Site: Hybrid: MaRS Discovery Tower (Toronto) + Work from Home
Organization: Grand Challenges Canada
Reports to: Senior Director, Innovation Advisory
Status: Permanent, Full-Time
Salary: $118,640/year + benefits
Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) is dedicated to the vision of a world where innovation helps every person thrive. Our role in this vision is to support local, scalable, sustainable innovation that builds a healthier, more equitable future. We are committed to our core values of seeking impact, promoting equity, and being good partners – as well as to being accountable and caring for our work and each other.
One of the largest impact-first investors in the world, GCC has supported a pipeline of over 1,700 innovations in more than 100 countries. Since 2010, innovations supported by GCC have reached more than 80 million people with life-saving or life-improving initiatives who would otherwise not have had access. Under its new 2025 – 2030 Strategic Plan, GCC has an ambitious goal to reach 750M lives through life-saving and life-improving innovations by 2035.
POSITION OVERVIEW AND KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
As a leading member of the Innovation Advisory team at GCC, the Senior Manager, Award Management will directly contribute to the team's objective of enabling and advising other functions within GCC to deliver our main mandate of getting money in the hands of innovators and supporting them to scale for impact. This is a new role created to provide leadership and ownership to GCC's centralized end-to-end fully automated and integrated award management process.
Design and implement an automated, integrated and end-to-end award management process
- Work closely with the digital transformation team to understand and assess GCC's current grants management system and support them in researching and implementing industry best practices from outside GCC.
- Clearly outline steps, effort, responsibilities, dependencies, tools, and resources needed for GCC's Award Management process to support GCC's expanding needs.
- Establish clear service-level agreements (SLAs) and coordination tools (RACI matrix) to ensure all teams involved have a clear and shared understanding of the award management process and who does what.
- Allocate and assign sub-processes to the appropriate function or sub-function in the organization.
- Develop a regular feedback loop to ensure the process is responsive to innovators' needs and delivers on GCC's 2025-2030 Strategic Plan.
Collaborate and coordinate with other teams
- Advise the digital transformation team to ensure tech solutions (e.g. Fluxx, NetSuite, others) are well-connected and user-centric to serve both innovator and organizational/team needs.
- Coordinate with investment deals and portfolio management teams to ensure the evolving award management process is well-understood, staff are equipped, and elements of the process and the tools themselves are effectively functional and serving their needs.
- Seek support from, and work closely with other teams, to drive a positive cultural change across the organization to a more centralized, effective and technology-enabled award management process.
Build strong data practices
- Develop and implement data governance standards that ensure data accuracy, interoperability, and strategic alignment across platforms.
- Develop and maintain a process, platform and culture of real-time award management data use and insights for organizational decision-making.
Promote ongoing learning and improvement
- Through staff training, support, and regular process reviews, ensure award management processes are aligned with evolving GCC needs and industry best practices.
- Lead regular reviews of award management practices to identify opportunities for continuous optimization, innovation, and alignment with industry best practices.
Mentor a high-performing team and support a thriving culture
- Provide leadership and mentorship to the team of Manager(s) and Associates, fostering a culture of kindness, collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning.
- Model work behaviours that support personal and team wellness and are aligned with GCC's values and passion for boldness.
- Lead or support the recruitment and onboarding of new staff, using an empathetic and supportive approach.
- Ensure that all direct reports have clear performance objectives with protected time dedicated to touch base on deliverables, challenges, along with potential supports and strategies.
- Demonstrate the positive participation that you seek by playing an active and visible role in GCC team building events and townhalls.
Qualifications
- Advanced degree in a related or relevant discipline (e.g. Business Process, Systems Design, Data Systems, Project Management, Award/Grants Management etc.) or commensurate work experience.
- A minimum of 8+ years of relevant work experience.
- At least 3 years of team leadership and people management experience.
- Demonstrable experience in managing multi-disciplinary business processes and/or system design projects and/or project and resource management.
- A drive for clarity and smart process – with proven ability to find and implement increasingly efficient and innovative ways of working.
- A passion and curiosity for all things digital, believing in the possibility of transformative solutions and bringing everyone along with the who, what, why and how.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to present with confidence.
- Proven ability to manage large organization-wide change projects with successful outcomes and upside.
People from historically excluded communities with lived experiences in relevant thematic areas are encouraged to apply. People with lived experience and/or work experience in the communities or countries we are supporting are especially encouraged to apply.
Don't meet every requirement? Studies have shown that women, people of color, people from LGBTQ2S+ and disabilities communities are less likely to apply to jobs when they do not meet every qualification. At Grand Challenges Canada, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, authentic, and accountable workplace, so if you are excited about this role but your experience does not align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply, as you may be the ideal candidate we are looking for.
Location and Work Requirements:
- We are currently working in a hybrid model with time in office and working from home. With rare, approved exceptions, GCC staff are to live in or near the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and available to travel to, and work from the Toronto main office, as business operational needs require. Any expenses related to travel and or relocating to Toronto are the sole responsibility of the employee and will not be reimbursed by GCC.
- Domestic and international travel required.
- Applicants must be eligible to work in Canada.
Benefits
- Health and Dental provided by Sunlife Canada effective on start date.
- Enrollment in the Healthcare of Ontario (HOOPP) Defined-Benefit Pension Plan
- Four (4) weeks of paid vacation per calendar year (prorated)
- Four (4) day work week (with Friday as a flex/off day), excluding weeks with Statutory holiday (program reviewed annually)
- Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- International SOS (ISOS) travel safety and supports around the world.
- Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) cell phone allowance
- Growth and wellness fund
- New Temporary Work Relocation – work remotely for up to 90 days, almost anywhere in the world.
Term
- Start date: August 1, 2025
- Status: Permanent, Full-time
Application process
- Please submit your resume and cover letter here.
- Closing date: July 6, 2025
This position was originally posted by GCC and has been curated by PurposePhil Career. To apply, please visit the original listing on the "apply" link below. We are not affiliated with the employer organization of this job ad or consultancy, and provide this curated listing as a service to our users.