MANAGER, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT At CARE USA

CARE is seeking a Business Development Manager (BDM) who will be a part of a growing Institutional Funding and Strategy (IFS) team. The position holder will report to the Senior Business Development Manager overseeing the portfolio of Climate Change, Agriculture and Livelihoods, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Food Security and Resilience, Water and Nutrition. 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 under $20m, focusing in particular on climate change. 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. The BDM develops and maintains systems to facilitate CARE’s response to RFPs/As; prepares analytical reports of past CARE experience to reflect on lessons learned; and designs and facilitates workshops to build CARE staff capacity to successfully pursue bids. Finally, the BDM plays an important role in advocating for proposals to reflect CARE’s proposal and programming standards.

In addition to proposal management responsibilities, the BDM supports and/or leads coordination efforts with their assigned Program Strategy and Impact (PSI) technical team(s). They will also support ongoing IFS efforts to improve its business development processes, particularly those relevant to her/his position.

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.
• They will coordinate advanced preparations for upcoming opportunities including intelligence gathering, recruitment, workshop design and prep, technical content development.
• They 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).
• They will set priorities, delegate responsibilities, establish deadlines and document timetables (e.g calendar) necessary to ensure bid progress, and report on same to Deputy Director.
• They will identify potential partners and play a lead role in the negotiation of teaming agreements.
• They will develop agenda for strategy meetings including development of “win themes” for each proposal, as appropriate.
• They 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.
• They will draft, edit, review and provide guidance to COs regarding proposal strategies, technical content and budgets, etc.
• They 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.
• They 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 view USG forecast and facilitate advance planning and positioning for strategic opportunities.
• Facilitate annual USG resource mobilization strategic planning sessions, track progress against established goals and milestones, and actively support portfolio growth.
• Build Technical Team capacity to effectively pursue USG funding through regular guidance and both informal and formal training.

Support ongoing IFS efforts to improve its business development processes, particularly those relevant to his/her position. This includes contributing to the development, maintenance, and promotion of BD guidance 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 related, or field that emphasizes critical writing and thinking skills
• 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
• Ability to work under tight deadlines

Desired:

• Masters degree in relevant field
• Facilitation and training skills; foreign language capabilities; and familiarity with CARE and partner organizations
• Technical background or understanding of climate change programs