Business Development Manager - Corus International

Corus International is the parent of a family of world-class organizations working to deliver the holistic, lasting solutions needed to end extreme poverty once and for all. We are a global leader in international development, with 150 years of combined experience across our brands. Our nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries include IMA World Health and its fundraising brand Corus World Health, Lutheran World Relief, CGA Technologies, Ground Up Investing, and Farmers Market Brands. Our more than 600 employees around the globe are experts in their fields and dedicated to helping the world's most vulnerable people break the cycle of poverty and lead healthy lives.

At Corus we believe that good only grows stronger and we reflect that belief in our workplace culture. We value every employee's specialized area of expertise and nurture professional growth. We promote an engaging and supportive work environment, where employees feel enabled and driven to innovate, learn and collaborate. And because our subsidiaries often function as partners, our employees have the opportunity to work across our enterprise family.

Corus is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our worldwide workplace, and we believe that social justice and respect for the human dignity of every person are fundamental to all we do as an organization.

Corus International is seeking a Business Development Manager to join its International Programs and Operations Department. This position may be based in our Washington, DC office in a hybrid remote capacity, working two days each week in the office with Tuesday as a core office day. Or, fully remote if candidate lives outside the area of the DC office.

As a key member of the Business Development Team, the Manager, Business Development (BD) serves a leadership role as a cross-sectoral proposal lead, capture lead, coordinator, or, occasionally, technical writer. This includes leading capture/pre-bid preparation, proposal development, and transition to the Program staff for implementation.

Responsibilities:

Proposal Development (50%)

• Serve as Proposal Manager for high value (>$5 million) institutional funding opportunities.
• Manage the proposal process and team to ensure that a complete, high-quality proposal is submitted on time.
• Lead the coordination of all proposal development activities across the organization to ensure timely progress toward developing winning proposals.
• Serve as organizational expert on the solicitation and monitor for any amendments to the solicitation.
• Ensure the technical application meets organization and donor expectations for quality, responsiveness, completeness, and competitiveness.
• Manage all proposal reviews (pink, red, compliance, budget, and copy edit).
• Participate in interviews for key personnel candidates
• Participate or lead proposal design meetings.
• Serve as Lead Writer for concept papers and proposals as assigned.
• Lead the analysis and facilitation of key strategic proposal decisions: teaming arrangements, strategic approaches, partner selection, etc.
• Lead partnership negotiation on behalf of the organization with consortium partners, including peer INGOs, research institutes, and private sector companies.
• Manage relationship and communication with the donor and consortium members.
• Facilitate transition of awarded projects to implementation team as needed/requested.
• Facilitate liaison with prime organizations and partner negotiations for teaming arrangements and any requested deliverables.
• Oversee communication/coordination of relevant staff (Finance and Administration, International Program, HR, and NBD staff) and quality control in the development of proposal budgets, cost applications; support review and editing of cost documents.
• Maintain robust documentation and recording of meetings, negotiations, key decisions, etc. to retain and enhance the organization's institutional knowledge and assets.

Positioning and Capture (25%)

• Support the development of country-specific strategies by monitoring near- and far- term identified opportunities for target regions and reporting on at least a quarterly basis the feasibility of moving forward.
• Support or serve as Capture Manager to position the organization for key opportunities for institutional donors.
• Coordinate the development of capture strategies for specific opportunities, including analyzing competition, scoping potential consortium roles and members, negotiating the organization's scope when subbing, articulating the organization's value-add, developing capacity statements, and coordinating additional research to maximize the organization's position in anticipation of a solicitation.
• Identify, build rapport with, assess, and manage the organization's relationship with partners in the international development space.
• Develop scopes of work for, negotiate, and finalize pre-teaming and teaming agreements with potential partners to build strong consortiums and partnerships for opportunities in capture stage.
• Support program and country staff on community needs and/or market assessments.
• Expertly speak on behalf of the organization's global portfolio to institutional donors, foundation and private sector representatives and international government officials.
• Conduct scoping trips abroad to identify new funding opportunities and potential strategic partnerships, including participating in strategic meetings with donors, peers, and coordination groups.
• Build organizational understanding of new donors and contribute information for prioritization of emerging donors through research and external interviews
• Contribute to the development and improvement of business development tools for capture planning

Strategy, Planning, and Team Management (10%)

• Provide thoughtful input into broader organizational and business planning efforts.
• Support periodic reviews of the organization's BD strategy, policies, procedures, manuals and guidelines.
• Contribute to BD annual and multiyear strategies including leading on specific components of strategy as assigned.
• Provide BD perspective to regional teams in development and implementation of BD strategies.
• Collaborate with the Managing Directors of Business Development and Programs Business Units to strategically identify institutional funding opportunities to meet multi-year growth targets.
• Manage/coordinate the work of temporary employees and consultants as necessary.

