United States of America: Program Development Advisor

Job Title: Program Development Advisor

Sector: Awards Management

Employment Category: Regular

Location: USA-New York, NY - HQ

Job Description

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

Established in January 2016, the Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global unit spanning New York, London, Nairobi, and Amman. It has responsibility for identifying, securing and managing all funding from statutory/government donors. The unit is organized into five pillars: Donor Relations & Analytics; Grants Management and Frameworks; Compliance and Policy; Programme Development (Business Development); and Training.

The AMU is a bridge between donors and the field: providing expert technical advice to the field, while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency and compliance, and manage risk. This unit ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently, and supports all staff working across the grants management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources. The unit operates within a matrix management system across teams in the US and the UK, driving functional integration between all relevant units and staff, in collaboration with the Vice President, AMU, and the Senior Vice President for Europe in relation to overarching issues with European donors.

The AMU reports into the IRC's Global Partnerships and Philanthropy Department (GPP) and contributes to the mission of the IRC by ensuring the growth and sustainability of public funding.

The GPP department is responsible for the global delivery of the International Rescue Committee's financial resources, and plays an important strategic role in the creation of its brand, awareness and support for its advocacy goals. The IRC's 2020 Strategy centers on its ambition to continue to improve the scale and effectiveness of IRC programs worldwide with evidence of what works best to impact people's lives in conflict and fragile settings. GPP comprises colleagues and teams delivering government funding, brand, marketing, account management, leadership gifts, board liaison, corporate partnerships and communications to support this work.

The Purpose of the Role

The Programme Development pillar of the AMU is responsible for all the IRC's business development from statutory/government sources. The pillar is currently undergoing a restructure, which will result in a considerable expansion.

The main purpose of the role is to manage support to IRC's regions and country offices in programme development and proposal work. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Relationship management with regional units and country offices
• Business development support
• Proposal quality assurance
• Proposal in-depth support
• Proposal leadership, i.e. leading the proposal development process, including partner management where needed
• Proposal writing and editing (as necessary, and of a non-technical nature)
• Grant contract and partnership review and negotiation

Scope and Authority

Authority : the post-holder is expected to demonstrate initiative, make decisions and provide support and advice autonomously but in line with parameters laid out by the Director of Programme Development and Deputy Director of the Regional Section. The post holder will manage proposal quality assurance, in depth support and bid leadership for a particular region and be accountable for the outputs and outcomes of the team.

KEY ACCOUNTABLITIES AND MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

General (approx. 10% of time)

• Represent IRC/participate in donor/NGO events and provide feedback to relevant staff
• Develop/support the design of business development plans and strategy
• Liaise with other IRC departments and teams
• Participate in/deliver training sessions for regional and Technical Unit workshops
• Accountable for providing business development and/or donor specific perspective as appropriate to other IRC units/initiatives
• Oversee development of standard guidance for staff working on proposals, including but not only overview sheets on donor rules and preference and standard language for proposals
• Manage a pipeline of upcoming opportunities and circulate to key country/Technical Unit staff
• Ensure upcoming regional donor engagement opportunities are identified and assessed
• Accountable for providing business development and/or donor-specific perspective as appropriate to other IRC units/initiatives
• On-board new Programme Development employees
• Accountable for developing standard guidance for staff working on proposals pertaining to their regions

Proposals: Quality Assurance (approx. 30% of time)

• Interpret donor solicitations, rules and regulations

• Review final proposal before submission

• Review of budgets for the region; both for donor responsiveness and matching to technical narrative

• Ensure proposals are submitted

• Review and negotiation of contracts and agreements for the region

Proposals: In-Depth Support (approx. 30% of time)

• Interpret donor solicitations, rules and regulations

• Ensure resources for proposal development are identified (lead writer, TAs, budget development, recruitment)

• Support with appropriate/competitive teaming arrangements

• Ensure multiple proposal reviews are conducted

• Consolidate technical inputs in case of multi-country/sector work

• Write, and edit non-technical sections of proposals when these form important part of evaluation criteria/are non-standard

• Review of budgets; both for donor responsiveness and matching to technical narrative

• Review and negotiation of contracts and agreements

• Ensure proposals are submitted

Proposals: Proposal Leadership (approx. 30% of time)

Task can include any of the below, but would not entail all tasks for any proposal:

• Interpret donor solicitations, rules, and regulations as part of the proposal development process
• Identifying resources for proposal development (lead writer, Technical Advisors, budget development, recruitment, etc.)
• Identify appropriate/competitive teaming arrangements and facilitate negotiations
• Conduct (multiple) reviews of proposal
• Consolidate technical input in case of multi-country/sector work
• Write non-technical sections (e.g. management and past performance sections) when these form important part of evaluation criteria/are non-standard
• Support budget preparation when the budget is an important part of the overall competitive strategy to ensure the budget matched the solicitation and donor expectations
• Review budget for donor responsiveness and match to technical narrative
• Edit full technical proposal and budget narrative for coherence, length, uniformity, and responsiveness to solicitation
• Work with recruiters to identify key personnel, and tailor CVs
• Manage coordination, communication and inputs from subs
• Coordinate multi-country proposal efforts
• Submit proposal
• Review and negotiate donor contracts and agreements

Essential:

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Degree (minimum BA) or equivalent experience in a field relevant to IRC's work;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively manage 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;
• The ability to work productively and accurately while under pressure in a fast-paced, demanding environment;
• Flexible work attitude: the ability to work in a team environment and independently and ability to meet unexpected demands;
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively;
• Ability to travel internationally (up to 20% of time);
• Ability to work autonomously and under remote management.

Experience:

• Significant experience in developing and managing project concepts and funding proposals for humanitarian/development work (for international NGOs) from government/statutory donors - including from (some of) DFID, US Government (USAID, OFDA, BPRM, etc.), EU institutions (ECHO, DG Devco, others), Sida, SDC, Irish Aid, etc.;
• Experience of working in development and/or humanitarian contexts, preferably for an NGO or international organization (e.g. UN, major donor), preferably with some time spent in the field;
• Experience in proposal budgeting;
• Experience in building partnerships for development and humanitarian funding as well as negotiation of programmatic and financial contractual arrangements with donors and partners.

Language:

• The ability to work (read and write) in French is required for the Programme Development Advisors for regions in Francophone Africa.

Desirable:

• The ability to work (read and write) in French ('desirable' for all regions; required for Francophone Africa)
• Ability to travel at times with minimum notice and for prolonged periods of time;
• Ability to facilitate project design processes, including applying theories of change and project logic to design, and develop work- and management plans accordingly;
• Longer term field posting in a relevant context;
• Interest in and understanding of policy and advocacy work.

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