Senior Advisor, Technical Proposal Writer, New Business Development

Staff whose work requires or potentially could require any in-person interaction with Save the Children colleagues, partners, or beneficiaries must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless otherwise required by law. Save the Children complies with federal, state, and local laws with regard to accommodations related to this policy.

Summary

New Business Development provides leadership in Save the Children’s efforts to achieve greater program results at scale through the successful pursuit of large and strategic US government development funding opportunities (incl. USAID, USDA, and DOL, among others). The Senior Advisor will lead proposal writing efforts across Save the Children’s International Programs divisions (Department of Education and Child Protection, Department of Hunger and Livelihoods, Department of Global Health, and multi-sectoral opportunities). The Senior Advisor will bring relevant experience to interpret solicitation documents and requirements, and to rapidly translate design inputs from technical experts into compelling narrative text. To achieve high-quality results, they are expected to work collaboratively and iteratively with proposal teams that include professionals working across many locations and time zones. The Senior Advisor is a critical position to advance the agency’s strategic growth whose actions will substantially contribute to Save the Children’s ability to competitively and successfully pursue and acquire funding, thereby increasing the agency’s resource base for children.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties

Proposal Writing/Program Development (85%)

• Serve as technical proposal writer for assigned opportunities, collaborating with the Proposal Director, Proposal Manager, Technical Lead and a variety of Technical Contributors to produce compliant and compelling proposal content that will yield the highest possible evaluation score from the donor.
• Lead outline development and storyboarding process for prime submissions
• For oral presentations, and co-creation activities, draft materials for the team engaging with the donor to include presentation scripts, portions of slide decks, and succinct responses to donor questions and feedback.
• Review and analyze solicitation requirements and relevant donor feedback to ensure final versions meet or exceed donor requirements.
• Review background information and interview stakeholders to understand the critical win themes, unique value propositions, organizational approaches, and standards that must be highlighted throughout the entire document.
• Conceptualize graphics, tables, and text boxes in order to emphasize strengths of the design and content within the documents.
• Serve as a reviewer for assigned opportunities to ensure alignment with Save the Children approaches and donor criteria.
• Serve as an editor for proposal files drafted by other team members, as time and expertise permits

Strengthen Proposal Writing Capacity and Knowledge Management (15%)

• Collaborate closely with Knowledge Management staff and technical leadership to proactively strengthen proposal writing resources, particularly technical content, global, country and thematic capability statements, and project past performance references.
• Identify and strengthen proposal writing tools and systems, specifically around storyboarding, outlines and incorporating reviewer feedback.
• Serve as a coach to less experienced proposal writers, including staff in country offices to provide constructive and actionable feedback on proposal sections and drafts, and foster increased global proposal writing capabilities
• During periods of proposal down time, contribute to the body of donor- and partner-facing marketing materials available to International Programs team
• Ensure proposal writing resources are archived, uploaded and available on intranet for ongoing reference.
• As a senior member of the department, provide mentorship to other NBD staff and leadership to department priorities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, plus at least 7 years of relevant experience
• Professional proficiency in MS Office suite, including facility with advanced features of MS Word.
• Professional proficiency in spoken English, and ability to prepare written documents in fluent, donor-responsive American English.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering and maintaining and environment of diversity, inclusion, and belonging
• Demonstrated record of writing successful proposals and quickly synthesizing large amounts of information into a compelling and compliant narrative
• Strong knowledge of USAID procurement procedures and technical proposal requirements
• Strong time management and organization skills, with ability to independently schedule and prioritize multiple tasks
• Willingness to travel to support proposal development efforts in country offices, often on short notice, up to 15% time

Preferred Qualifications

• Business Development experience targeting other donors (bi-lateral and/or multi-lateral funding agencies)
• Experience preparing polished slide decks and graphics/infographics for expert donor audiences
• Development programming experience and perspective, including ability to work productively with a diverse range of country office staff
• International work experience
• Training and/or facilitation skills and experience
• Professional capacity in a second language such as French or Spanish

Why you should join the Save the Children Team…

Save the Children US offers outstanding benefits that include health, dental, vision and life insurances, pet insurance, short-term and long-term disability coverage, an Employee Assistance Program, 403(b), generous vacation, personal sick leave, family leave, parental/adoption leave, commuter benefits, dress for your day, and much more.

Click here to learn more about how Save the Children US will invest in YOU!

About Save the Children

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

*Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.*

We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.

Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse. In addition, it is Save the Children’s policy to create and proactively maintain an environment that aims to prevent and deter any actions and omissions, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that place children at the risk of any kind of child abuse. All our representatives are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with this commitment and obligation.

Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.