Business Development Specialist III, Growth Strategy and Support Unit

CRS’ Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement (IDEA) department advances the agency’s strategic position by engaging new and existing institutional donors to acquire and steward resources that deliver excellent programs to advance CRS’ mission and agency strategy (Vision 2030). Teams within IDEA focus on three main functional areas: engaging donors, prospects, and strategic partners; delivering on outcomes as outlined in the institutional award agreements, in compliance with donor requirements; and acquiring new resources through business development activities.

IDEA’s Growth Strategy and Support Unit (GSSU) supports the department’s acquiring new resources functional area by providing high-quality business development (BD) surge support to CRS country programs, regions and global teams on strategic funding opportunities. The GSSU also provides BD subject matter expertise in the development of new CRS BD resources, such as guidelines, trainings and orientations.

Job Summary

The Business Development Specialist III (BDS) is a key member of the GSSU. Reporting directly to the GSSU BD Manager, the BDS is responsible for providing support across all dimensions of the BD cycle to cross-discipline and cross-functional teams, with particular expertise in capture and proposal coordination. Building and maintaining strong working relations with CRS’ Marketing and Communications department and with IDEA’s donor engagement teams, the position will provide strategic positioning and capture planning guidance to country program, regional and global teams. In addition, the position will support the unit’s regular communications with CRS’ Regional and Global BD Managers and will serve as Acting GSSU BD Manager when needed. 

Roles and Key Responsibilities

Providing Business Development Surge Support:

• Provide BD expertise in capture planning and proposal preparation for specific opportunities with institutional donors (government and inter-governmental award issuing organizations as well as foundations, corporations and other awarding non-governmental organizations). Emphasis will be on complex Mission-level USAID opportunities across both assistance and acquisition mechanisms. 
• Serve as a capture and proposal coordinator on high-priority complex funding opportunities, ensuring timely high-quality submissions that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS' technical and cost standards.
• Provide country program, regional and global teams with strategic positioning and capture planning guidance, serving as an advisor to capture coordinators and offering initial capture kick-start surge support on prioritized funding opportunities.
• Build and maintain strong working relations with CRS’ Marketing and Communications (MarCom) department, specifically with the MarCom Content Group and Regional Communications Officers, and with IDEA donor engagement teams. Support regional and country program teams in working with MarCom and IDEA donor engagement teams to advance key positioning and capture initiatives.
• Support and guide identification of partners and negotiation of CRS' role on proposal consortia, ensuring a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the agency's partnership principles and strategic directions. 
• When needed, serve as a lead writer or supporting writer, working closely with the proposal coordinator, technical design lead and sector leads, other proposal team members and stakeholders, including partners, to develop well-written, well-organized and cohesive concept notes, expressions of interest and proposals aligned with donor requirements and CRS standards.
• When needed, provide temporary BD Manager and Regional BD Specialist coverage at the country program or regional level, managing the relevant funding pipeline, serving as capture/proposal coordinator of specific funding opportunities and working with the regional/country leadership team to ensure resources are committed to complete necessary capture and proposal deliverables. 

Supporting the CRS Business Development Community of Practice:

• Lead development of CRS BD tools, resources and guidance on BD best practices and CRS approaches across the BD cycle, providing particular subject matter expertise in capture planning and proposal coordination best practices. Work with the IDEA BD Knowledge Management and Learning team to develop a new toolkit of standard capture and proposal coordination tools and templates to be used by IDEA BD team members when providing BD surge support.
• Train and mentor BD and fellow IDEA staff to improve their skills in capture planning and proposal coordination, including in su