Grants Management Specialist - Maternity Cover

Region: Europe

Contract type: National

Published: Oct 16, 2026

Closing date: Oct 31, 2026

Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Grants Management Specialist to join our Grants Management Unit in Copenhagen as maternity cover from January to October 2027. Do you thrive on keeping complex donor portfolios compliant, on time and audit-ready – and on helping colleagues around the world get grants management right? Then we would love to hear from you.

About the job

You will join DRC’s Grants Management Unit (GMU) at our headquarters, which supports colleagues across DRC in efficient and effective grants management, ultimately enabling timely and high-quality assistance to the people we serve. The unit provides support and oversight to ensure internal and external compliance, timely instalment management and accurate grants data in DRC Dynamics (DYN). As Grants Management Specialist, you will be accountable for the complete, compliant and timely compilation, quality assurance and submission of proposal and reporting packages for HQ-submitted grants within your assigned country portfolio, while providing oversight and technical support to Country Office (CO) colleagues on their grants. Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

• Conduct final quality assurance of proposals and reports for HQ-submitted grants, ensuring compliance with donor requirements, DRC policies and contractual obligations.
• Working with the various Country Offices maintain oversight of key grant lifecycle deliverables – submissions, contracts, amendments, reporting deadlines, instalment schedules and closure – and keep grants records accurate and complete in Dynamics.
• Manage instalments, ensuring payment requests are submitted on time in line with the instalment schedule and following up on unallocated, unsettled or overdue instalments together with HQ Finance and Business Controllers.
• Maintain positive, professional and proactive relationships with key institutional donors (e.g. ECHO and US donors) in close coordination with donor focal points.
• Support grant amendments, extensions, budget revisions and close-out, ensuring appropriate approvals, documentation and archiving.
• Provide technical support and guidance to COs and HQ Hubs on proposals, reports and general grants-management issues.
• Monitor grants data, compliance and risks through Dynamics and BI/Power BI, flag gaps and material risks, and participate in monthly Country Finance Meetings (CFM).
• Support audit readiness, process improvement, knowledge sharing and training across the global grants community.

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to bring solid hands-on grants management experience with institutional humanitarian donors, combined with a sharp eye for compliance and detail. You are well organised, able to manage multiple priorities under tight deadlines and comfortable working independently with a wide range of stakeholders across HQ and country operations. Moreover, we also expect the following:

Required

• Minimum three years of relevant experience in grants management, including humanitarian and/or development funding, proposal and report writing, donor compliance and project cycle management.
• At least one year of field experience in a humanitarian or development organisation, preferably in a grants management or programme position.
• Demonstrated experience developing and revising donor proposals and reports for donors such as ECHO, FCDO, BHA, BPRM or UNHCR.
• Ability to interpret donor regulations, contracts and guidelines and translate them into practical guidance for programme and operations teams.
• Experience with grants management systems and data-analysis tools, such as Microsoft Dynamics and Power BI.
• University degree in International Development, Disaster Risk Reduction, Social Sciences, Finance, Management or a relevant field,
• Fluency in written and spoken English AND French.

Desirable

• Experience working across multiple country operations or in an HQ/regional grants function.
• Experience training, coaching or mentoring staff.
• Willingness to travel and deploy to DRC Country and Hub Offices, including hardship locations.
• Working knowledge of Danish, French, Spanish or Arabic.

All employees are expected to demonstrate DRC’s five core competencies:

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

Contract length: 10 Months (January -October 2027)

Work location: Lyngbyvej 100, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, just by Ryparken station

Start date: 1st January,2027.

The position is temporary, as it is a maternity cover.

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with the agreement between DRC and AC. This is a national position for which local terms and conditions apply.

Please note that you need to have the right to work in Denmark (through nationality or existing work visa) in order to be considered for this role.

Application process
All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV in English (no longer than four pages) as well as degree certificate. Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Closing date for applications: October 31st... We expect to conduct interviews from November 10th ,2026.

Further information

For questions regarding the vacancy please contact Joyce Kiplimo, Head of Grants Management Unit, [email protected].We will do our best to respond to as many inquiries as possible.

For more information about the Danish Refugee Council, please visit our website drc.ngo.

Danish Refugee Council is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive and positive work environment based on mutual respect for all employees. All applicants are considered for employment regardless of personal characteristics or attributes.