Business Development Specialist II (Remote – Africa) at Catholic Relief Services
Job Description
Applicants should have experience supporting BD activities
in Central, West Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa Regions. This is a
remote-working based position.
Job Summary
The Institutional Funding Department within CRS’ Global
Resource Engagement and Mobilization Division works with teams across all CRS
regions and program areas to strategically position and pursue funding with
institutional donors. The Business Development Specialist II position sits
within the global Business Development (BD) Service Team and leads the
production of high-quality funding applications in support of CRS’ engagement
with those institutional donors and initiatives involved in international development
to serve the poor and vulnerable. The position utilizes knowledge and
skills to provide specialized assistance in all dimensions of the Business
Development (BD) cycle across disciplines and functional teams.
Roles and Key Responsibilities
- Provide
BD expertise to country leadership and proposal teams in positioning,
capture planning and proposal preparation for specific opportunities with
institutional donors (government, multilateral, foundations, corporations
and other awarding non-governmental organizations).
- Manage
pre-positioning, capture and proposal development processes to ensure
timely execution and submission of high-quality proposals that are
responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS’
technical and cost standards.
- Deploy
as proposal coordinator, and advise on opportunity analysis, lead go/no-go
decisions, capture planning, and coordinate partner inputs and proposal
review panels.
- Deploy
as a lead or support writer on proposals, contributing both technical and
non-technical content and integrating inputs from staff and partners into
a responsive, coherent proposal with a compelling vision and clear win
themes.
- Deploy
as budget lead or to support the lead in developing proposal budgets.
Provide recommendations to develop a competitive proposal, as required.
- Guide
and advise on partner identification and negotiating CRS’ role in proposal
consortia. Ensure a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the
agency’s partnership principles and strategic directions.
- Liaise
with senior management and donor engagement focal points to develop a
resource mobilization strategy for a specific region, country, sector, or
donor. Support senior management in cultivating and strengthening
relationships with institutional donors, partner organizations and other
stakeholders.
- Research,
track and analyze new opportunities and CRS’ competitive position within
the marketplace.
- Lead
and/or support development of CRS BD tools, resources and guidance on BD
best practices and CRS approaches across the BD cycle.
- Train
and mentor staff, as needed, to improve their skills across the CRS BD
Cycle, including in proposal development, representation to donor and
partner organizations, intelligence-gathering, and marketing within their
country program or portfolio.
- Work
with appropriate staff to maintain data on past performance and corporate
capacity, to provide timely information for proposal submissions.
- Actively
contribute to CRS’ Business Development Community of Practice and advance
CRS’ Business Development practices through contributions to strategic
initiatives.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s
degree in international development, international relations, or related
field.
- Minimum
eight years of international development experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s
degree in international development, international relations, or related
field.
- At
least three years’ experience in a developing country.
- Demonstrated
experience utilizing diverse, proactive strategies to competitively
position an organization for new funding and productive institutional
relationships.
- Demonstrated
experience leading and producing competitive proposals in programming
contexts similar to CRS.
- Experience
with both grants and contract funding mechanisms.
- Demonstrated
experience leading project teams and processes to produce deliverables
under tight deadlines and at exceptional quality.
- Experience
providing remote support to diverse teams.
- Experience
in developing content for and facilitating trainings related to key
business development practices. Knowledge of adult learning approaches.
- Ability
to write proposals in French a plus.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Strong
strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with
capacity to see the big picture.
- Familiarity
with relevant institutional donor regulations, policies, procedures and
priorities.
- Comprehensive
familiarity with a broad range of institutional donor technical and cost
requirements. Experience with pursuing funding with donors including
World Bank, FDCO, EU, USG, foundations and corporations preferred.
- Strong
relationship management skills. Ability to relate to people at all levels
internally and externally. Ability to strategically approach each
relationship.
- Excellent
negotiation skills.
- Exceptional
writing skills with expert command of English grammar and AP style.
- Strong
communications and presentation skills.
- Proactive,
resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented mindset.
- Knowledge
of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles a
plus.
- Knowledge
of MS Windows and MS Office packages, information management systems, and
artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
Required Languages: Fluency in English
required; working ability in French strongly preferred.
Travel: Must be willing and able
to travel up to 35%.
Supervisory Responsibilities: None
Qualifications
Agency Competencies (for all CRS Staff):
- Personal
Accountability – Consistently takes responsibility for one’s own
actions.
- Acts
with Integrity – Consistently models values aligned with CRS
Guiding Principles and mission. Is considered honest.
- Builds
and Maintains Trust – Shows consistency between words and
actions.
- Collaborates
with Others – Works effectively in intercultural and diverse
teams.
- Open
to Learn – Seeks out experiences that may change perspective or
provide an opportunity to learn new things.
Agency Leadership Competencies:
- Lead
Change – Continually looks for ways to improve the agency through
a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
- Develops
and Recognizes Others – Builds the capacity of staff to reach
their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
- Strategic
Mindset – Understands role in translating, communicating, and
implementing agency strategy and team priorities.