Regional Business Development Senior Advisor at Mercy Corps

Essential Responsibilities

PROGRAM/PROPOSAL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

• Responsible for leading and/or supporting all aspects of the development of high-quality strategic proposals throughout the region.
• Apply the agency’s best practices in proposal development efforts supported by the Deputy Regional Director-Programs and Business Development team.
• Lead proposal development for: 1) small, medium, and mid-level proposal opportunities; 2) emergency and humanitarian proposal opportunities (generally smaller value but frequent); and 3) support work on larger strategic proposals including for complex programs, multi-country opportunities and/or contracts in partnership with the Business Development team.
• Ensure that proposal teams are well structured and staffed, particularly for larger strategic proposals but not only, including identification of both Technical Leads and Lead Writers in a timely manner and in coordination with Global BD and Technical teams.
• Coordinate closely with the Technical Resources & Quality and Evidence & Learning teams at all levels to ensure that all proposals are evidence-based.

STRATEGIC PRE-POSITIONING

• Lead and support efforts that help Mercy Corps’ country and regional program teams to more proactively influence donor planning and access funding.
• Support targeted assessments that will help create funding opportunities or increase competitiveness of the agency in solicitations, in close collaboration with the Technical and Evidence and Learning Teams
• Facilitate strategic planning and capacity building sessions with country teams.
• Regularly track donor trends for potential opportunities that country teams might not be able to monitor or respond to.
• Produce and regularly update snapshots on the state of the funding landscape in the region, with insight and analysis that will drive the positioning of Mercy Corps as a partner of choice with donors.
• Evaluate the performance of Mercy Corps’ portfolio in the region, including trends, risks, and opportunities for expansion of engagement with donors
• Identify and nurture strategic partnerships with other relevant organizations that result in stronger and more impactful program development efforts.

​​​​​​​REGIONAL CAPACITY

• Strengthen capacity of Mercy Corps’ staff within the region to work on proposals and run strong proposal and program development processes through teamwork during proposal efforts, mentoring or tailored training activities.
• Promote the use of BD planning tools, and support pre-positioning and proposal development capacity at the country and regional level by organizing capacity building support from the global Institutional Donor Engagement unit
• Support/lead learning and communications activities for specific programs in the region alongside country teams.
• Contribute to activities that raise overall agency state of practice and enable Mercy Corps to produce competitive submissions more efficiently, such as: developing improved reference materials for proposal writers, contributing to efforts that capture learnings and results from our programs, and/or assisting with networking activities.
• Serve as a conduit for flow of important information and idea-exchange between the countries, region and the agency overall.

​​​​​​​REPRESENTATION

• Responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with partners in region, alongside Country Team leadership.
• Coordinate alongside Country Directors (CD) with global and regional teams including the Awards Management Team (AMT),
• Support prepositioning and proposal development efforts in partnership with Corporations and Foundations Teams and the Mercy Corps Europe (MCE) Institutional Partnership Managers.
• Keep up to date on relevant donor strategies being developed or applied by significant governmental, academic, and non-profit groups, in coordination with RPT and country teams.
• Contribute with Mercy Corps regional leadership in the region to strengthen the influence strategy

​​​​​​​Required Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, and to solve complex problems at an organizational level.
• Detailed understanding of the programmatic, financial, operational and administration mechanisms that support a grant/project implementation life cycle.
• Excellent written and interpersonal communication skills. Confident communication skills applicable to donor relations and inter-agency coordination.
• Ability to handle multiple issues at one time, especially in emergency situations, and to organize and prioritize accordingly.
• Strong representation and relationship-building skills including professional representation (e.g. donors, partner agencies, host governments, etc.)
• Ability to lead teams, handle negotiations and facilitate planning processes.
• Ability to work effectively under tight deadlines and in sparse working environments.

​​​​​​​Required Education And Experience

• BA/BS or equivalent in international development, political or social science, public administration, business management, required; and MA preferred.
• At least 7 to 10 years’ field experience in program design, proposal development, business development and/or direct program development and implementation.
• Demonstrated technical experience in one of Mercy Corps outcome or sub-outcome/distinctive areas of Pathway to Possibility (P2P).
• Demonstrated proficiency and experience with US Government (USAID, USDS, USDA), European (UK, EU, ECHO), multilateral and other institutional and private donors, government grant and financial management requirements.
• Demonstrated understanding of the critical humanitarian and development issues in the region, and significant experience with the challenges of operating in the region.
• An internationally recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
• Knowledge of Sphere standards and other training in humanitarian response preferred.
• Experience developing and strong understanding of budget and cost proposal submissions, and personnel and staffing requirements for USAID, OFDA, EU (ECHO and DEVCO) and other institutional donor proposals.
• Strong negotiation skills and experience conducting proposal development in consortia, prime- and sub-grantee roles, and other partnership arrangements.
• Fluency in written and spoken English, French or Portuguese skills a plus