to donors and partners, and budget forecasts, ensuring timely submission to donors.
    • Monitor expected donor contributions and timely submission of invoices to donors.
    • Coordinate internal audits with IFPRI Finance and host centers, audit assessments and due diligence surveys.
    • Facilitate fund transfers and monitor in-country budgets for operations based at host centers, including Alliance/CIAT, IITA, ICRISAT, and ILRI, in accordance with grant agreements and related grant activities.
    • Develop and/or review proposal budgets for submission to donors.
  • Oversee the processing and approval of contracts, subcontracts to implementing partners, vendor payments, and agreements (about 150-180 sub-grantees annually) in coordination with the IFPRI Contracts & Grants team.
    • Review collaborator contract workplan budgets and approve processing of contracts, and subsequent contract payments and expenditure reports.
    • Coordinate with key implementing partners to transition delivery operations, ensuring proper allocations by funding source and financial transaction accuracy.
    • Monitor HarvestPlus’ contracts’ commitments, disbursements, and deliverables.
    • Review budget and contracts team procedures, approval matrices, contracts and General Provisions templates (in coordination with IFPRI Contracts & Grants team) to ensure compliance with donor requirements.
• Finance Team Leadership and Oversight:
  • With the initial support of the outgoing business manager, lead the budgets and contracts team of 3-4 at HQ and 5-7 in-country, supporting staff capacity-building and fostering professional development, human resource coordination, and ensuring smooth financial and operational transitions of delivery operations from HarvestPlus to HPS in alignment with organizational priorities.
  • Review agreements (teaming, non-disclosure, sub-grant, donor) and coordinate approvals and documentation with IFPRI Finance.
• Financial Policy and System Development:
  • Develop and implement financial policies and practices to enhance process efficiency and internal controls.
  • Establish systems to streamline operations across HarvestPlus partners, HarvestPlus Solutions, and country offices. Work with country offices to identify gaps in current financial systems and communicate with IFPRI Finance for resolution.

Required Qualifications

• Education:
  • Bachelor’s degree (Business, Finance, or Accounting) with 10–12 years of relevant experience, or a master’s degree with at least 7 years in a related field.
• Experience:
  • Minimum of 2–4 years in a managerial role with demonstrated leadership and performance evaluation experience.
  • Proven experience in managing budgets, financial reporting, and working effectively in a multi-cultural, fast-paced environment.
• Skills:
  • Strong writing skills with the ability to create financial narratives and program documents.
  • Proficiency in MS Office, particularly Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Salary Range: The expected salary range for this job requisition is between $85,600 - $104,900. In determining your salary, we will consider your experience and other job-related factors.

Benefits: IFPRI is committed to providing our staff members with valuable and competitive benefits, as it is a core part of providing strong overall employee experience. This position is eligible for health insurance coverage and a summary of our benefits can be found on our website. Please note that the listed benefits are generally available to active, non-temporary, full-time and part-time US-based employees who work at least 25 hours per week.

IFPRI Washington D.C. has a hybrid work environment that allows staff members a minimum of two days (preference for 3 days) in-office work and the remaining two to three days remote work.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an equal employment opportunity employer - F/M/Disability/Vet/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity.