Head of Business Development, MENAU

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

This role is open to candidates located and with the right to work in Germany, Jordan and Lebanon.

Background

Over the past 90+ years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild through long-term, sustainable development solutions. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC’s mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. The International Rescue Committee is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster. Through 28 regional offices in cities across the United States, the IRC also helps refugees resettle in the US and become self-sufficient. The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. The IRC is a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable.

Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department (CRRD)

The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department (CRRD) have a portfolio of humanitarian relief, post-crisis recovery, and development programs under their remit. This work focuses support in five key areas: ensuring safety from harm, improving health, increasing access to education, improving economic well-being and ensuring people have the power to influence decisions that affect their lives. In all these programs, there is a drive to address the unique needs of women and girls (who represent the majority of those displaced) – and the universal barriers they face.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is one of four pillars within CRRD. The unit is responsible for identifying, securing, and supporting the management of all funding from statutory/government donors. The AMU is a bridge between donors and country programs: providing expert technical advice to the country teams, while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency and compliance and manage risk. This pillar ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently and supports all staff working across the award management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources.

The Purpose of the Role

Reporting to the Director, Awards Management, the Head of Business Development (HBD), MENAU, leads IRC’s business development efforts in support of the region’s country programs and is a key part of IRC’s global business development team, serving as the region's representative in developing and implementing IRC’s global business development strategy. The HBD plays a strategic role in the planning, identification, and successful pursuit of new business in line with country Strategy Action Plans (SAPs). HBD support includes all phases of the business development process, including strategic planning, donor outreach and engagement, pre-positioning (capture), partnering, proposal development, due diligence, issues letter and agreement negotiation.

The HBD is responsible for maintaining regional level oversight of all business development for institutional donors in the IRC’s Middle East, North Africa, and Ukraine (MENAU) region, which comprises country programs in Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen. As a member of the Regional Program and Award Support (RPAS) team, the HBD also provides business development support to IRC’s Emergency Response in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt).

Scope and Authority

The Head of Business Development exercises overall leadership for business development in the region and line management of regional Program Development Advisors (PDAs). The role oversees regional and supports country business development strategies and planning, including reviewing the pipeline and individual opportunities and ensuring appropriate resourcing for successful bid submissions. The HBD provides development oversight of regionally assigned opportunities and serves as a key regional focal point for global opportunities supported by AMU’s Proposal Leadership team.

Key Working Relationships

The HBD reports to the Director, Awards Management (DAM) and manages regional PDAs. The HBD works closely with the regional Senior Management Team, all RPAS team members, and the wider AMU Global Business Development team, including peers in the Donor Engagement, BD Services, and BD Strategy, Operations, & Resourcing teams. The HBD also collaborates with other teams within the Crisis Response Recovery and Development Department, especially AMU, the Emergency Unit, and Technical Excellence, as well as with External Relations, Global Supply Chain, Finance, Office of General Counsel, and other key departments within IRC who contribute to regional business development efforts. The HBD serves as point of contact with external donor and partner stakeholders during the pre-award stage, as applicable per region.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Planning and Strategic Leadership (40%)

- Provide strategic vision on regional BD efforts in support of country program Strategy Action Plans (SAP), in collaboration with regional and AMU leadership.
- Maintain visibility on the overall pipeline across all public and institutional donors, in collaboration with RPAS team members.
- Maintain up to date knowledge of donor funding priorities and geographical interests relevant to IRC’s areas of work.
- Provide advice, analysis and guidance to AMU, Regional and Country leadership on BD trends, target-setting, donor engagement, and support needs in the region, ensuring leaders have the right level of information to make decisions.
- Lead and support BD strategy development efforts and planning at regional and country level, to establish clear funding priorities and targets, to support decision making and enable effective positioning and resource planning.
- C oordinate support to country teams in the identification, tracking and pursuit of new business opportunities across a variety of technical sectors and donors, including ensuring that technical brainstorming, partner, and competitor landscape analysis and win theme sessions with technical and country staff are occurring.

