Contracts & Grants Officer in Manchester

The post holder will be responsible for the cross-college management of all contracts issued by the college to ensure compliance with all financial regulations, legal, health & safety and procurement requirements. This will involve the setting up and maintenance of a contracts database on the finance system, retention of all documentation, and planning on contract renewals. You will work closely with the Procurement Officer from the CPC, key budget holders, and SLT to ensure that all contracts are set up compliantly and seek legal advice and support where appropriate.

In addition, the post holder will identify, prepare and monitor grant opportunities for the college ensuring that the college reviews all grant funding opportunities and co-ordinates bid submissions to funding bodies and companies. You will work with SLT, budget holders and the Executive Director of Finance & Estates to review funding opportunities to support both capital and revenue programmes which align with the college's strategic objectives. The post holder will contribute to maintaining effective streamlined procedures, processes, and systems when supporting contractual paperwork completion, data entry onto College systems, all while maintaining compliance.

The following list is intended to give an indication of the range of duties and responsibilities attached to the post; it does not attempt to specify all aspects of the role.

• Be the first point of contact for the development of all new contracts, SLAs or memorandum of understanding for the college.
• Liaising and supporting curriculum and head of service, to develop appropriate contracts and work with the college's legal advisors to ensure fit for purpose and compliant with all legislative requirements.
• Develop a system and process to ensure a template of key elements checked as part of developing contracts including liaising with data officer, IT, finance, procurement and curriculum and heads of service as appropriate.
• Establish an electronic database of all college contracts and work closely with the Procurement Officer to ensure a complete contracts register is established and maintained of all contracts, service contracts, curriculum partnership arrangements, MoUs and SLAs are recorded and managed.
• Seek all funding opportunities, both capital and revenue, and lead and co-ordinate the bid submissions.
• Establish and manage successful funding bids and ensure relevant teams are delivering against targets set for the grant funding streams.
• Liaise with procurement and Assistant Director of Finance & Estates to ensure any spend is managed compliantly and within financial regulations and Procurement Act 2023.
• Working closely with internal teams such as MIS, Finance and the Business Team.
• Develop a template and database of information and work closely with the Executive Director Planning, Information & Performance, to use key MIS data sources to inform bid submissions.
• Working closely with the Executive Director of Finance & Estates to ensure all funding opportunities are considered and prepare possible funding bid submissions for consideration by SLT.
• Effectively communicating to funding bodies, College staff and both curriculum and support areas of the college.
• Undertake any reasonable duties as directed by line manager.

Qualifications

• Essential Criteria: Degree level or higher level qualification
• Desirable Criteria: Degree in Business/Finance/Management, Contracts or Procurement professional qualification

Experience

• Essential Criteria: Experience in managing contracts, experience of developing and securing grant funding, experience of working in a large complex organisation
• Desirable Criteria: Experience of FE/HE institution

Skills & Expertise

• Excellent communication skills both verbal and written
• Capable of representing the College in a professional manner with external agencies and stakeholders
• The ability to input and interpret data with a high level of accuracy
• The ability to negotiate with external customers to meet compliance requirements
• Excellent administration and IT skills (MS Office - Word and Excel)
• Excellent organisational and prioritising skills
• The ability to work as part of a team
• The ability to identify and take forward service improvements
• Knowledge of the principles of data protection, financial regulations

Additional Factors Relevant to the Post

• Willingly takes on new tasks and adopts new approaches as required
• Ability to make clear presentations to College staff at all levels
• Ability to deal with all levels of staff and students
• A commitment to the principles of Equality & Diversity

IT Skills

• Essential Criteria: Intermediate user of Microsoft applications
• Ability to use technology to generate information and improve efficiency
• Use of database or finance system to track grant project and contract management