CRS’ Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement (IDEA) department advances the agency’s strategic position by engaging new and existing institutional donors to acquire and steward resources that deliver excellent programs to advance CRS’ mission and agency strategy (Vision 2030). Teams within IDEA focus on three main functional areas: engaging donors, prospects, and strategic partners; delivering on outcomes as outlined in the institutional award agreements, in compliance with donor requirements; and acquiring new resources through business development activities.

IDEA’s Growth Strategy and Support Unit (GSSU) supports the department’s acquiring new resources functional area by providing high-quality business development (BD) surge support to CRS country programs, regions and global teams on strategic funding opportunities. The GSSU also provides BD subject matter expertise in the development of new CRS BD resources, such as guidelines, trainings and orientations.

Job Summary

The Business Development Specialist III (BDS) is a key member of the GSSU. Reporting directly to the GSSU BD Manager, the BDS is responsible for providing support across all dimensions of the BD cycle to cross-discipline and cross-functional teams, with particular expertise in capture and proposal coordination. Building and maintaining strong working relations with CRS’ Marketing and Communications department and with IDEA’s donor engagement teams, the position will provide strategic positioning and capture planning guidance to country program, regional and global teams. In addition, the position will support the unit’s regular communications with CRS’ Regional and Global BD Managers and will serve as Acting GSSU BD Manager when needed.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

Providing Business Development Surge Support:

• Provide BD expertise in capture planning and proposal preparation for specific opportunities with institutional donors (government and inter-governmental award issuing organizations as well as foundations, corporations and other awarding non-governmental organizations). Emphasis will be on complex Mission-level USAID opportunities across both assistance and acquisition mechanisms.
• Serve as a capture and proposal coordinator on high-priority complex funding opportunities, ensuring timely high-quality submissions that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS’ technical and cost standards.
• Provide country program, regional and global teams with strategic positioning and capture planning guidance, serving as an advisor to capture coordinators and offering initial capture kick-start surge support on prioritized funding opportunities.
• Build and maintain strong working relations with CRS’ Marketing and Communications (MarCom) department, specifically with the MarCom Content Group and Regional Communications Officers, and with IDEA donor engagement teams. Support regional and country program teams in working with MarCom and IDEA donor engagement teams to advance key positioning and capture initiatives.
• Support and guide identification of partners and negotiation of CRS’ role on proposal consortia, ensuring a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the agency’s partnership principles and strategic directions.
• When needed, serve as a lead writer or supporting writer, working closely with the proposal coordinator, technical design lead and sector leads, other proposal team members and stakeholders, including partners, to develop well-written, well-organized and cohesive concept notes, expressions of interest and proposals aligned with donor requirements and CRS standards.
• When needed, provide temporary BD Manager and Regional BD Specialist coverage at the country program or regional level, managing the relevant funding pipeline, serving as capture/proposal coordinator of specific funding opportunities and working with the regional/country leadership team to ensure resources are committed to complete necessary capture and proposal deliverables.

Supporting the CRS Business Development Community of Practice:

• Lead development of CRS BD tools, resources and guidance on BD best practices and CRS approaches across the BD cycle, providing particular subject matter expertise in capture planning and proposal coordination best practices. Work with the IDEA BD Knowledge Management and Learning team to develop a new toolkit of standard capture and proposal coordination tools and templates to be used by IDEA BD team members when providing BD surge support.
• Train and mentor BD and fellow IDEA staff to improve their skills in capture planning and proposal coordination, including in successful donor and partner engagement, intelligence gathering and marketing of CRS’ technical and programmatic achievements.
• Support senior management to cultivate and strengthen institutional relationships with institutional donors, partner organizations and other stakeholders.
• Contribute to internal and external data gathering and analysis to support internal BD reporting and decision-making.
• Actively contribute to CRS’ BD Community of Practice and advance CRS’ Business Development practices through contributions to strategic initiatives and annual summits.

Supporting GSSU Management:

• Serve as the Acting GSSU BD Manager when needed, managing surge support requests and feedback, supervising GSSU team members and sub-units and supporting the greater IDEA BD team as needed.
• As needed, support the GSSU BD Manager with monthly Regional and Global BD Manager and other global department BD check-ins and guidance.
• Act as a mentor to junior GSSU and greater IDEA BD and donor engagement team members.
• Support IDEA BD and GSSU orientation sessions for new country program, regional and global BD Community of Practice Members.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, international relations, or related field.
• Minimum seven years of international development experience, with at least five years of those years working full-time in a BD position for an international development organization.
• Demonstrated experience leading and producing complex institutional donor proposals in programming contexts similar to those in which CRS operates, including experience leading complex USAID Mission proposals.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree a plus.
• Experience working in a region- or country-based BD position strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience utilizing diverse, proactive strategies to competitively position his/her organization for new funding and productive institutional relationships.
• Knowledge of and experience with both USAID RFP and RFA funding mechanisms highly desirable.
• Familiarity with relevant institutional donor regulations, policies, procedures and priorities.
• Demonstrated experience managing teams and processes, leading teams to produce deliverables under tight deadlines and at exceptional quality. Experience providing remote support to diverse teams strongly preferred.
• Experience in developing content for and facilitating trainings related to key business development practices. Knowledge of adult learning approaches desired.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Extensive familiarity with standard proposal requirements, including structure and content.
• Fluency in business development terminology, standards and best practices, including win themes and discriminators.
• Comprehensive familiarity with a broad range of institutional donor technical and cost proposal requirements, with a strong preference for those of key US government donor agencies (USAID, USDA, Department of State).
• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Very strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.
• Very strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts and ideas in compelling, audience-focused prose.
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.
• Extensive familiarity with Microsoft 365 suite of tools (MS Windows, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Teams), and information management systems.
• Knowledge of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles a plus.

Required Languages – Fluency in English required, working ability in Spanish and/or French preferred.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 20%.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships

• Internal: Growth Strategy and Support Unit team members, the Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement Department, the Business Development Community, country program staff; regional office staff; program quality staff, management quality and finance staff
• External: Business development staff of collaborating partner organizations; select donor representatives as appropriate.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Catholic Relief Services works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality.  Catholic Relief Services’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding.  We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS welcomes candidates from the countries and regions in which we work. In the event the successful candidate is an expatriate or global telecommuter, the anticipated duration of the assignment is informed by a term limit, based on the type and level of the job and the needs of the agency.

CRS is committed to safeguarding program participants, community members, staff and volunteers from all forms of exploitation and abuse.  The successful candidate is expected to sign and adhere to CRS´ Code of Conduct.

CRS talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people – especially children and vulnerable adults – to live free from abuse and harm.

Disclaimer:  This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position. 

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

General Requirements

CRS offers are contingent on the selected candidate’s ability to legally work where the position is to be performed. Every government has a unique set of work permit eligibility requirements.  All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside a home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical clearance; some work permit processes require clearing a separate government administered medical examination.

CRS prioritizes candidates who are citizens/ permanent residents of the countries where we have CRS offices.