Regional Head of Business Development – Middle East Region

Background

NRC is looking for a Regional Head of Business Development to support its growing Middle East Program which currently comprises seven countries. The Regional Head of Business Development will build on NRC’s expertise as a leading organisation in humanitarian response and nexus solutions to elevate its business development model to the most relevant trends of funding and contracting, allowing NRC to accomplish its mission towards durable solutions for displaced and affected populations. The Regional Head of Business Development will champion networking, bid development, resource mobilization, talent acquisition and knowledge management and will capacitate country and regional expert teams and assess NRC’s systems to ensure these areas of development benefit the organization efficiently.

Overview of role

The Regional Head of Business Development will promote new business development approaches fostering capacities available at NRC Middle East Country and Regional Offices level. The role will steward relationships with donors, funders and financial institutions ensuring liaison with other NRC Regions and Head Office in order to optimise opportunities and nurture funding partners. This role will expand dynamics between NRC’s Core Competences, Innovation and Private Partnerships teams to develop value offerings for private sector partners.

The Regional Head of Business Development will position NRC for new opportunities in the Region and together with Middle East Regional Office Directors and Heads of Departments will support Country offices and the Region to adapt programmes, finance, HR and logistics processes to ensure successful bidding for complex development grants and commercial contracts.

The Regional Head of Business Development will set up NRC Middle East Business Development Unit attracting talents and maintaining a pool of expert consultants in proposals development and other relevant areas to support country offices and region for new complex and strategic bids.

What you will do

Strategy, engagement and networking

• Consolidate the Regional Business Development Strategy
• Conduct market assessment research as relevant, on donor needs, opportunity information, competitive landscape and NRC capacity and translate information into informative technical analysis and strategies.
• Perform continuous updates of and maintain long-term positioning plans with donors (including corporate donors, multilateral and financial institutions) and relationship with prioritized partners (including private foundations, corporate partners and commercial contractors);
• Expand and diversify funding streams, public-private partnerships and innovation related opportunities leveraging NRC network (Institutional Partnership, External Relation, Program Development, Innovation teams etc…)

Business development support, bid preparation and coordination

• Assist in developing methods and materials to communicate to key development donors, financial institutions and potential partners NRC strategy and expertise.
• Mentor/coach and counsel country offices and regional teams, providing trainings on writing, and donors specific requirements and strategies and sharing examples of winning proposals. on donor-specific processes, requirements or strategies.
• Support identification of potential partners for complex bids, help manage recruitment of senior candidates for key positions and deploy experts from the Regional Business Unit consultant pool when needed;
• Develop proposal writing tools and templates, ensure efficient and scalable production and management of multiple and multi-sized proposals and complex business development opportunities;
• Manage the proposal development process when relevant, lead consultant/ proposal teams, help write and review proposals, and ensure robust compliance checking and quality assurance and control;
• Maintain reporting on business development efforts, including tracking and capture efficiency, and win/loss record, and integrate lessons learned from debriefings on bid wins and losses

Specifically you will;

• Lead on the establishment of business development processes including internal ways of working to support working with management consulting approaches to donors and programming.
• Provide support and advice to country offices to develop their own expertise to design and manage private sector programmes.
• Network with commercial sector organisations to strategically preposition NRC for partnership opportunities.
• Own and drive the Regional Business Development Strategy which will identify areas of investment for the organisation to attract innovation programming, outcome based, multi-year funding opportunities and partnerships.
• Work closely with the Corporate Team in Oslo to actively seek to find innovative ways of working with donors, partners and our country offices.

What you will bring

• Seven years (7) of relevant experience in the humanitarian-development sector with at least five years in Business Development
• Track record of successful bidding for commercial/service contracts and/or complex grants
• Experience in successful lead on business development strategies, regional fundraising and partnerships
• In-depth knowledge of institutional donors’ strategies, priorities, and compliance guidelines
• Experience of strategic approaches to business development
• Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts, with preference for previous experience in the Middle East
• Understanding of, and commitment to working collaboratively with technical and operational colleagues within a matrix structure, including capacity building
• Experience of delivering learning and development as part of quality improvement and capacity building
• Interest in new business opportunities, including commercial partnerships or new types of donor
• Fluency in English both written and verbal, Arabic is an asset

What We Offer

NRC is an equal opportunities employer and aims to have staffing diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality and physical ability.

We offer an opportunity to match your career to a compelling cause and a chance to meet and work with people who are the best in their fields.

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply and join our work culture that empowers every employee to share ideas and take responsibility: At NRC we think outside the box. We encourage ideas and give responsibility to all employees at all levels, to help solve the complex issues that we face. You will have many opportunities to be heard and take initiative.

We are also looking for people who share our values:

• To be dedicated in what we do;
• To be innovative with our solutions;
• To act as one unified and inclusive team;
• To be accountable to the donors that make our work possible; the people we exist to serve, and to each other… the members of our NRC family.

Additional Information:

Duty Station: Amman, Jordan

Duration of contract: 2 years fixed term, full-time, in accordance with local labour laws.

Grade 10 in NRC’s grade structure

Travel: Up to 40%

Reporting line: Regional Programme Director