Job Title: Business Development Specialist II
Dept/Location: Institutional Donor Engagement & Advancement Department
Reports To: Manager I, USG Donor Engagement – New Business Unit
Band: D
About CRS:
Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.
Background: This Business Development Specialist position supports CRS’ acquisition of resources from a wide range of institutional donors within the US Government, and a variety of emerging, non-traditional sources of funding. CRS’ BD staff constitute a specific line of expertise within a comprehensive approach to business development that involves technical, managerial, financial, and operational staff and local partner organizations, working together to enhance CRS’ competitive positioning for donor attention and funding.
Primary Function:
The Business Development Specialist will support the agency’s positioning for and pursuit of institutional donor resources, with an emphasis on competitive funding mechanisms. S/he will provide business development expertise and leadership to cross-discipline and cross-functional teams in the development of proposals to ensure the highest quality standards and competitiveness. S/he will contribute to and support internal learning processes that improve CRS’ business development practice, enhance the agency’s value propositions, and leverage innovative, evidence-based results into new revenue and programming. S/he will be an outstanding proposal writer and editor, with experience working under pressure and with deadlines to create a quality deliverable that responds to a donor’s expressed needs. S/he will have experience easily explaining difficult technical concepts, activities and interventions, and easily able to summarize key strategies and approaches into clear language.
Job Responsibilities:
- Research, track and analyze new business opportunities, competitive intelligence, and CRS’ competitive positioning within the marketplace.
- As requested, serve as a writer and/or editor on certain proposal sections. Create proposal narrative that is responsive to the donor/solicitation, easy to understand and effectively crafts a compelling vision for the proposed project.
- Support senior management’s cultivation and strengthening of institutional relationships with donors, partner organizations, and other collaborators in the international relief/development arena.
- Provide BD expertise in positioning, capture planning and proposal preparation for specific opportunities. As appropriate, serve as proposal coordinator or other lead role in proposal team, and participate in bid analysis and proposal review panels.
- Coordinate processes and mentor staff to ensure timely submission of high quality proposals that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS’ technical and cost standards.
- Support and guide the identification of partners and negotiation of CRS’ role on proposal consortia, ensuring a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the agency’s partnership principles and strategic directions.
- Work with appropriate staff to maintain data on past performance and corporate capacity, in order to provide timely information for proposal submissions worldwide.
- Lead or support cost application/proposal budget development, provide costs based on proposal design inputs and propose recommendations to develop a competitive proposal.
- Serve as a lead writer on proposals, effectively contributing both technical and non-technical content. Integrate contributions from partners and other staff into a coherent proposal with consistent language and clear win themes
- Lead and contribute to agency learning, through analysis of proposal successes and failures, analysis of CRS competitiveness and the funding environment, and active participation in CRS’ global BD community of practice.
Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff): These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.
• Serves with Integrity
• Models Stewardship
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships
• Promotes Learning
Key Working Relationships:
INTERNAL: Country Program staff; regional office staff; relevant HQ departments, and global BD community.
EXTERNAL: Business development officials of collaborating partner organizations; select donor representatives as appropriate.
Qualifications:
- Masters Degree in Development, International Relations, or relevant field preferred; equivalent experience acceptable.
- Minimum 5 years of international development experience, including experience traveling and working in low resource settings; additional years of experience strongly preferred.
- Exceptional writing ability and demonstrated experience writing proposals for USG funding
- Demonstrated experience leading and producing competitive proposals in programming contexts similar to CRS required. Comprehensive familiarity with technical requirements of USAID RFAs/RFPs required.
- Familiarity with relevant federal regulations and with the agency-specific policies, procedures and priorities of USAID
- Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication and negotiation skills.
- Demonstrated experience managing people and processes, leading teams to produce deliverables under tight deadlines and at exceptional quality.
- Strong analytical skills.
- Knowledge of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles, a plus.
- Ability and willingness to travel overseas as needed, up to 40% of job time.
- Fluency in English required; working ability in French, Portuguese or Spanish preferred.
This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, efforts, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.
CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.
NOTE: All interested applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. at the time of application.
Equal Opportunity Employer
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