About CRS:

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS' relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Sierra Leone Background:

CRS has been supporting program activities in Sierra Leone since 1953. Currently, CRS/ Sierra Leone has approximately 150 national staff and 11 international staff, with an annual budget over $12 million. CRS/Sierra Leone currently implements projects in Education, Health and Urban Resilience sector area, including: the USDA/McGovern Dole Food for Education funded All Pikin for Learn (APfL)project, the Global Fund nationwide malaria project, and smaller privately-funded projects for Urban Resilience. In addition, CRS/Sierra Leone is looking to re-establish programming in the Agriculture sector, and continue to find new and innovative ways to achieve growth and impact in its three current strategic areas of focus.

Job Summary:

As Business Development (BD) Specialist II you will lead the production of high quality applications for funding in support of CRS' engagement with institutional donors and initiatives involved in international development to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your knowledge and skills will allow you to provide specialized assistance in all dimensions of the BD cycle to cross-disciplinary and cross-functional teams.

Job Responsibilities:

• Provide BD expertise in positioning, 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).
• Coordinate proposal development processes to ensure timely submission of high quality proposals that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS' technical and cost standards. Lead and support proposal budget processes and propose recommendations to develop a competitive proposal.
• As appropriate, serve as proposal coordinator or other lead role in proposal team, and participate in bid analysis and proposal review panels. Serve as a lead or support writer on proposals, contributing both technical and non-technical content and integrating inputs from staff and partners into a responsive, coherent proposal with a compelling vision and clear win themes.
• Train and mentor staff, as needed, to improve their skills in proposal development, representation to donor and partner organizations, intelligence-gathering, and marketing within their country program or portfolio.
• 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. Research, track and analyze new opportunities and CRS' competitive position within the marketplace.
• Support senior management to cultivate and strengthen institutional relationships with institutional donors, partner organizations and other stakeholders.
• Work with appropriate staff to maintain data on past performance and corporate capacity, in order to provide timely information for proposal submissions.

Typical Background, Experience & Requirements:

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in international development, international relations, or related field. Master's degree preferred.
• Minimum five years of international development experience, with at least three years of experience in a developing country.
• Demonstrated experience utilizing diverse, proactive strategies to competitively position his/her organization for new funding and productive institutional relationships.
• Exceptional writer with expert command of English grammar and AP style.
• Demonstrated experience leading and producing competitive proposals in programming contexts similar to CRS.
• Comprehensive familiarity with a broad range of institutional donor technical and cost requirements.
• Experience with USAID, European Union and DFID 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.
• Knowledge of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles a plus.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Personal Skills:

• Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture.
• Strong relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Strong communications and presentation skills.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.

Source:https://recruiting.adp.com/srccar/public/RTI.home?c=1161051&d=External&rb=reliefweb#/