Associate, Grants Accountant, AKU Finance

Role Overview

This role sits at the centre of the university's sponsored research finances, turning complex award agreements into accurate books, on-time funder submissions and audit-ready records. Working alongside the Grants Manager, principal investigators and programme staff, you will track how every grant shilling is committed, spent and reported, and you will keep sub-recipients onside with the same financial discipline the university applies to itself. It matters because the university's ability to win and retain research funding depends on donors trusting that their money is managed precisely as promised.

Key Responsibilities

• Work with the Grants Manager and programme staff to record grant and contract transactions correctly, confirming each entry matches the terms of the relevant agreement and that costs passed through to sub-recipients and subcontractors are captured in full.
• Produce internal grant reports for principal investigators, giving them a clear, current view of spending against their project budgets.
• Prepare donor reports to each funder's own format and deadline, and raise invoices and payment requests to funding agencies, reconciling recorded grant expenditure against the figures funders report back.
• Apply donor compliance conditions, institutional policy and relevant legislation to day-to-day grant decisions, exercising sound judgement so that every commitment serves the university's best interests.
• Monitor sub-recipients by reviewing their budgets and reimbursement claims for appropriateness, and by verifying that they follow agreed administrative and financial policies and sound business practice.
• Support the Grants Manager and principal investigators in building project budgets, ensuring each activity carries an accurate cost, appears correctly in the project budget, and reflects both institutional policy and the terms and conditions of the granting agency.
• Review departmental requisitions to confirm spending stays inside approved budgets, that requests are properly supported and approved by department heads, and that they are raised promptly and charged to the correct grant; post grant-related journal entries and review grant trial balances to prepare reports from them.
• Facilitate internal and external grant audits, supplying the documentation and explanations auditors request, and maintain disciplined electronic and paper filing systems so that required records reach donors without delay.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Business Administration, Accounting or Finance.
• Professional accounting qualification — CPA (K) or ACCA.
• Two to three years of professional experience in finance and accounting.
• Prior experience within a granting agency or similar sponsored-funding environment is a distinct advantage.
• Excellent command of MS Excel and MS PowerPoint is an added advantage.
• Comfort operating across multiple stakeholder groups — funders, investigators, departmental staff and sub-recipients — with communication that is timely, accurate and genuinely useful to the people receiving it.
• Attention to detail and the confidence to interpret funder terms, policies and regulations and defend the resulting decisions.