Job Title: Business Development Specialist II, Food Security
Department/Location: IDEA/Baltimore, MD
Band: D
FLSA: Exempt
Reports to: Director of Food Security Donor Engagement
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.
Summary:
CRS’ Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement (IDEA) department advances the agency’s strategic position by managing and stewarding institutional donor relationships and resources, supporting the growth of CRS’ business and influence, and building the capacity of staff across the spectrum of resource acquisition and management. The Business Development Specialist II (BDS) works closely with the Director of the Food Security Donor Engagement Unit (FSDEU) to support CRS’ push for excellence in business development and donor engagement in food security, and to administer a select portfolio of food security awards and their respective donor relationships.
Primary Function
The BDS will provide leadership to the agency’s positioning for and pursuit of institutional donor resources, with an emphasis on competitive funding mechanisms from USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Office of Food for Peace, and Bureau for Food Security. S/he will provide business development expertise 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 practices, enhance the agency’s value propositions, and leverage innovative, evidence-based results into new revenue and programming. The BDS will research and track upcoming opportunities through the capture planning stages and into final proposal production and negotiation. S/he will strengthen the capacity of country program staff as appropriate, in capture planning and proposal development and the introduction of new tools and best practices in coordination with agency-wide efforts from the Business Development community of practice.
Job Responsibilities
Pre-Positioning (focus on Capture Planning)
· Stay abreast of trends in new business development in priority food security sectors and share those with country program teams. Strengthen intelligence and market research to identify opportunities for diversified funding and inform positioning efforts.
· Actively gather intelligence about new funding opportunities, analyze them, and share with headquarters, regional, and country program staff as appropriate.
· Champion the use of CRS’ online relationship management system (Gateway) by staff and ensure the accuracy and completeness of all food security opportunity records in the Gateway system.
· Support country programs to improve capture planning capacities and practices, including identification of proposal development teams and expected proposal development support needs.
Pursuit of Opportunities
· Support country programs to perform due diligence in go/no-go analyses and decisions.
· As determined with the Director of Food Security Donor Engagement, deploy to provide hands-on proposal development support to country programs. As appropriate, serve in lead or support role in proposal teams. Write or edit technical narratives, produce budgets and other proposal pieces as required depending on capacities of proposal development team.
· Assist proposal development teams to improve proposal competitiveness through cross-sector engagement and integration of industry tools and best practices.
· Provide BD strategic oversight and input for proposal teams; review proposals from a growth perspective as needed, including overall responsiveness to donor requirements, incorporation of cost-effectiveness considerations, and other aspects that may affect CRS’ competitiveness.
· Ensure accurate, complete and timely submission of proposals to FSDEU donors, including compliance review of all proposal components, upload into donor systems as required. Follow through with negotiations including support to oral defense, issues letter response and proposal revision through to award signature.
· Assist teams to conduct after-action reviews for key funding opportunities to promote continuous learning and improvement in capture planning and proposal development.
Award Administration
· Ensure effective award management for a select portfolio of centrally-issued awards from FFP, OFDA, and/or BFS, such that: high risk issues are quickly surfaced and handled effectively with donors; reports meet deadlines and quality expectations; agreement terms and compliance requirements are commonly understood and respected; and problems and trends are fed back to project management and KML functions.
· Work with FSDEU colleagues to track, document and build upon donor hot buttons, trends in implementation issues, successes and challenges, and related understanding of donor expectations. Build award implementation experience into proposal development.
Agency Learning
· Share relevant learning with the BD community of practice.
· Build country program capacity in BD-related skills through training and ongoing accompaniment.
· Support development and roll-out of BD-related competencies and training programs.
· Work with CPs to develop and maintain capacity statements, past performance tables, and evidence-based results for priority areas; work with HQ/IDEA to maintain global past performance and corporate capacity statements.
Key Working Relationships
Internal: Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement (IDEA) Department, Program Impact and Quality Assurance (PIQA) Department, Humanitarian Response (HRD) Department, Overseas Finance, Human Resources, Deputy Regional Directors for Program Quality and Management Quality, Regional and country program growth staff, Country Representatives, Chiefs of Party and Project Directors.
External: Appropriate contacts in USG donor agencies; Representatives from peer international NGOs, local partner organizations.
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
Qualifications
· Master’s Degree in Development, International Relations, or relevant field preferred; equivalent experience acceptable.
· Minimum 6 years of international development experience, including at least 3 years in a developing country.
· Demonstrated experience leading and producing competitive proposals in programming contexts similar to CRS required. Comprehensive familiarity with technical and cost application requirements of USAID RFAs required. Experience with USAID RFPs and with non-USAID and non-USG donors and funding mechanisms highly desirable.
· Demonstrated experience managing people and processes; leading teams to produce deliverables under tight deadlines and at exceptional quality.
· Familiarity with relevant federal regulations and with the agency-specific policies, procedures and priorities of at least one of the following agencies: USAID/Food for Peace, USAID/OFDA, USAID/Bureau for Food Security.
· Experience with staff and local partner capacity development and mentoring.
· Experience with implementation and management of USG awards.
· Knowledge of CRS program quality standards, partnership principles and Catholic Social Teaching principles, is preferred.
Personal/Professional skills
· Sound judgment, assertiveness, and commitment to the Agency’s mission.
· Ability to coordinate a large amount of activity in a team environment.
· Strong team coordination, organizational and planning skills.
· Excellent interpersonal, communication, diplomacy and negotiation skills.
· Exceptional writing and editing skills with attention to detail.
· Strong analytical skills.
· Enthusiasm for meeting and working with a wide range of individuals and outside organizations including faith-based, government, and corporate institutions.
· Positive, team-minded, and customer-oriented attitude.
Foreign Language:
Fluency in spoken and written English required; working ability in French a highly desired plus.
Travel Requirements:
Willingness and ability to travel internationally at least 25% of the time.
This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position. Interested applicants must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship.
*CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.
EOE
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