United States of America: Director, Food Security and Contracts Unit

Organization: Catholic Relief Services
Country: United States of America
Closing date: 03 Oct 2014

About CRS:

Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

Background:

CRS’ Resource Acquisition Department provides strategic leadership and direct support to the agency’s cultivation of donor and partner relationships, strengthening of its competitive position, creation and pursuit of new funding opportunities, and leveraging of program results to enhance future competitiveness. As part of CRS’ global community of business development professionals, RAD has a broad mandate to lead strategy, build staff capacity, support the capture of new business, manage select institutional relationships, manage and generate business development information and knowledge systems, and monitor and exploit favorable trends in the international foreign aid landscape. The Food Security and Contracts Unit within RAD provides specialized business development expertise in two priority and high-potential revenue streams: public donor funded opportunities in the food security sector, and public donor contract mechanisms across multiple sectors.

Primary Function:

The primary function of this position is to provide global leadership for the expansion of CRS’ public donor funding portfolio in the food security sector and for the acquisition of USG contracts in several priority sectors. The position will supervise up to six business development specialists and will collaborate closely with country and regional staff (responsible for program development and implementation within CRS’ decentralized geographic management structure); other HQ Overseas Operations departments (responsible for promoting technical and operational excellence across program areas); and other divisions (including Human Resources, Finance, and CRS’ Marketing/Communications and Policy/Advocacy teams) to generate revenue and enhance CRS’ competitive position within the international development landscape.

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Lead CRS’ revenue expansion in the food security sector. Advance resource mobilization, donor engagement, and positioning strategies within relevant signature program areas and high-potential country programs. Collaborate across teams to ensure that CRS’ food security programming is widely recognized externally and leveraged to influence our competitive position.
• Lead the business development function of CRS’ Contract Readiness Strategy. Develop and oversee systems and staff capacities for opportunity identification, bid decision, competitive analysis, teaming, capture planning, and proposal development. Provide sound recommendations and decisions to guide CRS’ successful acquisition of contracts when appropriate to its mission, and to mitigate risk during opportunity identification and pursuit.
• Contribute to CRS’ agency-wide strategic initiatives related to resource mobilization, including technical excellence, brand management, knowledge management and learning, and cross-sector engagement.
• Develop or improve internal staff training resources, tools and business processes, and appropriate policies in conjunction with other teams to ensure CRS has strong capabilities across the business development cycle, with a particular focus on federal contract mechanisms.
• Analyze and contribute to opportunity forecasts, donor engagement and capture strategies, bid performance and competitiveness; provide data and recommendations to inform senior management and executive decision-making.

Representation

· Represent CRS’ accomplishments and programs to appropriate personnel within institutional donor and high-level stakeholder bodies, in coordination with CRS’ field- and HQ-based operations, technical, and resource acquisition staff. Support the creation and growth of relationships with priority donor agencies as well as corporations, non-govermental organizations, and university partners.

· Lead or support the negotiation of teaming agreements with consortium partners, and the creation of non-traditional institutional partnerships.

· Contribute to CRS’ advocacy agendas related to procurement reform and foreign aid.

· Represent CRS’ resource mobilization, cross-sector engagement, and contract readiness strategies internally within the Overseas Operations division.

Proposal Development

• Oversee opportunity tracking for strategic funding opportunities within the unit’s purview, including USAID (e.g. Title II development and emergency programs, Feed the Future RFAs and RFPs, Mission RFPs in other priority sectors), USDA (Food For Progress, Food For Education, and Local/Regional Purchase), UN World Food Program, and/or other priority donors as determined.
• Manage the deployment of unit staff to support priority opportunities for positioning and proposal development, and support the mobilization of proposal teams that reflect CRS and industry standards.
• Directly lead, co-lead, or serve as proposal team member or reviewer on highly strategic funding opportunities. Chairs and/or advises on critical bid decisions, key personnel recruitment, design validation and strategic growth planning.
• Leads and/or advises other staff in negotiation of teaming arrangements, budgets, and proposal design elements with prime and sub consortium members, and represents CRS to those organizations to mitigate risk to the agency and position CRS competitively for public funding.
• Steer collaboration with other HQ and overseas teams to develop capture plans, win themes, design content, capacity statements, past performance references, and cost strategies.

Supervision

· Supervise approximately six senior specialists and specialists in business development and pricing, with a job focus on food security funding opportunities and federal contract opportunities.

· Manage recruitment, performance planning, staff development, coaching and appraisals as well as distribution of work load across the team.

Agency-wide Competencies:

· Serves with Integrity

· Models Stewardship

· Develops Constructive Relationships

· Promotes Learning

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Overseas Operations Leadership, Regional and Country Program staff; Resource Acquisition Department; Program Impact and Quality Assurance Department; Operational Excellence Department; US Operations Policy and Legislative Affairs team

External: Representatives of USG and non-USG public donors, appropriate UN agencies, implementing agencies including local government ministries, research and technical assistance organizations, and other influential actors in food security.

Qualifications:

· Master’s degree in Development, International Relations, or relevant field required.

· At least ten years international development experience demonstrating progressive levels of responsibility, with at least four years work experience in developing countries.

· Working knowledge of food security programming required. Technical background in food security highly desirable.

· Recent experience leading or producing proposals in response to USAID Title II and other competitive USAID RFAs required. Experience with USAID RFPs, non-USAID and non-USG funding opportunities highly desirable.

· Familiarity with current relevant USAID procurement and implementation regulations, guidelines, procedures, and strategic priorities required. Comparable familiarity with USDA, WFP, or other relevant donors preferred.

· Excellent representation, speaking, and networking skills, with established networks in relevant professional areas.

· Demonstrated exceptional technical and non-technical writing ability in English.

· Strong analytical skills.

· Demonstrated team and strategy leadership skills: experience with and commitment to working in a matrixed team structure.

· Experience with adult learning, instructional design, and/or facilitation and training highly desirable.

· Fluency in English required; working ability in French or Spanish preferred

Physical Requirements/Environment: Normal conditions for an office environment. This position will require travel up to 30%.

Note:

This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, efforts, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation

All applicants must be authorized to work in the United States at the time of their application

EOE/M/F/D/V

How to apply:

Please visit our website at: www.crs.org/about/careers