Job Title: Business Development Specialist II, Global Opportunities
Department/Location: IDEA/Baltimore, MD
Band: D
FLSA: Exempt
Reports to: Director of Global Opportunities
**Regular Telework Negotiable
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:
Global opportunities are defined as institutional public or private donor opportunities that work across more than one region. Awards are not limited by donor source (USG, non-USG, foundations, or corporations) or by mechanism type (Leaders with Associate, Private Public Partnership Framework, Indefinite Quantity Contracts, etc.). These programs are lead under the Program Integration and Quality Assurance team and managed at CRS’ headquarters in Baltimore. They engage a global approach to country and regional participation and often rely on a global consortium engaging multiple sub-partners. Successful global opportunities will rely on establishing or strengthening relationships on a worldwide scale across regions.
Primary Function:
Under the direct supervision of the Director of Global Opportunities, the Business Development Specialist will take the lead on supporting all activities related to the identification and tracking of opportunities through the capture planning stages and into final proposal production. The emphasis will be on staying abreast of donor trends, liaising with staff at peer organizations, and working with program teams to identify, track, and position for opportunities. Working with the Talent Acquisition group, help to develop a robust talent pipeline of internal and external candidates. The Business Development Specialist will also work with teams to develop and deliver informative and compelling reports for business units, Executive Leadership Team and Board Members.
Job Responsibilities
Pre-Positioning (focus on Capture Planning)
- Stay abreast of trends in new business development in priority sectors and share those with country program teams. Strengthen intelligence and market research to identify opportunities for diversified funding in priority sectors and inform positioning efforts.
- Actively gather intelligence about new funding opportunities, analyze them, and share with headquarter, 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 global opportunity records in the Gateway system.
- Inform and advise country and regional programs on relevant funding opportunities
- Support country programs to improve capture planning capacities and practices, including the identification of proposal development teams and expected proposal development support needs.
- Provide support to headquarters staff in the development and execution of robust capture plans for prioritized global funding opportunities.
- Provide support to Human Resources in recruiting staff to implement the core management and oversight of global awards.
Pursuit of Opportunities
- Support country programs to perform due diligence in go/no-go analyses and decisions.
- As needed and as determined with the Director of Global Opportunities, deploy to provide hands-on proposal development support to country programs.
- Assist proposal development teams to improve proposal competitiveness through cross-sector engagement and integration of industry tools and best practices for proposal development.
- 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.
- 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.
- As appropriate, ensure mainstreaming of gender, capacity strengthening, influence, evidence-based approaches and strategic priorities during proposal design and development.
- Assist teams to conduct after-action reviews for key funding opportunities to promote continuous learning and improvement in capture planning and proposal development.
- Ensure compliance with the global Proposal Development and Approval Process (PDAP).
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.
- Identify professional development opportunities for country program staff, especially dedicated growth staff, including TDYs as needed.
- 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: Director of Global Opportunities, Director of Global Grants, HQ Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement (IDEA) Department, HQ Program Impact and Quality Assurance (PIQA) Department, Deputy Regional Directors for Program Quality, Regional Growth Staff.
External: 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 5 years of international development experience, including at least 2 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, USDA, Department of Labor, or Department of State.
- Experience with staff and local partner capacity development and mentoring.
- 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 motivate others and coordinate a large amount of activity.
- 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 organization including faith-based, government, and corporate institutions.
- Positive, team-minded, and customer-oriented attitude.
Foreign Language:
Fluency in spoken and written English is required; French is a 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.
CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.
EOE
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