Senior Manager, Innovation Fund at GSM Association (GSMA)

About the Role

This role will be responsible to manage the three rounds of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (2022 to 2027) whose first round will kick start in 2022. The responsibilities for the successful candidate will be:

• Setting up of each round of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, together with relevant internal stakeholders
• Successful operational delivery of each round of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund: this consists of the ownership of the whole process end-to-end (launch, short-listing, due diligence, Fund Panel, contracting, in-flight grant and closure) and the direct management of a handful of grantees
• Contributing towards shaping the overall strategic direction (including roadmap) of the GSMA Humanitarian Innovation Fund, to ensure that GSMA continues to deliver valuable support to its members and other stakeholders
• Ensuring that a close collaboration model with other teams is being always fostered, ensuring that the relevant information flows between teams and defined roles and responsibilities are adhered to. This applies, in particular, to:
  • The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation programme, whose learnings and results of the Fund are essential to the programme’s theory of change
  • The GSMA Operations team
  • The GSMA compliance team and external Fund Manager
  • Where synergies are relevant, the broader Innovation Fund team
• Line management of a new team

About You

We welcome applications from individuals with the following demonstrated qualifications and experience:

• A demonstrable and substantial experience in grant management in low and middle-income countries is an absolute must-have for this role
• A demonstrable track record of managing complex projects, with multiple stakeholders’ engagements, and within predefined budget and timelines is a must have for this role
• A demonstrable track record of collaborating with a diverse set of internal (operations, compliance, subject-matter experts…) or external stakeholders is a must-have for this role
• Strong presentation skills with the ability of representing the Innovation Fund to external stakeholders (e.g. Fund Panel etc…) is a must have for this role
• An ability to think creatively of solutions to new challenges or a changing environment and adapt to them
• Experience of/genuinely interested in both the commercial and social benefits that are presented by mobile access and use in low and middle-income countries
• Experience or understanding on how mobile / digital can support the delivery of humanitarian assistance is desirable.
• Strong interpersonal skills are highly desirable