Plan International works for girls’ rights. Harmful barriers like child marriage, human trafficking and gender-based violence are preventing girls and young women from achieving their full potential. Plan, along with government and private partners, fights against harmful gender norms and empowers young people to create positive change. We have worked in communities for more than 80 years and implement locally-led programming through approximately 240 offices around the world.  Our technical sectors include education, youth economic empowerment, sexual and reproductive health rights, empowerment of girls and young women, and emergency response.  We are fully committed to the safeguarding of all children and young people from all forms of violence.

 Summary/Objectives

The Director of Business Development provides overall leadership of the US Government-focused Business Development team. In this role, the Director is responsible for leading business development strategies with multiple key stakeholders.  This includes developing and updating business development approaches; working with Plan USA technical and finance teams as well as Plan Country Offices and other partners to prospect, network, and identify new opportunities for US Government funding; managing the six-person business development team; and coordinating the development of winning proposals. The Director and her/his six-person team will ensure the quality of all aspects of the proposal process and will be responsible for management of selected proposal opportunities from inception through proposal submission.  The Business Development Unit will also participate in negotiations with donors and primes, and in project hand-over and start-up processes.

Reporting to the Sr. Vice President Programs and Policy and participating in the Programs and Policy Leadership Team, the Director will be expected to collaborate with Plan’s Executive Team on the development and implementation of Plan’s fundraising strategy.  This includes maintaining, updating and presenting the USG pipeline; contributing to the annual budget forecast cycle; representing Plan at selected external events and with diverse internal stakeholders; coordinating external networks; and engaging with peer organizations, donors and potential donors. The Director will also advise the Executive Team on relevant trends and be expected to co-create new and innovative funding and implementation models.

The following are essential functions for this position:

Essential Functions

Develop and implement Plan’s business development strategy

• Collaborate with Plan’s Executive Team to develop a comprehensive USG-focused business development strategy including approaches, tools, and metrics.
• Lead the implementation of the business development strategy including coordinating actions of relevant stakeholders.
• Propose, cost out, and oversee strategic investments in new business development and the budget planning cycle.
• Contribute to identifying emerging areas for Plan to shape opportunities with donors.

Coordination of business development-focused networking and representation

• Lead the Business Development Unit, technical teams, and other internal stakeholders to identify, track, and position for relevant upcoming US Government funding opportunities in coordination with Country Offices, partner organizations, and relevant Plan technical teams.
• Identify and present together with others Plan’s capabilities to USG and occasionally to other donors such as corporates and foundations.

• Represent Plan USG business development interests at relevant meetings, events, and among formal and informal networks of peer organizations.

• As possible, conduct or coordinate prospecting visits to Plan’s Country Offices to identify and prepare for upcoming funding opportunities by gathering and analyzing intelligence to inform collaborative proposal development strategies including partnering.
• Engage with Plan Country or Regional Offices to enable them to understand USG proposal requirements and then build their capacity in relevant USG proposal development topics.  This could be delivered remotely or through in-person training.
• Manage pre-solicitation proposal preparations and bid planning including intelligence gathering, partnership building, bid strategy development including identifying win-themes and gaps, and intelligence gathering and sharing.

• Liaise and collaborate with Plan’s Corporate and Foundation Partnerships and Philanthropy teams in the development and delivery of combined (USG/Corporate/Individual fundraising) fundraising opportunities, with the intent of leveraging support from multiple donors to amplify the success of Plan’s mission.
• Maintain an up-to-date detailed proposal tracker including opportunities in different stages of development.

 Lead the development of USG proposals

• Manage all aspects of the USG-funded proposal processes including proper submission of high-quality, responsive, winning bids.
• Specific review and writing of specific sections including overall proposal structure, context and background sections, technical design, and drafting and review of management and/or other proposal sections.

• Incorporate Plan’s Gender, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and child safeguarding good practices into capture and proposals.

• Ensure completeness and timeliness of USG proposal submissions.

• Lead or contribute to the identification and creation of innovative funding or project implementation models including, but not limited to, generating approaches using digital technologies to deliver development assistance.

 Lead and manage the Business Development Unit

• Support the recruitment and retention of qualified business development professionals
• Manage the BD Unit including maintaining team spirit and performance, setting annual goals, encouraging career development, addressing issues within the team, and ensuring equitable distribution of work.

Competencies

• Demonstrated ability to develop, implement, and adapt USG-focused business development strategies in a rapidly changing environment.
• Deep and demonstrated understanding of USG donors
• Proven capacity to build a wide network among USG donors and other implementing organizations/contractors
• Demonstrated ability to provide advice to the Executive Team on business development opportunities, investments and budgets.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and generate new and innovative international development funding and implementation models in line with Plan’s technical capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to work with diverse, inter-disciplinary and multi-national teams to produce high-quality products in a timely manner.
• Demonstrated understanding and acceptance of Gender, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion principles.
• Demonstrated experience working in a range of different contexts in developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Demonstrated experience to build networks to create and negotiate mutually beneficial partnerships to pursue new business opportunities.
• Excellent technical skills in writing, editing, formatting, research, negotiation, and verbal communications.
• Strong organizational skills
• Proven management acumen.
• Ability to coordinate multiple projects simultaneously, work well under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Ability to effectively communicate with and coordinate activities of multiple stakeholders, including field-based staff.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Ability to collaborate with others and work as part of a team.
• Ability to adapt to rapidly changing priorities.
• Working knowledge of a second language: French, Spanish preferred
• Willingness to travel, sometimes on short notice, for specific assignments in Plan Country Offices.  Prior to the pandemic this position traveled up to 25% of his/her time.
• Resilient

Preferred Experience and Education

• Minimum eight years of relevant experience in positions of increasing responsibility.
• Master’s degree in International Development or related field preferred.
• Demonstrated experience with USG and especially USAID capture and proposal processes and procedures.
• A track record of winning USG bids across different procurement mechanisms
• Management experience.
• Negotiation experience and skills, preferably with USG donors.
• Budget development experience.
• An understanding of the global humanitarian structure preferred.
• Long-term field experience preferred.

Other Duties

This job description does not contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time.