CARE is an international NGO with staff and partners in 100 countries. We work in partnership to co-create, catalyze and scale up local solutions to poverty and inequality, and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis. These solutions have a broad range, from disaster response to food and nutrition to education and work for women and girls to healthy mothers and children. CARE’s Vision 2030 puts gender equality at the heart of all our work. We seek to have women leading the change to impact and their voices heard; together with our partners we put women and girls at the center of everything we do because when they have equal access to resources, they lift their families and communities out of poverty. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for 75 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE package of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and Fight with CARE.

The Senior Business Development Manager is a senior management position that plays a key role in contributing to CARE’s business development, with a focus on business planning and pursuits in food security, agriculture, nutrition, water, and climate change. Managing a team of 3-4, this position will develop and execute strategy to position CARE in new technical/geographic spaces, guide capture efforts, and oversee all substantive aspects of proposal management, including the negotiation of strategic milestones along the proposal continuum. This is accomplished through delegation to Business Development Managers. In addition, it is expected that the Senior BDM will personally lead a portfolio of high priority prime bids.

The position requires technical background in one or more of the following sectors — food security, agriculture, nutrition, water, or climate change; strong understanding of USAID, BHA and RFSAs; demonstrated success in winning USG proposals; strong management skills; and excellent communication and presentation skills.

Responsibilities:

1. Proposal Management
   • Oversees, coordinate, and ultimately responsible for the preparation, writing, editing, review, management and timely submission of technical proposals and other IFS required materials:
   • Coordinate advanced preparations for upcoming opportunities through Salesforce including intelligence gathering, recruitment, workshop design and prep, technical content development.
   • Make an initial assessment of CARE’s ability to effectively compete, and factors required to assure a successful bid (in the case were we move forward to a bid).
   • Set priorities, delegate responsibilities and establish deadlines, document timetable, and report on same to Director.
   • Identify potential partners and play a lead role in the negotiation of teaming agreements.
   • Develop agenda for strategy meetings including development of “win themes” for each proposal, as appropriate.
   • Lead and provide guidance to the proposal team on proposal content, strategy, staffing, partners and budgeting; and develop a timeline to accomplish said tasks.
   • Provide accurate and timely information to Strategic Recruitment to inform job descriptions and profiles required for proposal writing, key positions and consultant assignments.
   • Draft, edit, review and provide guidance to Country Teams regarding proposal strategies, technical content and budgets, etc.
   • Utilize Salesforce in the proposal development process and ensure accuracy of Salesforce and, subsequently, IFS information and metrics for decision making
   • Help develop technical guidance documents to capture knowledge and learning from assigned proposals.
2. Staff Management
   • Manage a team of 3-5 staff.
   • Develops, mentors, trains and supervises BD and staff.
   • Encourage staff development and career planning for the overall benefit of the employee.
3. Strategic Growth
   • Working with HQ Technical Teams and Country Offices, the Senior BDM will define new business strategy in key technical sectors that corresponds to corporate capabilities, competitive strengths, and specific market opportunities.
   • Lead prioritization and pipeline planning exercises in conjunction with Country Offices and Technical Teams;
   • Manage the opportunity pipeline by making assignments to Business Development Managers for upcoming and live bids, ensuring proposal efforts are resourced appropriately and operating at an optimal level;
   • Work with Business Development Managers to actively track opportunities in various pipeline stages, helping them to establish priorities, develop timetables, and coordinate staff from across the organization.
4. Business Process Improvement
   • S/he will support ongoing IFS efforts to improve its business development processes, particularly those relevant to his/her position.
   • Relevant to role, support the implementation of a 3-5 year strategy for Capacity Building that details how IFS will build the capacity of technical staff and country offices to develop competitive USG proposals.
   • Support development of training models and best practices for capacity building in areas relevant to his/her position.
   • Develop models and best practices for new business development.
5. Other
   • Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in international development or related field.
• 6-8 years of experience in USG proposal development (including USAID, BHA), with at least 3 years of management-level experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading and winning new business from USG clients including USAID and State Department.