Project Development Officer

Location:

Kyiv, Ukraine, with in-country travel (up to 25%)

Contract duration

ASAP until August 31, 2025

Contract Type:

Consultancy

Open to:

National and international candidates

Salary:

According to ActionAid Ukraine’s salary grid for National Staff – 2100 EUR

Reporting to:

Head of Programmes with a secondary line to the Regional Fundraising Advisor

Direct Reports:

N/A

Recruitment

External candidates

About us: 

ActionAid is a global federation working for a world free from poverty and injustice. ActionAid’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe was established in Kyiv in 2022 and is covering projects in Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Moldova and Georgia. ActionAid works through a wide range of local partner organisations in the nexus, prioritising young people’s leadership, civil society development, women’s rights and leadership, the protection of at-risk groups and minorities, as well as humanitarian assistance. 

The Role:

The Project Development Officer will be responsible for leading proposal development, identifying funding opportunities, managing donor relations, and ensuring compliance with grant requirements. This role is ideal for a versatile mid-level professional with strong experience in proposal writing, donor relations, and humanitarian programming.

The role is based in Kyiv and reports to the Head of Programmes based in Kyiv, with a secondary line to the Regional Fundraising Advisor based in Bucharest. The role provides day-to-day management to the Project Development Volunteer.

The role works closely with the Project Development & Implementation Coordinator, the Regional Localisation & Fundraising Advisor, sectoral leads including the Humanitarian Programmes Coordinator, the Women’s Rights Advisor, the Civil Society Development Advisor, the Social Movements Lead, the Regional Finance Team as well as other colleagues based in Moldova, Poland, Romania and Spain. 

Tasks and Priorities

A) Proposal Development & Fundraising (50%)

• Identify relevant funding opportunities, including institutional donors, foundations, and private sector partnerships, in close coordination with ActionAid Federation members.
• Develop high-quality Expressions of Interests, Concept Notes, Full Proposals, including logframes, and budgets in alignment with ActionAid’s strategy and donor requirements.
• Lead internal coordination with sectoral leads, MEAL teams, and finance staff to develop comprehensive and technically sound proposals.
• Collaborate closely with local partners on proposal development
• Ensure lessons learned from previous projects are integrated into new proposals.
• Maintain the proposal tracker database on a weekly basis.

B) Donor Engagement, Grant Management, Reporting & Compliance (30%)

• Build and maintain relationships with key donors and funding agencies.
• Act as the focal point for donor communications, including proposal submissions and grant negotiations.
• Ensure compliance with donor regulations and internal policies across all grant-related activities.
• Support the programmes and finance teams to monitor grant progress and spending.
• Support the preparation and submission of high-quality donor reports, ensuring consistency between financial and narrative reporting.
• Maintain an up-to-date grants and partnership tracker, ensuring all deadlines and reporting requirements are met.
• Conduct internal compliance checks to ensure adherence to donor and organizational policies.

C) Capacity Strengthening, Coordination & Comms (20%)

• Provide guidance and training to local partners on proposal development, donor compliance, and reporting standards.
• Coordinate with key fundraising offices (AA UK, AA Sweden, AA Denmark, AA Spain, AA Italy, as well as IHART and the General Secretariat) on a rolling basis.
• Develop standardized tools, templates, and guidance notes to improve the efficiency of the proposal development process.
• Organise internal capacity-building workshops on fundraising and donor engagement.
• Support the deveopment and roll out of comms materials and strategies if needed.
• Support the Programme Team with any other task, should it arise.

(The responsibilities of this position are subject to change as required by the rapidly evolving context.)

Who we're looking for: 

• Master’s degree in International Relations, Development Studies, Political Science, or a related field.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in proposal development, donor relations, and grants management, preferably in humanitarian and development settings.
• Proven track record of securing funding from institutional donors such as EU donors (ECHO, INTPA), UN agencies and CBPFs, and bilateral donors (FCDO, SDC, NORAD, SIDA preferred). 
• Strong experience in retroplanning and coordinating proposal development processes across different teams, offices and timezones.
• Strong knowledge of donor compliance requirements and project management cycles.
• Excellent writing, communication, and analytical skills.
• Experience working in Ukraine or Eastern Europe is an asset.
• Proven experience in managing, and building the capacity of, staff and local partners. 
• Exceptional interpersonal skills: tact, patience, diplomacy, confidentiality, and appropriate assertiveness when communicating with donors and partners.
• Consultative and empowering working style and willingness to learn from others.
• English language skills at the level of a near-native speaker plus Ukrainian skills.
• In addition, we expect:
  • A strong commitment to AA’s vision, mission, and values, especially the rights-based approach and the principles of equal opportunity as outlined in ActionAid’s Code of Conduct.  
  • A strong commitment to embedding feminist leadership and ActionAid’s humanitarian signature. 
  • A strong commitment to adhering to and promoting ActionAid’s approach to Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse and other Safeguarding concerns (including child abuse and abuse of adults at-risk)  
  • A strong understanding of and commitment to women’s rights and cultural sensitivity.  
  • A commitment to the importance of downward accountability to rights-holders and transparency in humanitarian response. 

What we offer:

ActionAid is committed to providing a welcoming, supportive workplace where we recognize a job well done, encourage close collaboration and sharing power, and where safeguarding standards and feminist leadership are exemplified everywhere. At ActionAid, you can look forward to a fair compensation package and a flexible working environment, including. 

• A workplace that embraces intersectional feminist principles 
• Flexible, family-friendly working arrangements.
• Salary and conditions according to ActionAid’s salary grid for national candidates. 

How to apply:

Please send your CV and cover letter as pdfs in English (no more than 2 pages each) to  Відправити резюме with the reference Ukraine – Project Development Officer.