MANAGER, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT – FOOD & WATER SECURITY

JOB SUMMARY:

CARE is an international NGO with staff and partners in 100 countries. We work in partnership to co-create, catalyze and scale up local solutions to poverty and inequality, and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis. These solutions have a broad range, from disaster response to food and nutrition to education and work for women and girls to healthy mothers and children. CARE’s Vision 2030 puts gender equality at the heart of all our work. We seek to have women leading the change to impact and their voices heard; together with our partners we put women and girls at the center of everything we do because when they have equal access to resources, they lift their families and communities out of poverty. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for 75 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE package of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and fight with CARE.

CARE is seeking a Business Development Manager (BDM) who will be a part of a growing Institutional Funding and Strategy team. Reporting to the Senior Business Development Manager – Food & Water Security the BDM plays a key role in the oversight, management, and quality control of the entire proposal development process, ensuring a compliant and donor-responsive proposal that meets both funder and CARE requirements and internal standards. Particularly the BDM coordinates the development of proposals, primarily to the US Government including both prime and sub bids in food security, nutrition, livelihoods, value chains and WASH. This role includes: coordinating IFS support to CARE Country Offices (COs) responding to USG bids; liaising with partners; helping conceptualize the CARE role in potential projects; reviewing draft proposals for quality and compliance; leading proposal development efforts, as assigned, and on occasion being deployed to the field to manage the proposal process and facilitate design workshops. In addition, the BDM works closely with the other members of IFS with CO and HQ staff to ensure responsiveness to the requirements of the RFP/A, and consistency with CARE’s best practices and CO needs and interests.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Proposal Management

• Oversees, coordinates and is ultimately responsible for ensuring the preparation, writing, editing, review, management and timely submission of technical and cost proposals and other funder or IFS required materials:
• S/he will coordinate advanced preparations for upcoming opportunities including intelligence gathering, recruitment, workshop design and prep, technical content development.
• S/he will actively input critical information on the bid and bid progress in advance of established deadlines and regular IFS reporting.
• S/he will make an initial assessment of CARE’s ability to effectively compete, and factors required to assure a successful bid (in the case where we move forward to a bid).
• S/he will set priorities, delegate responsibilities, establish deadlines and document timetables (e.g calendar) necessary to ensure bid progress
• S/he will identify potential partners, and play a lead role in the negotiation of teaming agreements.
• S/he will develop agenda for strategy meetings including development of “win themes” for each proposal, as appropriate.
• S/he will lead and provide guidance to the proposal team on proposal content, strategy, staffing, partners and budgeting; and develop a timeline to accomplish said tasks.
• S/he will draft, edit, review and provide guidance to COs regarding proposal strategies, technical content and budgets, etc.
• S/he will document best practices and foster training to improve a successful proposal outcome.
• The incumbent may be deployed when necessary to facilitate in-country design workshops or provide field-based proposal management support for a particular response or coordinate the proposal preparation.
• S/he will facilitate the After Action Review process after each proposal to ensure proposal lessons learned are captured and will help develop business development guidance documents to capture such knowledge and learning from proposals

Planning and Positioning

• Actively coordinate with technical teams to review USG forecast and facilitate advance planning (capture) and positioning for strategic opportunities.
• Build technical team and country office capacity to effectively pursue USG funding through regular guidance and both informal and formal training.

Process and systems strengthening

• Support ongoing IFS efforts to improve business development processes, particularly those relevant to their position. This includes contributing to the development, maintenance, and promotion of IFS Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as supporting development of training models, guidance documents, and best practices for capacity building in areas relevant to his/her position.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in development studies, or field that emphasizes critical thinking and inquiry.
• At least four years experience in proposal development, and at least two years overseas experience in program management or design
• Excellent writing skills with special emphasis on clear, persuasive language; strong editing skills; knowledge of US government proposal requirements; and ability to work under tight deadlines.