The Position:

The Business Development Specialist (Team Lead) position is located in the Office of Chief, in the UNFPA Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU). The position reports directly to the Chief of SCMU with a dotted reporting line to the Division of Communications and Strategic Partnership. The Business Development Specialist (Team Lead) will work closely with other SCMU colleagues, the new integrated HQ division (name To Be Decided), the Humanitarian Response Division, the Division of Communications and Strategic Partnerships, other HQ Business Units, the Regional Offices and the Country Offices and with a number of external partners.

The position plays a pivotal role in driving SCMU’s business development strategy, actively engaging in business development activities, and seeking out opportunities for collaborative ventures to expand SCMU’s reach, fostering partnerships, and identifying new markets and funding sources to drive growth and sustainability, aligning closely with UNFPA’s overall mission and goals.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA occupies a unique position in the sexual and reproductive health commodity ecosystem as a critical player in supply chain management, a leading public procurer of sexual and reproductive health commodities, a trusted partner to national governments, and one of the few organizations with the scale and partnerships necessary to build accountability for last mile delivery.

The UNFPA Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU) is self-funded and was made operational in January 2022. It is tasked with ensuring that UNFPA is able to effectively and efficiently support the delivery of life-saving reproductive health products and other programme supplies to the end user when and where they are needed. To achieve this, it is important to strengthen the capacity of governments and implementing partners to ensure coordination, end-to-end visibility and accountability on all supply chain and logistics management related activities, in particular for programme supplies, across all UNFPA programmes.

Job Purpose:

The Business Development Specialist (Team Lead) will lead and manage a dedicated team to develop business acquisitions including writing high-quality technical proposals, concept notes, presentations and talking points, ensuring technical relevance, clarity, and consistency to make a compelling case for resource mobilization for SCMU and developing and managing relationships with key stakeholders, both internally and externally. While primarily providing strategic leadership, this position also demands significant involvement in operational activities.

Qualifications and Experience:

Education:

Advanced university degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, Economics, International Relations, Fundraising, Marketing, Communications Management or other related technical field.

Knowledge and Experience:

• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant progressively responsible experience in resource mobilization and partnerships building, including:
  • Direct responsibility for setting and meeting income targets.
  • Demonstrated strong background in grant proposal writing and securing funding from UN, institutional donors, foundations, and corporations.
  • Experience in government and multilateral donor relations and fundraising, especially with entities like FCDO, USG, and the EU.
  • Proven success in proposal development for public health programmes
• Knowledge of current theories and practices in international fundraising/marketing, partnership is a requirement.
• Professional written and spoken presentation skills, including for the development of reports, presentations, and the ability to synthesize complex supply chain documents for both technical and non-technical audiences is required.
• Strong interpersonal skills and capability to develop and maintain broad diversified partnerships is required.
• Experience using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is required.
• Experience in managing a team, particularly within a remote and/or matrix organizational structure is required.
• Field experience is strongly desirable.
• Experience working within a matrix organizational structure is an asset.
• Basic knowledge of the principles and operational aspects of integrated reproductive health care in the global development and humanitarian community, familiarity with UNFPA programmes and policies, knowledge of international development policies and institutions and international politics is an advantage.
• Knowledge of UNFPA mandates, policies, and guidelines is an asset.

Languages:

Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (especially French or Spanish).