Description
Program: ALIGN-T1D, Global Responsibility — Breakthrough T1D
Engagement type: Independent contractor (1099)
Reports to: Director, Global Responsibility
Engagement scope: Recurring — initial award cycle with renewal across subsequent cycles
Effective date: [To be confirmed at contracting]
Broad Function and Scope
The Pre-Award Financial and Integrity Review Consultant serves as a member of the ALIGN-T1D Stage 3 pre-award determination team, working alongside the AVP, Global Responsibility, and the Senior Manager, Country Operations, before formal award issuance to selected implementing partners.
ALIGN-T1D issues multimillion-dollar awards to implementing partners in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) with involvement in government health system coordination, commodity procurement, sub-granting, and health data management. Before any award is issued, ALIGN-T1D conducts a three-stage pre-award process. Stage 3 — the pre-award responsibility determination — is where this consultant engages.
Stage 3 is not a re-review of proposal quality or a repetition of the Stage 2 financial capacity assessment conducted by proposal reviewers. It is a higher-order integrity determination: assessing corruption exposure, diversion risk, political entanglement, informal payment obligations, and operating environment risks that may not be visible in formal documentation and that no amount of monitoring conditions can fully mitigate.
The consultant brings two things the internal team cannot fully provide: deep in-country knowledge of the financial environments, informal payment norms, government-NGO dynamics, and local audit firm quality in ALIGN-T1D's countries of focus — and pre-award survey experience from the bilateral donor context (USAID, CDC, State Department) where this type of responsibility determination is standard practice. Both are equally essential to the role.
Specific Responsibilities
Pre-Award Determination — Award Candidates
- Review the partner's Stage 1 financial capacity self-assessment and Stage 2 reviewer scores in advance of the determination session
- Review publicly available information on the partner, its leadership, and its operating context — including local-language sources where relevant — and prepare a brief pre-session written assessment (one to two pages) covering in-country sector reputation, government relationships, and initial operating environment
- Participate in the Stage 3 determination session with the Program Lead and Grants Officer (typically two to three hours per partner), leading or contributing substantively to scoring of the corruption and elite capture, diversion and leakage, hidden costs, and operating environment domains
- Provide a direct credibility assessment of the financial picture, given the specific operating context
- Answer specific judgment questions embedded in the framework, including audit firm quality and independence in the country; informal payment norms and FCPA exposure pathways; supply chain and fund flow integrity; and government-NGO relationship risks
- Submit a brief written narrative for the award file following each session, covering overall integrity judgment, any sector reputation or in-country intelligence not in formal documentation, confidence level in partner-provided information, and any recommended conditions or concerns not already captured in scoring
- Review and co-sign the completed responsibility determination record for each partner assessed
Cycle-Level Responsibilities
- Participate in a post-cycle debrief with senior staff at the close of each award cycle (approximately 90 minutes)
- Provide written input on framework improvements — domain weights, scoring calibration, judgment question refinements, and methodological gaps identified during the cycle
- Flag emerging country-level risks or regulatory changes in ALIGN-T1D's countries of focus that should be reflected in the framework for subsequent cycles
Working Relationship and Expectations
The consultant works directly with ALIGN-T1D Secretariat (Breakthrough T1D) senior staff as the day-to-day point of contact and with the senior staff as the decision authority for each determination. This is a collaborative senior judgment process; the consultant's in-country knowledge and direct assessments are expected to shape outcomes, not simply validate a predetermined decision.
The consultant is required to disclose any prior or existing relationships with organizations under review before participating in any determination involving that organization. Where a material conflict is identified, the consultant will recuse from that determination.
All partner materials, assessment scores, determination records, and team discussions are strictly confidential. The consultant will be required to execute a confidentiality agreement and conflict of interest disclosure as conditions of engagement.
Compensation and Contracting
The consultant will be engaged as an independent contractor (1099) through Breakthrough T1D's standard consulting agreement. Compensation will be negotiated based on the consultant's day or hourly rate and confirmed at contracting. Payment will be issued upon submission and acceptance of deliverables for each award candidate reviewed, plus the post-cycle debrief.
The estimated effort per award candidate is seven to 11 hours. The estimated effort for the annual post-cycle debrief is two hours. Award candidate volume per cycle will be confirmed at engagement onset.
Before engagement, the consultant will be required to execute Breakthrough T1D's standard independent contractor agreement, provide a signed W-9, execute a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement, and complete a conflict of interest disclosure.
Expression of Interest
Candidates should submit the following to [email protected] by June 15, 2026 for priority consideration; applications accepted on a rolling basis through July 31, 2026:
- A brief cover statement (one page or less) describing relevant experience with pre-award surveys or responsibility determinations in the bilateral donor context, and in-country knowledge of ALIGN-T1D's countries of focus
- A current CV or resume
- Two professional references, at least one of whom can speak to pre-award or financial due diligence work in an international implementing partner or donor context
- Proposed day rate, hourly rate, or per-review fee
Candidates connected through the Grant Professionals Association or the former USAID implementing partner community are particularly encouraged.
Requirements
- Demonstrated experience conducting or overseeing pre-award surveys, responsibility determinations, or financial due diligence for international implementing partners — ideally in a bilateral donor context (USAID, CDC, State Department, or equivalent)
- Direct working knowledge of financial management practices, audit quality, and fund flow dynamics in Africa, with specific familiarity in at least one of ALIGN-T1D's countries of focus; Ethiopia and Uganda experience prioritized
- Ability to assess organizational integrity risk from a senior judgment perspective — including corruption and elite capture dynamics, informal payment norms, and government-NGO entanglement — not solely from a document-review standpoint
- Familiarity with FCPA compliance considerations for US-based funders operating through local implementing partners in high-risk environments
- Experience working with or within NGOs, implementing partners, or civil society organizations in LMIC health systems contexts
- Ability to produce concise, evidence-based written assessments suitable for retention as formal grantmaking records
- Existing professional relationships in the in-country implementing partner and civil society sector relevant to ALIGN-T1D's portfolio — enabling informal network-based intelligence on organizational reputation — strongly preferred
- Grant Professionals Certification (GPC), membership in the Grant Professionals Association (GPA), or demonstrated equivalent experience in formal grant management and compliance preferred
- Familiarity with SAM.gov responsibility determination methodology and federal pre-award survey standards preferred
- Multilingual capacity relevant to ALIGN-T1D countries of focus (Spanish, French, or other regional languages a plus)
