United States of America: Program Development Advisor

Requisition ID: req816

Job Title: Program Development Advisor

Sector: Awards Management

Employment Category: Regular

Location: USA-New York, NY - HQ

Job Description

Background

Over the past 80 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. 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 UK is part of the IRC global network, which has its headquarters in New York and London. The IRC 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.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

Established in January 2016, the Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global unit spanning New York, Washington DC, London, Nairobi and Amman. It has responsibility for identifying, securing and managing all funding from statutory donors. The Unit is organized into five directorates: Donor Relations & Analytics; Grants Management & Frameworks; Compliance and Policy; 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 the teams in the US and the UK, driving functional integration between all relevant units and staff, in collaboration with the Vice President of the AMU and the Senior Vice President for Europe in relation to overarching issues with European donors. The matrix management structure ensures that AMU staff support the Europe strategy and work towards the pursuit of new opportunities, while IRC UK maintains accountability for European funding.

The Purpose of the Role

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

This role serves a dual purpose, regional support to IPD's work, as well as support to US Programs' work. The even split is envisaged on a yearly cycle, with approx. 6 months USP (February to July), the remainder of the year to IPD.

The IRC is one of the leading providers of high quality programming for refugees resettling to the United States. The mission of the IRC's US Programs (USP) Department is to create opportunities for refugees to survive and thrive in America. In 27 cities across the country, USP offers support in areas ranging from health and education to advocacy and legal services. The Program Development Advisor will support the work of USP field offices by helping develop high quality, competitive proposals in response to strategic funding opportunities with a range of public donors.

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

• Relationship management with regional units and country offices
• Program and 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 Program 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; including program advisor 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 sessions for regional and TU 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 IPD/TU 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
• Accountable for developing standard guidance for staff working on proposals pertaining to their regions
• Liaise with other IRC units and departments

IPD Proposals: Quality Assurance (approx. 15% of time)

• Interpretation of 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

IPD Proposals: In-Depth Support (approx. 15% of time)

• Interpretation of 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

IPD Proposals: Proposal Leadership (approx. 15% 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

USP Proposals: Proposal Leadership (approx. 45% of time)

• Provide project management support of the proposal cycle for selected high value, strategically important, multi-site, and new site opportunities, including
• Interpret donor solicitations, rules, and regulations as part of the proposal development process
• Identifying resources for proposal development (lead writer, Technical Advisors, budget development, etc.)
• Convene proposal development meetings
• Conduct (multiple) reviews of proposal
• Consolidate technical input in case of multi-office/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 of budgets for USP field offices; both for donor responsiveness and matching to technical narrative
• Edit full technical proposal and budget narrative for coherence, length, uniformity, and responsiveness to solicitation
• Coordinate multi-office proposal efforts
• Ensure proposals are submitted
• Conduct prospecting research for selected program areas.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

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 and domestically; (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 NGO's) from governmental / statutory donors - including from (some of) DFID, US Government (USAID, OFDA, BPRM, DHHS, etc.), EU institutions (ECHO, DG Devco, others), Sida, SDC, Irish Aid, etc.;
• Experience of working in development and/or humanitarian contexts, preferably for an INGO 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.

Desirable:

• 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.

Please follow this link to apply: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=YXN0cmlkLm1hdGhldy43Mjg5MC4zODMwQGlyY2NkLmFwbGl0cmFrLmNvbQ