Director, Strategic Growth and Partnerships

Position description

The Director will play an important role in advancing the objectives of Land O’Lakes Venture37’s organizational growth and impact strategy. The Director is an experienced business development professional with established relationships with US Government customers, including USAID and preferably USDA, and experience working in agriculture development and economic growth. The Director’s focus will include influencing and executing the organization’s USAID and USDA competitive bid strategy, alongside managing key customer and partner relationships. She/he will be an active participant in intel gathering and proposal development, including leading proposal efforts, to drive quality, competitive project designs and proposals. She/he will also lead execution of customer development plans, with support from other team members, and cultivate new customer and stakeholder relationships including the development of international and local private sector and NGO partnerships. The Director will have multiple direct reports and is expected to travel 20% of the time.

Strategy and pipeline development

• Drive business development strategy through active pipeline development, with a particular focus on key customers USAID and USDA, ensuring early intel capture and targeted pursuit of priority customers and procurements.
• Identify funding trends and contribute to bid analyses and capture plans to position V37 competitively.
• Manage and update opportunities and contacts in Salesforce.

Proposal Development

• Lead, develop and mentor proposal managers and other team members as assigned.
• Oversight, mentorship and support to non SGP staff and partners contributing to proposal efforts.
• Leadership of key proposals critical to Veture37’s business development strategy
• Conduct in-country reconnaissance to collect/analyze data informing proposal design

Customer and partner relationship development

• Leverage, cultivate and deepen relationships with key customer contacts globally; leverage networks and deepen understanding of key influencers to strengthen institutional relationships and create pathways to new funding opportunities.
• Contribute to the development and execution of customer development strategies; retain strong working knowledge of strategies to guide capture efforts and deepen institutional knowledge base.
• Draw on technical acumen to serve as informed representative of V37 in key customer meetings.
• Leverage, cultivate and expand relationships with implementation partners including international NGOs, businesses and academic institutions.

Marketing

• Conduct marketing trips to meet with key customers and lead customer visits to Land O’Lakes to influence program design
• Position V37 for new business opportunities through speaking engagements and attendance at industry events

Required Experience/Knowledge (to be able to perform this job):

• Master’s Degree in International Development, Business Administration, Agriculture, Economics or related field plus a minimum of ten years relevant work experience, or combination of additional education and experience to total ten years
• Outstanding relationship-building skills and client-centered approach to partnership development
• Demonstrated experience, knowledge and success orchestrating and leading winning USAID bid strategies and proposals
• Significant experience in proposal leadership roles including leading and writing proposals
• Demonstrated understanding of emerging trends in international agriculture/economic development
• Demonstrated ability to work with technical leads to conceptualize and develop program designs
• Experience in leading and working with multi-cultural staff, including awareness of and sensitivity to working with multi-cultural groups in multiple socio-economic settings
• Proven team building and staff development experience with ability to mentor staff on proposal development.
• Ability to write and/or review – including proposals sections, concept notes, RFI responses and marketing materials
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
• Ability to travel and work effectively in emerging economies

Preferred Experience/Knowledge:

• Demonstrated experience, knowledge and success orchestrating and leading winning USDA bid strategies and proposals
• Experience living and/or working in developing countries
• Experience with program management
• Experience working on projects with an agriculture focus
• French and/or Portuguese language skills
• Experience with non US government customers including other bilateral, multilateral or foundation donors

Application instructions

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