Senior Advisor, Proposal Pricing (P4)

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 (USG) development funding opportunities. The Senior Advisor, Proposal Pricing provides leadership for the cost proposal development function of new business development, assisting the agency to secure large-scale, multi-million-dollar grant and contract funding from USAID and other institutional donors, and will support the largest and most complex opportunities. This position also serves as a subject matter expert for agency or departmental special projects, training content, and resource development. This position also works closely with the Senior Director, Proposal Pricing to strategize on how to address pricing challenges.

This role fills a critical need for proposal pricing, especially as Save the Children is trying to expand into new funding areas in which we have limited experience. This position will serve as a proposal pricing subject matter expert, ensuring competitive and compliant cost proposals in the highest value and most complex spaces. The Senior Advisor is a distinct role that directly supports these priority opportunities, but also brings specialized in-depth proposal pricing knowledge and experience along with subject matter expertise on proposal pricing and capacity building, deepening our training offerings, strengthening our processes and resources, and capturing our learning on new donor accounts. The Senior Advisor will be guided by PGP objectives, with an impact that extends beyond the immediate team to influence achievement of the broader International Programs goals.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

Cost Proposal Development (65%)

Serve as Cost Lead, Cost Advisor, and/or reviewer as required. In particular, serve as cost lead on the largest and most complex opportunities from USAID and other institutional donors, with minimal guidance and the ability to provide expertise while working with staff in Country Offices and technical teams. This position is expected to provide innovative solutions, problem solving, quality control to and/or directly support key elements of the proposal pricing process, including but not limited to:

• Serve as a member of proposal teams;
• Review and analyze solicitation documents, advising the team on requirements and raising points of clarification to the donor/client as needed;
• Create cost and pricing strategy in collaboration with proposal team leadership;
• Engage closely with Proposal Manager to set cost deliverable timelines and communicate closely on progress from capture through submission;
• Work with the Save the Children proposal team, including technical staff and country office staff, to collect budget inputs and develop a high quality, compliant, and competitive cost proposal, including a full detailed budget and budget narrative and all required Annexes and supporting documentation;
• Develop complex Microsoft Excel-based budgets, Microsoft Word-based budget narratives, partner instructions/guidance, and relevant cost Annexes;
• Manage partners’ budget development, including reviewing and providing feedback on detailed partner budgets and budget narratives and negotiating budget matters with consortium partners to produce a compliant cost proposal;
• Facilitate budget review processes and provide strategic guidance to the team on areas affecting our compliance or competitiveness;
• Produce cost proposal volume for donor submission.

Strategic Leadership and Representation (15%)

• May lead agency special projects and department initiatives, including NBD workplan projects as lead subject matter expert and project sponsor.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on USG cost applications, advising peers on donor expectations and industry best practices.
• Support the development, improvement, and rollout of new or improved processes and resources, institutional strengthening and capacity building, and knowledge management and learning.
• Leverage deep specialized expertise in USG proposal pricing process to coach existing Pricing staff to anticipate potential challenges and to solve complex problems using analytical thinking, tools and judgement to identify innovative solutions in coordination with line manager. Able to convey proposal pricing acumen in plain terms to support proposal pricing colleagues with a range of experiences and backgrounds.
• Maintain strong relationships with other SCUS divisions, SC Members, SCI leadership, and relevant external networks to share knowledge, collaborate effectively, influence senior leadership for sound and informed decisions, and stay abreast of industry standar