Must have the right to work in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia, or USA (HQ in Denver, Colorado) Other possible locations: California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington D.C.) The ideal candidate will be based in one of our African country offices (Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia) and able to travel frequently across the region.
Summary
iDE creates income and livelihood opportunities for poor, rural households. We have powered over 37.8 million entrepreneurs to end poverty and realize prosperity on their own terms, and we are planning to grow our impact significantly as part of our next multi-year strategy.
We don’t do simple handouts of supplies or cash. Instead, we believe that everyone has the ability to increase their livelihoods and build long-term resilience by their own accord. They may just need training or connections to suppliers and customers.
That’s where we come in and what we mean when we say we are “powering entrepreneurs to end poverty.” We look for innovative ways to leverage our market-based approach to transform the lives of millions of people to create lasting and meaningful change. We employ over 1,300 staff globally across our 10 country programs, headquarters, and UK office, 94 percent of whom are nationals (factoring out expatriates). Our 2022 budget of $36.9 million includes funding from nearly 40 institutional donors, including USAID, SIDA, GAC, Unicef, DFAT, MFAT, EU, and SDC as well as corporate and individual partners.
Global Business DevelopmentWe are a growing organization with ambitious impact targets. The Global Business Development (GBD) team is at the heart of this growth, identifying new areas of funding, driving regional expansion opportunities, and converting our ongoing successful project work into new business to impact more clients and end global poverty. GBD facilitates smart growth, including building relationships with key donors and partners, coordinating proposal processes, and facilitating the design of new programs.
GBD supports iDE globally to:
We are seeking an experienced, strategic, and entrepreneurial Africa Business Development Manager who has the ability to act as an ambassador and develop relationships for iDE externally, is commercially savvy and able to establish and work within effective proposal teams, and can inspire and build the capacity of our country office teams. You will be driven by the impact of the work you support iDE to fund and will be motivated to explore new avenues and areas for business development, including expansion into new countries and sectors. We are looking for someone aligned with iDE’s ethos and who is a creative and engaged team player. We need a skilled communicator able to interact cross-culturally as well as across multiple departments.
The role and essential requirements
Performance driven:
The Africa Business Development Manager will be a key leader within the GBD team, reporting to the GBD Director, possibly managing at least one associate, and working effectively with staff at all levels across the organization. They will serve as a primary point of contact on the GBD team for our Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, and Zambia country offices.
They will be responsible for delivering at least 5% growth of the portfolio under their management within two years, evidenced by growing the combined backlog in the region, which is currently at $30M.
Strategic thinker:
They must be an experienced strategist and advisor, with a track record of developing relationships and leading program design conversations with major foundations and bilateral/multilateral donors.
They must have a start-up, proactive, and “go deep” mindset allowing them to effectively operate and contribute at all levels of the organization.
They must have an evidenced track record of establishing and working on winning proposal teams in various roles and have excellent writing skills.
Effective communicator and relationship builder:
They will have excellent cross-cultural communication skills, and an ability to galvanize and lead diverse teams to meet and deliver on BD opportunities and targets.
They will be able to work across iDE communities of practice and build effective working relationships and trust to ensure good cross-team collaboration is maintained during crunch times – particularly with respect to prepositioning, capability statements, and technical design during proposals.
They must become comfortable representing iDE externally, including substantive technical conversations with partners and at conferences and other networking events.
They will excel at supporting various communication and knowledge management needs, including development of country office or global communication materials, such as capability statements, past performance references, and presentations.
Systems builder:
They will be able to review and revise BD systems and processes as required to meet new BD opportunities and resourcing challenges and develop/ improve proposal, project, and administrative boilerplate information for country and HQ staff.
They will have the capacity to juggle multiple engagements across several country offices regarding all funding opportunities in each country’s pipeline, including tracking, reviewing, summarizing, and circulating new funding opportunities; managing and leading Go/No-Go decision process for opportunities; and updating Salesforce regularly to ensure accurate and reliable information is available to decision-makers.
They will be able to evaluate Country Office teams to assess BD capability and be able to make recommendations for training/improvements and any HQ/GBD support required at each stage of the BD process.
Fluent in English. Fluency in a regional language is a plus (Portuguese, Amharic).
Excellent writing, editing and formatting skills. Strong technical writing ability a plus
Project design experience and understanding of monitoring and evaluation preferred.
Experience designing project budgets preferred.
BA/BS in international development, business, engineering, social sciences, agriculture, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
4-8 years of relevant experience with multilateral and bilateral proposal processes required.
Skilled in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Suite. Experience with Salesforce is a plus.
Self-motivated and able to work with minimal guidance.
Highly organized and capable of multitasking.
Experience working in fast-paced environments.
Ability to consistently meet deadlines.
Excellent problem-solving skills.
Can-do attitude and flexibility.
Skilled facilitator with excellent verbal, intercultural and interpersonal communication skills.
Strong team skills and ability to work collaboratively with culturally diverse team members in a multilingual environment.
Enthusiastic with a sincere interest in the goals of the organization.
Experience living and/or working overseas in a developing country is preferred.
A valid passport is required at all times.
The role may require field travel and will involve some work on evenings and weekends.
iDE takes pride in our talented and diverse workforce. Minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Hiring, promotion, and compensation of employees are conducted without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, or age.
BenefitsiDE offers a competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 6% contribution to 403(b), short and long-term disability, life insurance, a generous PTO policy, and professional development opportunities.
iDE is an international NGO with over 30 years of experience in designing and delivering market-based anti-poverty programs in 10 countries. iDE is headquartered in Denver, Colorado USA and operating in 11 countries around the world, including Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, iDE has been working since 1984, and now maintains an active presence in 27 Districts and 123 Upazilas on a wide variety of thematic areas including Food Security, Nutrition, WASH, Agriculture, Market Systems Development, Women Economic Empowerment. iDE Bangladesh is supported by USAID, SIDA, Unicef, DFID, the European Commission and other multilateral donors working in the country. We are a world leader in making markets work for the poor as well as the longest established market development specialist NGO in Bangladesh. iDE believes that markets can be a powerful force for improving smallholder prosperity by creating income and livelihood opportunities for poor rural households.
