Program Development Advisor, Latin America At International Rescue Committee

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

Established in January 2016, the Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global unit spanning New York, Washington DC, London, Bonn, Berlin, Brussels, Stockholm, Geneva, Nairobi, and Amman. It is responsible for identifying, securing, and managing all funding from statutory donors. The Unit is organized into five teams: Strategic Partnerships, Program and Grant Support, Compliance and Policy, Business Development, and Training & Curriculum Design.

AMU is a bridge between donors and country programs: providing expert technical advice to country teams while maintaining high-level visibility to ensure the general health of the regional portfolio. This unit ensures that donor compliance, policies, and procedures are implemented consistently and supports all staff working across the award management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources. The unit operates within a matrix management system across the teams in the US and Europe, driving functional integration between all relevant units and staff, ensuring that AMU staff support IRC’s global strategy and priorities.

The Purpose of the Role

The Program Development Advisor (PDA) will support Latin America country programs in securing funding for their programs by supporting and leading the pursuit of new funding opportunities, in line with IRC’s Business Development Strategy. Support will include all phases of the business development process, from opportunity identification to contract signature, including pre-positioning, partnerships building, proposal development, and due diligence phases. The successful candidate will have a strong track record of working on new funding opportunities in humanitarian and international development with a range of multilateral and bilateral donors (USAID, US Department of State, FCDO, EU and ECHO, GFFO, BMZ, Sida, SDC, World Bank, etc.), as well as experience collaborating with local partner organizations.

The PDA will support business development in the IRC’s Latin America region, which comprises programs for the Venezuela crisis (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru), Northern Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras), and Mexico. Candidates from these countries and/or those with significant experience in the region are strongly encouraged to apply.

Direct Reports: N/A

Key Relationships: Latin America Regional Team, Country Teams, all teams within AMU, CRRD, Global Supply Chain, Finance, Office of General Counsel, Technical Units, HR, IT.

Key External Contacts: Donor and partner points of contact as applicable per region

Responsibilities

• Help drive business development in the region by providing effective proposal support, ranging from proposal management to comprehensive support and quality assurance.

• Support in building IRC’s visibility with donors, peers, and partners.

• Coordinate proposal development, including sharing initial assessment of new opportunities, preparing timelines, ensuring the proposal team adheres to deadlines, supporting recruitment, assisting in budget development, ensuring document completion, organizing meetings and compiling notes, and drafting and proofreading proposal sections.

• Support country programs in increasing local ownership of projects in alignment with IRC’s partnership strategy through growing IRC’s collaboration with and support to local organizations in Latin American countries.

• Collaborate with technical units, country offices, and other colleagues to support the conceptualization of winning programs and bid designs for new project activities and amendments to current projects.

• Coordinate and communicate with consortium partners. Compile inputs from proposal team members, including consultants and partners. Identify partners, consultants, and other proposal development support as needed.

• Provide quality assurance and quality compliance support on proposals. Ensure responsiveness to and compliance with solicitation documents and with IRC’s requirements.

• Collaborate with country programs to successfully position for new funding opportunities. Lead and assist in identifying, tracking, and updating new business opportunities across a variety of technical sectors and donors.

• Lead or support pre-positioning for specific opportunities, including facilitating technical brainstorming, partner and competitor landscape analysis, and win theme sessions with technical and country staff.

• Facilitate the identification of consultants and additional support for opportunities in collaboration with the country team.

• Facilitate internal post-submission debrief sessions with country teams, technical units, regional teams, and other relevant stakeholders to collect lessons learned.

• Work with regional program support team colleagues to incorporate lessons learned from implementation at the proposal stage.

• Maintain complete and accurate electronic files, including final submission packages.

Skills, Knowledge, and Qualifications:

• Degree in social sciences, political science, international studies or a related field, or equivalent professional experience

• A minimum of 6-8 years of progressive professional experience in a similar role

• Experience in developing and supporting humanitarian and development proposals for NGOs

• Experience with strategies and proposal processes of key government/statutory donors – US, UK, EU, German, Scandinavian, etc.

• Experience in collaborating with and supporting national and community-based partners

• Experience in proposal budgeting a plus

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively collaborate across 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

• Clear, compelling writing skills

• Ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively

• Willingness to learn and problem solve

• Ability to empathize with others

• Fluency in English and Spanish

Working Environment

• Combination of standard office working environment and working remotely (i.e., telecommuting). Applicants must have a home or alternate workspace they can effectively complete their work from during regularly scheduled work hours.

• Travel within Latin America region up to 20% of the time

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our organization. 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.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality, Accountability, and Equality. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Respect in the Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.