Officer, Private Sector Grants (Business Development , Grants Management)

Background/IRC Summary

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster.

To support achievement of this vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence (TechEx) unit provides technical assistance and expertise to program staff in five areas: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, and Violence Prevention and Response. We need support in improving the coordination between these program experts and our private sector partners, to ensure our joint ambition meets field capacity. That’s where you come in!

This role is part of the IRC’s Global Partnerships and Philanthropic Services (GPPS) unit, a team of specialists which provides a variety of cultivation, support and stewardship functions for the organization’s high-value donors, partners, and supporters.

The Private Sector Grants Officer will act as a key liaison between IRC’s front-line fundraisers and our internally-facing Technical Excellence (TechEx) units to support the successful management and delivery of private partnerships around the world. The candidate will contribute to the growing private-sector portfolio of partnerships and coordinate between the two teams to improve our ability to serve our clients.

Scope of Work:

This is an internally-facing role, which serves as the primary focal point and liaison for grant operations between the private fundraising teams and TechEx – specifically through the Grant Operations & Analytics Team – for all aspects of business development and grants management. The major responsibilities will span across all grant lifecycle stages and include:

New funding and proposal development (70%):

• Manages proposal development processes for TechEx-specific opportunities as required for multi-country, multi-Technical unit, and/or multi-region opportunities, bringing together fundraising teams with program regions and technical units;
• Adheres to internal evaluation processes and policies for new opportunities for private-sector collaboration;
• Supports TechEx in reviewing and providing substantive feedback on relevant private donor proposals with a special lens on Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, and Violence Prevention and Response;
• Builds proposal budgets along with TechEx project lead and manages all supporting documentation for proposals in coordination with the HQ Finance Department; assists program teams in creating budgets when necessary;
• Coordinate and collaborate closely with country program finance and grant staff on private-sector business development proposals, providing guidance and feedback on business development private-sector workplans and proposal parameters;
• Coordinate with GPPS and GOAT staff to ensure visibility on all opportunities and the appropriate level of grants management support in the post-award phase;
• Reviews agreements, ensuring appropriate terms and conditions and alignment with proposed program intervention and budgets;
• Collaborate closely with focal points within Compliance and Legal on agreement review;
• Facilitate effective handover of new partnership opportunities to post-award grants managers.

Process Improvement (30%):

• Ensures that private gifts and grants are managed in accordance with internal IRC protocols, i.e. ensuring that budget submissions are reviewed by finance, proper approvals are attained for all new partnership opportunities from TechEx, country programs budgets are reviewed by regional finance controllers, etc.;
• Responsible for the development of processes and systems that would advance our private-sector partnerships pursuits, while ensuring that all internal IRC processes are followed for Business Development and Grants Management;
• Coordinates with relevant teams in ER to ensure efficient support for Technical Units;
• Reviews and proposes improved processes as needed to help reduce time, and ensure appropriate partner sign off, to better match private sector donor timescales.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Director, Program Services and Director, Grants Operations and Analytics Team

Position directly supervises: N/A

Other Internal and/or external representatives:

• Internal
• Sr. Business Development Coordinator, Grants Operations and Analytics Team (GOAT)
• Compliance & Policy (C&P) team
• Finance Department on matters of financial management

Essential Qualifications:

• Approximately 3+ years working in private sector business development with at least 5 years working in or closely with programmatic teams whose work resembles IRC’s TechEx unit;
• Demonstrable experience of setting up and monitoring large, multi-sectoral and multi-country private sector partnerships and working across various teams and functions;
• Experience in developing and leading successful, sophisticated, private sector proposals and providing impactful reporting for high value donors;
• Ability to effectively manage and coordinate with geographically dispersed teams throughout all stages of the private grant lifecycle;
• Experience handling donor compliance, budgeting, negotiating agreement provisions, technical and financial reporting;
• Understanding of the private donor mentality and pace of work and the differences from public funding culture;
• Ability to analyze and synthesize information and excellent attention to detail;
• Willingness and ability to regularly travel to the region, sometimes on short notice and to volatile areas;
• Outstanding people skills: strong ability to communicate constructively across culturally diverse teams and contribute to a pleasant work environment;
• Solid organizational skills: ability to be flexible and in a fast-paced multi-task team environment;
• Language skills: English required; proficiency in French & Spanish is a plus.

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Experience implementing medium- to large-scale programs in humanitarian or development settings

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Equality, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, Egalite, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles.

The International Rescue Committee is an Equal Opportunity Employer. International Rescue Committee considers all candidates on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.