Senior Programme (Business) Development Advisor

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee is among the world’s leading nonprofit humanitarian relief and development organizations. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC’s mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. The organization is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster. Through 26 regional offices in cities across the United States, we also help refugees resettle in the US and become self-sufficient.

We’re striving to build an organization that is a supportive, kind and inspiring place to work. We encourage bold leadership, innovation with quality, creative partnerships and accountability to those we serve.

The Global Awards Management Unit (AMU)

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global unit with presence in IRC locations around the world, including in New York, Washington DC, London, Nairobi, Berlin, Amman and other locations around the world.

The AMU has responsibility for identifying, securing and managing funding from statutory donors. The Unit is organized into six directorates: Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Compliance and Policy, Training, Partnerships and Operations and Planning.

The AMU’s mission leads IRC work to engage and influence government donors, secure the right funding, and enable compliant and effective program delivery for our clients.

Business Development (BD)

The Business Development Team, within which this role sits, leads IRC's public business development in collaboration with country programs and technical units across the organization. The team strives to secure the right funds in the right way to achieve IRC’s impact strategy for our clients.

The BD team’s focus is to secure the funds required from donors to deliver to those in greatest need. We strive to increase the consistency, duration, and diversity of our funds and the competitiveness of our bids to ensure the effectiveness of IRC’s work.

The team works to strengthen IRC’s long-term business development capacity and learning by sharing best practices and building upon proven approaches. We develop tools and processes that strengthen and simplify our business development efforts, and work with training colleagues to improve capacity across the organization.

We prioritize effective partnerships and collaboration, internally and externally, locally and internationally. This includes strengthening the engagement and representation of national partners in our program design and team structures, as well as using our organizational connections with peers and donors to maximize successful business development and impact for clients.

The Purpose of the Role

The Senior Program/Business Development Advisor will join a growing team and will lead IRC’s new business development efforts by engaging with global, regional, country, and technical staff throughout the business development cycle from opportunity tracking and capture planning to proposal development, and submission. T

The SPDA will primarily serve as a capture and proposal manager, s/he will also offer technical assistance and mentor staff working on proposals on relevant business development topics. The ideal candidate will have a successful track record of leading large-scale and complex new business efforts in international development with particular emphasis on US Government (particularly USAID) funding.

Responsibilities

• Manage proposals from solicitation release to submission ensuring compliance with donor rules and IRC’s business development processes and practices.

• Manage capture from opportunity identification to solicitation release including developing capture plan and coordinating the capture team to complete milestones.

• Lead proposal development in response to requests for proposals, including those for field-based projects and large global opportunities. This will involve management of proposal teams, calendars, and deadlines; strategy development with technical staff; partner identification and negotiations; recruiting; writing; production; and after-action reviews

• Manage relationships with proposal partners and liaises with IRC’s Recruitment department to secure key personnel.

• Collaborates with IRC’s pricing team, ensuring technical vs. budget consistency.

• Lead on advising other IRC departments when required on USAID contract terms and implication for structuring proposal budgets, targets, and deliverables.

• Build and strengthen relationships with internal stakeholders (HQ-based regional and technical units, as well as IRC country offices) as well as with donor representatives, partners and other relevant stakeholders.

• Contribute to, and model the use of standardized business development processes, tools, templates and information.

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field, including international relations, political science, public administration, and communications.

• Seven years plus of experience developing funding proposals.

• Experience working with US Government donors.

• Substantial experience and a successful track record leading large proposal teams on complex subject, multi-year, multi-partner proposals with minimal supervision.

• Experience in proposal budgeting a plus.

• Experience in designing MEL responses a plus.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively manage a variety of relationships in a multicultural environment;

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate equally effectively with colleagues in ‘remote’ and diverse teams, including as team leader for proposals;

• The ability to work productively and accurately while under pressure in a fast-paced, demanding environment;

• Flexible work attitude: the ability to work in a team environment and independently and ability to meet unexpected demands;

• Ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively;

• Ability to travel internationally (up to 20% of time);

• Fluency in English with proficiency in one other language (French, Spanish or Arabic) desirable.

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement: In accordance with IRC’s duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known hazards and our commitment to safeguard the health of our employees, clients, and communities, IRC requires new hires to furnish proof of vaccination against COVID-19 in order to be considered for any in-office or hybrid positions. All IRC US offices require full vaccination to attend any in-office functions (e.g., meetings, trainings).

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity: IRC is committed to building a diverse organization and a climate of inclusivity. We strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate that they can contribute to this goal.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

US Benefits:

We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $120 per month, dental starting at $7 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

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