Senior Manager/Manager (Grant Administration), ECDA/CD

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) serves as the regulatory and developmental authority for the early childhood sector in Singapore, overseeing key aspects of children’s development below the age of 7 across both kindergartens and childcare centres. ECDA’s mission is to ensure that every child has access to affordable and quality early childhood care and education. The Child Development (CD) division in ECDA spearheads a wide range of initiatives to support young children with developmental needs and young children from lower-income families, to ensure that they have a good start. The Grant Administration team within the division supports the governance, administration, budget monitoring and continuous improvement of funding arrangements for ECDA-funded programmes serving children and families. You will lead grant administration and governance work to ensure that funding for key programmes is administered in a fair, accountable and effective manner. The role involves working with programme teams, Finance, Audit and other stakeholders to strengthen grant processes, support sound financial stewardship and enable the timely flow of funding to programmes that benefit children with developmental needs and children from lower-income households. Responsibilities You will oversee grant administration and governance for a portfolio of ECDA-funded programmes that support children with developmental needs and children from lower-income households. This includes working with programme owners to ensure that grant set-up, budget monitoring, disbursement, claims processing, audit follow-up and reporting are carried out in a timely, accountable and well-governed manner. You will develop and maintain grant administration frameworks, standard operating procedures, templates and controls to support consistent grant management, audit readiness and sound financial stewardship. You will also provide guidance to programme teams on funding arrangements, compliance requirements, documentation standards and risk management. You will analyse grant, budget, operational and audit information to identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement, and translate findings into practical recommendations for management, funding reviews and programme oversight. You will lead improvements to grant administration processes through standardisation, process redesign and system enhancements, working with programme teams, Finance, Audit and system teams to streamline workflows, strengthen audit trails and improve data capture. You will also supervise and develop a team supporting grant administration, budget monitoring, audit coordination and related operational functions, including guiding officers, organising work across portfolios and building team capability. Requirements • Minimally a Bachelor’s degree, with relevant working experience preferred. • Experience in grant administration, financial operations, or governance is required. • Experience in audit, programme implementation, operations-policy or service management would be an advantage. • Experience leading a team would be an advantage. • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to structure complex issues, synthesise information from different sources and develop sound and practical recommendations. • Ability to translate governance and funding requirements into practical operating procedures, processes and implementation approaches. • Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and work effectively across different teams and stakeholders. • Comfortable working through ambiguity and contributing to the development of new frameworks, processes and ways of working where established approaches may not yet exist. • Resilient, meticulous, motivated and adaptable while working in a fast-paced environment.