Business Development Specialist I

Job Summary:

As Business Development (BD) Specialist I, you will lead and contribute to 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 contribute to improving aspects of the BD cycle for CRS Honduras. You will support the Country Program’s positioning, advance the influence strategy, and support the capacity building of BD skills of team members.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to 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. Serve as proposal coordinator to lead the proposal development or other key proposal team roles as appropriate.
• Support and/or participate in strategic engagement opportunities such as executive-level meetings and events that increase CRS’ visibility, brand recognition, and voice.
• Coordinate and contribute to non-technical writing on proposals and proposal review panels. Engage technical advisors in sector specific sections to ensure sound program quality in design phase. Integrate inputs from staff and partners into a responsive, coherent proposal.
• Research new opportunities and CRS’ competitive position within the marketplace to identify new relationships to be cultivated with potential partners, subcontractors, private sector, consultants, and donors.
• Support knowledge management for donors and proposal activities. Help develop and maintain tools, guidelines, templates and donor intelligence information to share with relevant team members. Coordinate with CPs and BD colleagues to update the forecast and pipeline.
• Coordinate and prepare Project Idea Note (PIN) and proposal development team, including Technical Advisors, in advance of large opportunities.
• Lead Business Development meetings and participate in communities of practice meetings of MEAL and communications; and with the objective to increase resources and promote the agency to a position of influence.
• Facilitate coordination between the communication and MEAL leaders in key program areas to leverage programmatic results and learning for influence and positioning.
• Track and report on proposal submissions; Support the Head of Programs with analysis of successes and failures and dissemination of lessons learned. Assist in developing analytical reports for internal and external use, including portfolio trends and growth.
• With the regional business development team and others, refine or create appropriate staff development materials (training, distance learning, self-study) to support building of capacity in resource acquisition, such as assessment and proposal development skills, basic elements of donor compliance, intelligence-gathering, etc.
• Facilitate workshops to disseminate the staff development materials and build capacities of staff and partners related to business development.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, management, international development, international relations, or another relevant field is required. Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum three years of international development experience. Strong written communication skills with ability to write and edit proposals, reports, and/or documents with expert command of English and Spanish grammar.
• Proven experience in designing and leading complex processes involving multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Good strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture.
• Good relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally.
• Good negotiation skills.
• Very good communications and presentation skills.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience with competitive proposals in programming contexts similar to CRS.
• Familiarity with International donor (USG, United Nations, EU) funding mechanisms and proposal requirements.
• Knowledge of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles a plus.
• Experience in one or more of the following areas is highly desirable: education, positive youth development, food security, WASH, agriculture, disaster risk reduction, peacebuilding, and emergency response.
• Required Languages– English, Spanish
• Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 20%.