Organizational Knowledge Management and Learning (10%)

• Model use of organizational best practices for Client Relationship Management (CRM) in Salesforce.
• Help plan, coordinate and facilitate training sessions for staff at headquarters and support strengthening of business acquisition capacities in English and Spanish/French/Arabic in Corus countries.
• Participate in organizational working groups as assigned.
• Contribute to and review technical materials including capacity statements, manage library of capacity statements and lead diffusion of best practices related to development of capacity statements.
• Provide step-down trainings for any trainings attended that were not widely available to all appropriate staff.
• Orient new staff to BD procedures and prepare them for effective contribution in their anticipated proposal team roles.
• Collaborate to develop guidance and tools to support the regional and country offices to propose high quality program activities.
• Build capacity of country and regional staff on technical programmatic and program design through trainings and targeted coaching and technical support.

Tracking (5%)

• Ensure an updated pipeline of relevant institutional donor opportunities by tracking and analyzing daily announcements circulated throughout the organization. Build a familiarity with country-specific portfolios and support the development of country-level business development strategies.
• Liaise with relevant technical, program, and business development teams to evaluate (go/no-go) and track opportunities that match the organization's strategic directives.
• Track opportunities by following donor trends, managing relationships with potential partners, conducting research, and collaborating with the organization's wider teams to keep an updated pipeline.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, such as Agriculture, Economic Development, International Development Public Health, or other similar area.
• Minimum five years of relevant and progressively responsible experience.
• Experience must include working in a proposal development capacity.
• Familiarity with the process of responding to solicitations by institutional donors. Illustrative donors include the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of State, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), or the European Union (EU).

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills in English.
• Professional proficiency in Spanish is strongly preferred.
• Exceptional organization, computer and time-management skills.
• Ability to effectively manage multiple work streams and priorities simultaneously.
• Demonstrated leadership, organizational and relationship management skills.
• Ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, enthusiasm, diplomacy, and cultural sensitivity, both individually and as part of a team and to adjust to shifting priorities.
• Ability to travel between 10% - 20% of the time to Corus countries.

Physical and Mental Requirements:

• The physical requirements that may be needed to execute responsibilities may include bending, standing, and walking, etc.
• The mental requirements that are essential to satisfactorily executing the responsibilities outlined in this job description include, but not limited to: learning new tasks, comprehending, and retaining information, completing tasks independently, effectively communicating verbally and in writing, demonstrating proficiency in using computer software to perform assigned tasks.

Other Duties:

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive list of activities, duties or responsibilities for the position. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. All positions are required to perform any additional tasks assigned by the supervisor. Global positions that are bound by contracts will not be changed without notice and approval.

Working Conditions, Travel and Environment

• Corus has a hybrid work policy, allowing work to be done remotely; 2-3 days/week minimum in the office is required. The employee must be available to work outside normal office hours or on the weekends as required.
• This position must be able to travel as required for standard domestic and international business purposes. While performing the duties of this job in different locations, the employee may be exposed to precarious settings under high-security risks and/or very basic living conditions and outside weather conditions, as well as to infectious diseases.
• If applicable, must have authorization to work in the country of assignment.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Zero Tolerance to Abuse

As a member of the Corus Family, each employee is expected to:

• Help to develop and maintain an environment that welcomes and develops a diverse workforce.
• Foster a work environment where everyone feels valued and included.
• Support employees' evaluation and promotion processes based on skills and performance.
• Promote a safe, secure, and respectful environment for all members of Corus family, stakeholders in general, and particularly for the communities we serve.
• Follow Corus Code of Conduct helping to prevent any type of abuse including workplace harassment, sexual abuse and exploitation, and trafficking in persons.
• Adhere to the Organizational Core Values.

Corus International is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, marital status, protected veteran, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state or federal laws.