Compliance & Governance Coordinator – UK

Location: Edinburgh, UK
Position Status: Full-time, Regular
Salary: starting circa 27,280 GBP – range flexible based on professional experience

Closing date: Candidates must submit applications before August 6th

Candidates must have the independent right to work in UK at the time of appointment

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Mercy Corps Europe (MCE) has grown rapidly both in terms of the volume of activity and its complexity. With offices in Edinburgh, London and The Hague, we now attract over £120m in income annually, and employ more than 100 domestic and expatriate field team members. The breadth and impact of our programmes makes Mercy Corps a unique and truly rewarding place to work. Our teams are proud of what we achieve in the field and we are always looking for talented individuals who share our passion and commitment.

Mercy Corps Netherlands (MCNL) was established in December 2017. It operates in collaboration with its sister organisations, Mercy Corps Global (MCG) and Mercy Corps Europe (MCE) as one global organisation. All three entities share the same mission, vision, core values and charitable objectives, as well as operational resources for the support and implementation of programme activities.

The Role

We are looking for a Compliance and Governance Coordinator to join our European team, based in our Edinburgh office. The role will sit within the European Compliance, Governance and Risk team, working alongside the Mercy Corps Global Compliance and Legal teams to ensure that Mercy Corps fulfils its responsibility to donors, the NGO community, implementing partners and other stakeholders, and is in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

The Compliance and Governance Coordinator plays a vital role in the organisation by:

• Assisting the European Compliance, Governance and Risk (CGR) team in managing organisational and donor compliance of Mercy Corps Programmes and subawards;
• Supporting efforts to ensure MCE’s compliance to statutory requirements and good governance;
• Coordinating the CGR team and communicating closely and working collaboratively with a variety of other HQ units and other departments, including Programme and Finance teams, Country Offices, US-based counterparts, to ensure that, whenever possible, approaches are globally consistent.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a detail-focused, organised and ambitious individual, interested in a career in the NGO sector. You will be joining the fast-growing European entity of a leading global agency, helping people in some of the world’s toughest places turn the crises of natural disaster, poverty and conflict into opportunities for progress.

Essential Responsibilities

EUROPEAN DONOR COMPLIANCE

• Assist in monitoring and ensuring compliance with European donors’ rules and regulations and Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures.
• Review and update required donor registrations.
• Maintain a suite of standard due diligence responses for European donors.
• Coordinate responses to donor due diligence requests and populate standard responses.
• Support the team in researching donor requirements and developing internal guidance and training as required.
• Assist the European Compliance Advisors in the review of donor agreements, and in providing compliance advice to ensure adherence to donor grant rules and regulations, including, as requested, supporting with enquiries from headquarters colleagues and country offices.

SUBAWARDS

• Support the maintenance of an effective and efficient process ensuring subawards are appropriately reviewed and approved by authorised parties, including implementing partners.
• Maintain an up-to-date tracker and reporting data of all European subawards.
• Initiate, coordinate and send out the Subaward Initiation Packages to country office teams.
• Ensure due diligence checks on implementing partners are complete.
• Support with the maintenance of European subawards tools, guidance and agreement templates, as requested.
• Manage subaward amendments from initiation to signature; ensuring necessary documentation has been submitted to relevant people and follow up with teams.
• Ensure that fully executed subaward agreements (including annexes) are scanned, filed and tracked appropriately.

GOVERNANCE AND RISK

• Assist with the update and/or review of the MCE governance manual (when required) and generally ensure all organisation paperwork is up to date.
• Assist with addressing requests from, and reporting to, Mercy Corps audit and risk committees.
• Work with the Senior Director of CGR to engage with relevant departments to support that MCE and MCNL is compliant with Charity Regulations and other statutory requirements.
• Liaising with notary for notarization of documents if required.

TRAINING AND KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES

• Support the Compliance Advisors in developing and updating compliance resources, including comprehensive best practice guidance and training materials on European donors.
• Assist with planning and delivering training and logistics, conferences and/or programs as assigned, including assistance with European donors’ rules and regulations trainings, periodic webinars, and regional conferences.

OTHERS

• Maintain up-to-date Compliance team information and processes in Mercy Corps’ knowledge management tools and platforms.
• Serve as the primary point for internal communications, facilitate use of Mercy Corps web-based systems to draft and update Compliance materials (e.g. team pages, updates, compliance resources etc.)
• Coordinate the development and update of the CGR team work plan.
• Maintain the schedule, agenda and meeting notes for weekly team meetings.
• Support the review and finalisation of policies and procedures for MCE and MCNL, including the maintenance of a policy tracker.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualifications and Transferrable Skills

• Educated to Bachelors level preferably in Law, International Development, Humanitarian Issues, or a related subject.
• Two years of demonstrated experience in providing administrative/coordination support
• Proven ability to communicate effectively with colleagues from various backgrounds and cultures.
• Proficiency with MS Office software required (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Some prior work experience in a fast-paced work environment (ideally in a legal or compliance team and/or in an NGO) would be beneficial.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• French and/or Spanish language skills would be desirable.

Success Factors

The successful candidate will be a aetail-oriented multi-tasker, with excellent organisation skills, strong process management skills, excellent communication skills (both written and verbal), able to work successfully in a multinational, multicultural organisation. Able to build and maintain effective internal and external relationships. Able to cope with changing priorities, often at short notice, and work well under pressure. Proactive, creative, solutions-based attitude. Should have high levels of motivation, professionalism and resilience. Skilled in anticipating and solving problems and communicating issues, involving others as needed.An exposure to and clear interest in international development issues is important, as is an appreciation of the complex challenges faced by teams operating in overseas environments.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Edinburgh and may require some national or international travel.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.