End to End Program Development (20%)

- Support effective and timely Go/No Go decisions, including sharing initial assessment of new opportunities and providing insight and inputs based on donor knowledge, likelihood of success and experience.
- Plan and manage effective division of bid leadership across the portfolio at capture and live stages of development to ensure appropriate support on all opportunities.
- At the early stage of opportunity identification, work with country teams, DAM and others in identifying and addressing escalated support needs.
- Act as the regional business development focal point for escalated bid opportunities, providing regional advice and coordinating escalated support in connection with bid leads assigned by the Proposal Leadership team or others.
- Collaborate with other BD staff, especially Proposal Leadership team members and technical staff on high demand opportunities and multi-country and TU-led bids.
- Ensure the following Bid Leadership responsibilities are performed consistently and effectively by the assigned BD Lead (HBD, PDA, Proposal Leadership team member, or other) on each public opportunity in the regional portfolio: Collaborate with technical units, country offices, and other colleagues to support conceptualization of winning program and bid designs, including support to building effective partnerships and consortia.
- Provide effective proposal support, ranging from proposal management to comprehensive support, confirming responsiveness to and compliance with solicitation documents and with IRC’s requirements. Ensure required reviews and approvals are secured prior to submission to donor.
- Provide guidance on donor policies and ensure project design is responsive and compliant with donor expectations, rules, and regulations.
- When providing proposal management support, coordinate concept note and/or proposal development, including sharing initial assessment of new opportunities, reviewing timelines, ensuring the proposal team adheres to deadlines, supporting recruitment, assisting in budget development, ensuring document completion, organizing meetings, and compiling notes, and drafting and proofreading proposal sections. This includes support to country office teams in the management and maintenance of IRC’s award management system.
- Review agreements, in coordination with relevant RPAS post-award focal point, to ensure accuracy and highlight key compliance requirements, in coordination with post-award, Compliance & Policy and country Grants teams.
- Facilitate internal After-action Reviews with country teams, technical units, regional team, and other relevant stakeholders to collect lessons learned. Support efforts to share feedback beyond the region as part of IRC’s wider business development learning agenda.
- Work across teams to ensure successful handover from pre-award to post-award, that lessons learned are captured, and best practices are shared, in support of improved knowledge management and through the development of relevant tools.
- Maintain complete and accurate electronic files, including final submission packages and IRC data products (e.g., Opportunity Database, OTIS).

Donor and Partner Engagement (10%)

- In line with IRC’s Partnership Ambition, contribute to increasing the volume and equity of IRC's work with local and regional partners (with a focus on women-led national organizations) by coordinating support to country programs in identifying partnership opportunities, identifying strong partners, and finalizing teaming arrangements.
- Support partnering conversations with international partner HQs where needed.
- Support countries and region in planning effective donor, partner, and peer engagement, in collaboration with colleagues across the organization.
- Represent IRC externally to donors, peers, and partners.

Capacity Building and Training (10%)

- Collaborate with other HBDs and stakeholders to share best practices and lessons learned, and to develop and improve tools as identified in the BD team workplan.
- Contribute to developing, updating, and delivering business-development related training for the region, including roll-out and refreshers of the IRC Business Development Process training. This will be done in collaboration with RPAS team members,
- Develop, strengthen, and share capacity of other IRC staff - including direct reports, IRC country and regional teams - to identify opportunities and develop strong program design and proposals, including BD processes.
- Support in recruiting, onboarding, and training of new country, regional grants and partnerships team members in collaboration with RPAS team members.

Staff Management, Learning, and Development (15%)

- Supervise and mentor direct reports, including communicating clear expectations, providing regular and timely performance feedback, document and discuss performance issues if needed, and deliver high-quality documented annual performance reviews.
- Ensure direct reports are trained on all relevant IRC processes and donor regulations.
- Support direct reports in achieving annual objectives, acting as a trusted and accountable manager, mentor, and professional resource, including promoting collaboration, enabling adequate resourcing, and ensuring accountability.

Other Responsibilities (5%)

- Contribute to AMU and regional strategic priorities and initiatives.

- Support with translation to regional or donor languages when necessary.
- Participate in special projects, working groups and other tasks as assigned.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential Skills, Knowledge, and Qualifications :

- Substantial experience and a successful track record leading large proposal teams on complex subject, multi-year, multi-partner proposals with minimal supervision.
- Experience developing and supporting humanitarian and development proposals for NGOs.

- Experience with strategies and proposal processes of key government/statutory donors – US Government, FCDO, EU institutions (DGs ECHO, INTPA, MENA), UN, and other donors (CDCS, AFD, GAC, Sida, GFFO, BMZ, SDC, etc.). ·
- Experience collaborating with and supporting national and community-based partners. ·
- Experience in proposal budgeting a plus.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively collaborate across a variety of relationships in a multicultural environment.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate equally effectively with colleagues in remote and diverse teams, including as team leader for proposals.
- Clear, compelling writing skills, preferably with previous experience with proposal writing.
- Ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively.
- Ability to travel internationally (approximately 20% of time).
- Fluency in English required. Fluency in Arabic desirable.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct . Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding , Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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