The San Juan Bay Estuary Program (Estuario) is seeking a Compliance Officer to join our highly skilled grants management team. This position will help ensure successful management of grants funded by federal and local government agencies.
The Estuario is a private non-profit organization that designs, implements, and provides restorative maintenance in order to improve the water quality and ecosystems within its eight municipalities. Estuario’s mission is to restore and conserve the water quality in the Estuario de la Bahía de San Juan ecosystem as a sustainable hub of social and economic development.
Estuario is the only tropical estuary in the National Estuary Program, providing not only environmental and resiliency programs, but also educational and recreational activities that support thriving communities.
The Estuario’s work is guided by the development and implementation of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). In collaboration with local, state, and federal agencies, NGOs, academic, and business leaders, the Estuario works to restore and conserve water quality in the San Juan Bay Estuary ecosystem. The Estuario works to build partnerships and leverage federal funding for regional-scale restoration, water quality improvement, and resilience-building projects.
The Compliance Officer will report to the Grants and Compliance Manager and support the management of a sustainable grants program that will further the organization’s mission of restoring and conserving water quality in the San Juan Bay Estuary ecosystem.
Responsibilities
- Oversee grant compliance with all required regulations during all stages of grant mangement lifecycle – preaward, award phase/project implementation, and post award phases.
- Support Grants and Compliance Manager in developing strategies, best practices, and tools for grants management and compliance
- Capacity building and support to staff and service providers to ensure grants are managed in compliance with donor requirements, this includes refresher workshops/presentations, onboarding new contractors, creating contractor manuals etc.
- Draft project contracts, including a detailed scope of work, specific tasks, project deliverables and project budget to ensure compliance with work plan and funding requirements
- Assist grants mangement and operations team with onboarding new contractors regarding compliance, invoicing, procurements, and purchasing procedures, etc
- Manage federal resources web portals, tools, and systems, including Grants.gov, ASAP.gov, eGrants, DUNs, and sam.gov as needed
- Review invoices and other supporting documentation to evaluate compliance with terms of the contract, work plans, and grant requirements, and assure that contracts for projects are properly executed and being conducted in a timely fashion.
- Carry out monitoring and reporting of projects and advise Grants and Compliance Manager, and other staff as needed, of areas requiring action or attention
- Support in the progress of work plans related to projects by reviewing the project activities, deliverables, reports, and invoices of services providers and advise project staff of areas requiring action or attention, as well as attending contractors’ monthly progress meetings
- Support the development of customized grants reports for funders as per funding agreements, as well as for senior management that demonstrates the impact of Estuario’s projects and initiatives
- Collaborate in design of metrics, performance measures, streamlining of internal processes, audit support on site verification, data quality via field visits, and other related activities that will ensure donor compliance is achieved
- Analyze and propose alternatives for best funding and reporting integration with multiple sources of funding
- Ensure that expected funding for grants is recorded accurately to support income tracking and reporting. This includes the development of balance sheets, account reconciliation, cash flow analysis, evaluation of expense reports and other necessary reports.
- Support purchasing and procurement processes in compliance with Estuario’s internal policies and procedures and grant requirements.
- Support drafting of all letters of support and memorandums of understanding as required by grantors as needed
- Support the development of job descriptions for open positions and participate in the selection of future service providers to ensure responsibilities are aligned with the established work plan and deliverables and contribute to Estuario’s compliance with grants and work plans
- Support grants management and operations team with procurement and purchasing procedures to ensure compliance with work plans, and enforce compliance with internal policies as needed
- Meet regularly with Grants and Compliance Manager and submit reports on a regular basis.
QUALIFICATIONS
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
- Bachelor’s Degree required, Master’s Degree a plus in Public Administration, Public Policy, Management, Business Administration, Accounting or related fields
- Over 2 years of experience in grant and/or project administration and coordination, preferably experience with nonprofit administration
- Experience working with procedures governing state, federal, and private grant proposal submissions, funder selection criteria and post-award funder expectations, preferred.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES
- Knowledge of federal, state and donor regulations
- Knowledge of the program management cycle design, monitoring and evaluation
- Strong oral, written, and graphic communication skills
- Strong level of independence; flexible and a self-starter; able to manage multiple projects at a time while also being highly detail oriented with an attention to quality.
- Demonstrate excellent creative, strategic, analytical and, organizational skills and strong process orientation.
- Detail-oriented, with strong planning, time management, and administrative skills
- Ability to work under pressure, in a team, and for long hours if required
- Computer literacy in Microsoft Office, cloud-based data access and share software such as Google Drive, and other software such as Adobe, etc required.
- Experience in working in environmental conservation and/or development a plus
- Proven track record of coaching and capacity building
- Experience working in financial reporting and/or billing preferred
- Ability to communicate technical information to a broad range of stakeholders
- Willingness to seek collaborative solutions to complex environmental challenges
- Ability to collect, compile, analyze, and evaluate a complex set of inputs and present the findings and conclusions clearly and effectively.
COMPENSATION
Commensurate with experience.
LANGUAGE REQUIRED:
Fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
Funds: EPA Grant 28
How to Apply:
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume/CV by email no later than September 30, 2022 to: [email protected]. The email must be directed to Brenda Torres, Executive Director, and must specify in the subject the title of the position, «Compliance Officer».
The Corporation for the Conservation of the SJBE provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or genetics. MBE/WBE and other certified minorities and small businesses are encouraged to apply.
