Team Summary
Common Ground USA (CG-USA) fosters collaboration across differences to address America’s biggest challenges and build a society where everyone can belong and thrive. As part of Search for Common Ground, with 40 years of global conflict resolution experience, CG-USA transforms conflict into cooperation with programming focused in the United States. At CG-USA, we believe that most Americans want to overcome the divisions we face in our society and that we all have a role to play. Engaging across political and other divides, we see disagreement as an opportunity to transform conflict into cooperation to solve our most pervasive problems. All of our work is rooted in an evidence base where we strengthen the five vital signs of peace: safety, social cohesion, institutional legitimacy, personal agency, and resourcing peace.
We are a dynamic, motivated, and diverse team committed to working across divides to generate locally-rooted, responsive, and sustainable solutions to the nation's most challenging issues. Our team represents different geographies, backgrounds and viewpoints, embodying our “Dignity for All” approach from the inside out.
Position Summary
The Procurement Officer will work closely with CG-USA’s program teams to facilitate project implementation. They will be primarily responsible for supporting purchasing activities and financial operations by processing purchase and procurement requests, ensuring proper documentation, coordinating approvals, and maintaining records to ensure compliance with company policies.
Core Responsibilities
- Review and process purchase requests, ensuring compliance with procurement policies and internal controls as well as alignment with donor requirements and grant restrictions
- Coordinate and obtain required approvals from management throughout the procurement process
- Meet with program teams regularly to assess their programming plans and associated purchasing needs
- Identify expiring contracts and process extensions as needed
- Monitor payment due dates to ensure timely payment processing
- Determine method of payment for vendors, taking into account all payments on the horizon, and then process payments upon completion of the procurement process
- Compare invoices to contractual obligations before submitting them for payment
- Ensure all itemized receipts and other required documentation are saved in relevant folders immediately after payment for timely reconciliation
- Track actual spending against approved spending and flag any variances
- Maintain organized filing systems for financial and procurement documentation
- Serve as the primary liaison between the program and operations teams, ensuring clear communication and timely resolution of procurement-related issues
- Develop and improve procurement processes, templates, and SOPs as needed
- Other duties that are broadly in line with the above key contributions as assigned.
Qualifications
- BS/BA with minimum 5 years’ experience
- Able to work collaboratively to manage competing priorities with high accuracy and tight deadlines
- Committed to organization values and working across difference
Competency Behavior Indicators (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)
- Works collaboratively with colleagues within CG-USA and Search for Common Ground;
- Initiates brainstorming or problem-solving. With time in the job, develops skills for analyzing and communicating program successes and failures; reports lessons learned to the team and other members.
- Represents CG-USA events and meetings for professional organizations, vendors, partners, and funders. Develops skills to independently initiate and maintain relations with vendors, partners, and funders.
- Articulates program/project objectives and how they fit into CG-USA’s goals and/or Search’s mission and adapts to the communications setting.
- Demonstrates appreciation for diversity of thought and is adaptable and willing to confront own ideas and preconceptions with resiliency and flexibility.
- Builds cross-functional relationships with other departments.
- Drafts team documents, briefing materials, and presentations. Articulates program objectives and how they fit into a team’s goals and/or Common Ground USA’s mission and adapts to the communications setting.
- Applies standards, identifies areas for standardization, and coordinates across functions from a multicultural perspective that reflects consideration of other cultures, other viewpoints, and other ways of doing things.
- Takes into account the environmental landscape, assesses one's own and others' viewpoints in their environment, and proposes solutions from an ethical, do-no-harm perspective.
- Recognizes the options available for solving problems, conducts analyses, and calculates metrics and other tools to support informed decision making.
- Conducts quality control to ensure accuracy of team documents, materials, presentations, and data. Checks the accuracy of one’s own and others’ work.
- Proactively informs management of potential risks and concerns; suggests resolutions.
- Independently prioritizes time to reach deadlines and reaches end results of assignments with ability to accomplish multiple steps with limited to no supervision.
- Remain alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks, acquire relevant knowledge and skills that will enable you to promote strong safeguarding practices, understand the safeguarding policy and procedures, and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the Safeguarding Policy.
Location
The candidate must be based in the United States. Standard work will take place remotely/at a home office. Occasional travel to other US locations will be required.
Type and Nature of Contacts
- Routinely coordinates with colleagues and consultants and resolves problem situations with tact.
- Represents, as assigned, selected programs or projects and other organizations, including donors, vendors, and local partners.
- Interacts most regularly with the Common Ground USA staff as well as Search for Common Ground’s headquarters finance and compliance staff.
Working Conditions and Physical Requirements
Usual office environment conditions; ability to travel domestically minimally to none.
Supervisory and Budget Responsibility
N/A
Search is an equal employment employer whereby we do not engage in practices that discriminate against any person employed or seeking employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information or any other status or characteristic protected under applicable law.