Senior Program Business Development Advisor

• The Senior Program/Business Development Advisor will join a global BD team and will help drive IRC’s new business development efforts by engaging with global, regional, country, and technical staff throughout the business development cycle from opportunity tracking and positioning/capture planning to proposal development, and submission. The SPDA will primarily serve as capture and proposal manager, and s/he will also offer technical assistance and mentor staff working on proposals on relevant business development topics.
• The ideal candidate will have significant high-level experience in managing capture and proposal development for opportunities that are complex or high-value nature, in particular with World Bank, FCDO and/or USAID; Experience with other donors is also a distinct advantage.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Bid leadership and coordination (70%)

• Lead proposal development for complex and strategic public opportunities, including capture strategy, management of proposal teams, calendars, and deadlines; strategy development with technical staff; consortium management and negotiations; recruiting; writing; production; and after-action reviews.
• Collaborate with regional, country, and technical teams to develop and implement opportunity-specific long-term capture and positioning strategies.
• Lead strategic capture efforts for frameworks, single opportunities and wider funding sources including donor mapping, SWOT analysis, support to win theme development, and relevant strategies for pre-positioning efforts.
• Contribute to strengthening IRC’s profile and relationships with key stakeholders, including donors, peer organizations, local partners, and government institutions to support opportunity-specific strategic planning and decision-making.
• Advises Technical Teams and Country Teams on strategic approaches for funding opportunities, guiding a robust and evidence driven Go/No Go process.
• Supports technical units and country teams to offer pitches to prospective partners to secure the most competitive consortia possible.
• Review and/or draft expressions of interest, concept notes, and proposals to ensure quality and compliance with donor standards.
• Collaborate with IRC’s pricing team, ensuring technical coherence and value for money with the cost proposal.
• Collaborate with Proposal Recruiter to identify and assess candidates for key personnel positions on proposals.
• Organizes and manages internal processes to ensure IRC is always submitting the most competitive proposals.

Business Development process improvement and knowledge management (10%)

• Conducts After Action Reviews and captures learning to disseminate to wider organization
• Contributes to and models the use of standard business development processes, tools, templates and information.
• May serve in short term mentor role to junior staff leading large bids for the first time.

Partnerships and Strategy (20%)

• Conducts landscape analyses  as necessary to identify most strategic partnerships in public donor markets, with a particular focus on fostering local partnerships.
• Drafts high quality positioning materials as necessary, including capability statements and prior project reference sheets.
• Strengthening collaboration with internal stakeholders including country teams, technical units, and other team members.
• Contributes to country-specific BD strategies and BD action plans as necessary to support prioritization of new business development opportunities.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field, including international relations, political science, public administration, and communications
• At least six years of business development experience working with World Bank, FCDO and/or USAID 
• Strong knowledge of FCDO, World Bank and/or USAID rules and regulations 
• Training or familiarity with Shipley Proposal Development process. 
• Fluency in English with proficiency in one other language (French and/or Spanish) 
• Successful track record leading large proposal teams on complex subject, multi-year, multi-partner proposals with minimal supervision 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively manage a variety of relationships in a multicultural environment
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate equally effectively with colleagues in ‘remote’ and diverse teams, including as team leader for proposals
• The ability to work productively and accurately while under pressure in a fast-paced, demanding environment
• Experience managing FCDO, World Bank or USAID programs remotely or at country-level also beneficial
• Ability to travel internationally (up to 20% of time)