Global Awards and Project Support (GAPS) Director II

About this role

NOTE: The Pay Range referenced in this job announcement only applies to applicants who perform the job within the US and to applicants classified by CRS as International Assignees. Staff hired on local payroll would follow the respective Country pay range. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your anticipated work location during the candidate selection process.
Pay Range
$135,857 - $166,084 Annually
Job Summary
The Global Awards and Project Support (GAPS) team advances CRS’s strategy by providing integrated leadership and support in global and multi-country award management, operations, surge staffing, project management, contracting, compliance, and organizational learning. The GAPS Director provides strategic leadership, direction, and oversight for the department; stewards CRS’s global award portfolio; strengthens agency-wide project and award management standards; and ensures consistent, high-quality delivery across the award lifecycle. The Director leads governance of complex global opportunities, oversees Project Support and Delivery, the Field Management Response Team, the Project Management Unit, Contracts, and the World Bank Support Unit, and promotes responsible growth through strong portfolio performance, risk management, learning, and engagement with donors and multilateral development banks.
Roles and Key Responsibilities
Management

• Play an active leadership role within the Global Programs Leadership Team, alongside divisional executives and regional directors.

• Set and implement the GAPS strategy through 2030, translating agency priorities into annual plans, performance measures, resource allocations, and clear accountabilities.

• Lead the GAPS Senior Management Team and build an integrated department across Global Awards, Project Support and Delivery, the Project Management Unit, the Field Management Response Team, Contracts, and the World Bank Support Unit.

• Establish clear roles, decision rights, governance, and ways of working across GAPS and with PIQA, GREM, regions, country programs, Finance, Operations, Human Resources, and other service departments.

• Supervise Global Award Project Directors and leaders of GAPS units, ensuring strong performance management, coaching, succession planning, staff wellbeing, workload management, and talent development for direct and lower-tier staff.

• Work with the geographic homes of GAPS staff to ensure effective matrix management and equitable access to departmental support.

• Provide executive oversight of departmental performance, operational challenges, staffing capacity, and progress toward established goals and objectives.

• Communicate the GAPS value proposition and represent the department’s needs and contributions across the agency.

Global Portfolio Stewardship, Award Compliance, Finance, and Risk

• Ensure all awards are implemented in compliance with donor requirements and CRS policies, procedures, program management standards, and internal controls.

• Maintain executive-level visibility of portfolio performance, expenditure, reach, deliverables, risks, and corrective actions through regular award performance and budget reviews.

• Establish escalation and decision-making mechanisms for awards at risk and ensure timely, documented corrective action.

• Oversee award negotiation, start-up, implementation, modification, transition, and close-out, ensuring commitments are translated into executable staffing, governance, partner, budget, milestone, and risk-management plans.

• Ensure the Project Support and Delivery Unit provides consistent, high-quality, full-lifecycle support for US Government and non-US Government awards, including donor reporting, compliance, negotiation, modifications, close-out, donor relationship management, and audit-response support.

• Build sustainable service and cost-recovery models for Project Support and Delivery and strengthen CRS capacity to pursue, negotiate, manage, and close grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts.

• Ensure early involvement of Project Support and Delivery and Contracts in opportunity and award design, with appropriate contracting readiness and compliance support throughout delivery.

• Review new or updated CRS policies and procedures, identify implications for global programs, and work with policy owners to address operational and contracting challenges proactively.

• Coordinate with global, regional, and country program operations to ensure sound budgeting, resource stewardship, contingency planning, and appropriate support to Project Directors and Chiefs of Party.

• Balance portfolio growth with CRS’s institutional and delivery capacity, escalating investment, staffing, and risk decisions when needed.

Program Quality, Project Management, Partnership, and Learning

• Provide agency-wide leadership for project management standards, guidance, tools, templates, onboarding, training, coaching, and communities of practice.

• Integrate project management with ProPack, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning, safeguarding, partnership, internal controls, and program-quality standards.

• Ensure appropriate technical assistance is incorporated within global awards and coordinate the effective deployment of short-term technical and operational support through the Field Management Response Team and other mechanisms.

• Identify portfolio-wide gaps in resources, staffing, systems, or oversight and develop and implement corrective actions.

• Set expectations for meaningful country, regional, government, and partner participation, ensuring local leadership and subsidiarity inform award design, governance, staffing, implementation, and transition.

• Oversee strategic partner selection, negotiation, due diligence, relationship management, and capacity strengthening so global awards reinforce rather than bypass country and partner systems.

• Develop a pipeline of project management leaders and strengthen the…