Program Development and Partnership Lead, Economic Recovery & Development

IRC Summary: The International Rescue Committee (IRC), responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people survive, recover and gain control of their future. The IRC is working to improve the safety, health, education, economic well-being and power of people in crisis affected places.

The Economic Recovery and Development Technical Unit (ERD TU) is responsible for supporting the development, implementation, and monitoring of client-centered programs such as, but not limited to, cash and markets, economic inclusion, and agriculture and food systems. The TU’s technical assistance to this wide variety of programs ensures quality and use of evidence-based practices; promotes innovation, diversity, equity, and inclusion; and drives data-based management and decision making.

Job Overview:

The Program Development & Partnerships Senior Advisor will provide support to drive the ERD Technical Unit’s partnerships, and business development (BD) priorities, as set by ERD leadership and in the Economic Wellbeing Strategy. They will work in close collaboration with global and regional technical leaders and teams, as well as the Grant Operations & Analytics Team (GOAT) to drive a global fundraising strategy for ERD. They will provide business development and program design support on Technical Unit-led or strategic proposals, focusing on both private and public/institutional donors, as well as cultivating strategic partnerships. As is strategically important, they may flex to support significant single-country or regional bids as well. Overall, the Program Development & Partnerships Senior Advisor is co-responsible for operationalizing the BD strategy, assembling inputs to create compelling bids, gap filling in the BD process as needed/relevant, and driving ultimate bid success through correct donor intel and positioning, strong bid submission, and effective cross-functional collaboration.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership of ERD Program Development & Partnerships Pillar

• Further develop and drive the global BD strategy for ERD in collaboration with global and regional technical leadership,
• Coordinate and provide oversight to ERD’s pipeline of prospective strategic business development opportunities from private and public funding sources, including maintaining ERD’s BD opportunity tracker, and work closely with internal stakeholders to plan for staff needs and business development capacity requirements to successfully write and budget for winning bids based on the pipeline
• Adapt, strengthen and operationalize standard ways of working and process workflows for strategic BD opportunities and other cross-functional projects to grow overall funding, pre-position concepts, advance our partnerships pursuits, prioritize funding needs and increase efficiency
• Oversee workstreams under ERD’s Business Development annual plan and workstreams under relevant ERD working groups
• Ensure ERD funding needs and priorities are well represented across high-value fundraising teams on an ongoing basis, proactively sharing information, socialize the economic wellbeing strategy, maintain the ERD folder in the GPPS Hub, and advocating as needed on behalf of the ERD TU.
• Work alongside technical leads to develop multifaceted and compelling materials that strike the balance between technical depth and clarity of vision for specific audiences
• As needed, coordinate internal competition processes for unsolicited donor submissions by working closely with internal stakeholders, including but not limited to facilitation of expressions of interest from global technical leadership and strengthening ideas for internal competitions

Business Development and Program Design

• Serve as TU focal point for all strategic BD opportunities, coordinating with the ERD Leadership Team, GOAT BD, AMU, HV Fundraising teams and other Technical Units, and initiate G/NG processes for the ERD TU
• Lead and/or support proposal development processes as needed for ERD, bringing together teams across the organization. As needed, participate in donor meetings providing technical expertise and strategy support, and/or connect relevant colleagues from across the TU to inform donor conversations, proposal design, and business development.
• Ensuring overall quality, coherence, competitiveness and logic in project design, promoting integration with other sectors as needed, partners’ meaningful participation, adherence to IRC’s IMPACT quality standards and scale considerations
• Provide advice and support on budget development to TU staff; review budgets to ensure consistency with the proposal design
• Write non-technical sections and edit all sections for TU-led proposals, and gather technical insights across the Technical Unit and consolidate for proposals
• Coordinate with the internal stakeholders on the review and signature process of agreements and contracts to closely follow IRC processes for awards

Partnership Strategy

• Lead coordination to drive all aspects of the partnerships strategy and management for TU, with a strong focus on building effective partnerships with local civil society, women-led organizations, and other local actor organizations, and evolving tools, processes and ways-of-working to be fit-for-purpose for TU-led projects and strategic priorities
• Work closely with the GOAT Partnership Team to pre-position strategic partnerships for priority areas of work through stakeholder mapping, engagement and program co-design
• Identify and evaluate opportunities for partnerships with academic or research centers, with Research & Innovation colleagues as appropriate, with a goal of identifying more research partnership opportunities from the global South

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Senior Technical Director, ERD

Position Directly Supervises: Program Development & Livelihoods Officer (MiP with Deputy Director, ERD)

Other Internal/External contacts:

Internal: ERD TU, GOAT, ERD Country Program staff, other Technical Excellence Technical Units, Global Corporate Partnerships, Foundations & Trusts, Program Services, AMU

External: Peer agencies, partners, donors

Working Environment: Standard office work environment with occasional travel when appropriate

Desired Experience and Skills:

Education: Degree in economics, business, international development, international relations, or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and work experience background is required. Sound training on the use of data and research evidence and rigorous analytic skills are an advantage.[PC1]

• Demonstrable progressive [PC2] experience providing technical and/or bid leadership to multi-year, multi-million-dollar business development opportunities in economic or livelihoods development.
• Strong capacity to understand the humanitarian system and operating context and coordinate the relevant technical inputs from within and outside ERD TU
• Familiarity with managing large-scale, complex portfolio and experience using strategic insights and data from varied sources to support portfolio management, pivoting and alignment to organizational and sectoral goals
• Excellent attention to detail and problem-solving skills and ability to analyses trends based on a diverse set of data and insights
• Demonstrating experience leading the development, review and implementation of systems, policies and processes in collaboration with other functional areas including Finance, Awards, Advocacy, MEAL
• Experience in building partnerships for development and humanitarian funding as well as negotiation of programmatic and financial contractual arrangements with donors and partners
• Demonstrated expertise in working with both public and private donors and knowledge of the funding landscape for economic development, multi-purpose cash, livelihood development, and/or financial inclusion
• Experience with some of the following donors programmatic and advocacy priorities, funding instruments and cycles: USAID, BHA, PRM, Irish Aid, FCDO, AFD, Global Affairs Canada, Swiss Cooperation, GFFO
• Experience and comfort interrogating partnership practices and familiarity with emerging developments including growing attention to power-shifting, localization and technical assistance models for INGOs
• Knowledge of public and private fundraising – appetite and curiosity about building collaborative pathways with philanthropy and private sector
• Experience in developing and managing project concepts and funding proposals for humanitarian / development work with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action
• Demonstrated ability to work with stakeholders at multiple levels
• Highly collaborative and proven ability to work independently and work with remote, multi-cultural, and multi-disciplinary teams
• Flexibility and ability to work well under pressure, taking care of competing priorities, in a fast-paced team environment
• Experience in successfully influencing change in teams you don’t directly supervise
• Fluency in English required; Arabic, French and/or Spanish also valued
• Ability to travel globally up to 20% of the time, occasionally on short notice

Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.