GIZ/KfW Partnership and Key Account Manager

Job Description

OPM Europe is currently seeking a GIZ/KfW Partnership and Key Account Manager, located in our Berlin office, for a 9-month fixed-term parental leave cover, to commence in September 2024. We are offering flexible and remote working for this position.

OPM is a significant international development consulting firm operating from 12 offices based across the globe. We work in partnership with national decision makers to deliver diagnoses of policy problems and reform opportunities, to develop public policy, to support its implementation, and to evaluate its impact. We bring our global expertise together with local engagement to support governments in low-and-middle income countries implement impactful public policy that will bring about lasting change. We work collaboratively, with ambition, to help create positive impact at scale.

OPM Europe contributes to OPM’s mission and corporate objectives by growing our footprint with development partners in Europe, specifically the European Union, and the German Government. We collaborate closely with OPM international offices around the world, developing specialised client knowledge, winning and delivering highly impactful projects and contributing to cross-company learning. Our expertise spans multiple sectors, including economic growth, governance, education, capacity building, health, and gender inclusion.

Position Summary

The GIZ/KfW Partnership and Key Account Manager is responsible for managing OPM’s acquisition processes and business development for GIZ and KfW Development Bank, integrating and shaping our management of this relationship, and developing a corporate strategy for OPM in the GIZ/KfW Development Bank market.

The GIZ/KfW Partnership and Key Account Manager possesses a thorough understanding of GIZ and KfW Development Bank client requirements. They leverage a current understanding of changes in German development cooperation funding instruments, development cooperation policies and strategies, as well as procurement processes, to ensure that OPM Europe develops and delivers optimum solutions for these clients’ needs.

The GIZ/KfW Partnership and Key Account Manager takes leadership in identifying experts and negotiating with them to form winning teams, designing commercial strategies, and writing bid sections. They ensure that our bids remain compliant with German development cooperation requirements.

The position reports to OPM Europe’s Country Director and manages a high-performing business development team of two. The role works in close collaboration with technical Practice Leads and business development colleagues based in our UK, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia offices.

As GIZ/KfW Partnership and Key Account Manager for OPM Europe you will:

• Monitor and identify GIZ/KfW Development Bank project opportunities relevant to OPM’s core expertise.
• Increase business intelligence and provide internal capacity building on GIZ/KfW Development Bank requirements.
• Engage strategically with GIZ and KfW Development Bank, including by regular attendance of meetings and events, collecting inputs from various stakeholders, and updating partner and customer engagement databases accordingly.
• Work with OPM Practices and Country Offices to pre-position us for new project opportunities, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
• Track opportunities, develop and maintain a pipeline of work.
• Identify partners, support and lead the consortium negotiations.
• Manage the writing, budgeting, expert identification, review and submission of bids.
• Monitor acquisition costs, win rates and margins across opportunities.
• Provide advice and support on client expectations, requirements and compliance throughout the project cycle and ensure all German development cooperation funded projects implemented by OPM are compliant with GIZ/KfW Development Bank guidelines and regulations.
• In close collaboration with Practices, build OPM’s brand by showcasing OPM capabilities and developing information materials.

The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications/experience:

• An undergraduate degree in public policy, political science, international development or a related field.
• Proven experience in driving business development and developing winning proposals for GIZ/KfW Development Bank.
• Familiarity with strategies, geographic focus and budget of the German Development cooperation.
• Ability to develop budgets, factoring tax, diverse modalities of employment costs and other operational costs into the budget analysis.
• Ability to translate TOR requirements into budgets that meets corporate profitability requirements.
• Familiarity with standard compliance processes (due diligence of partners and consultants, security guidelines, internal go/no-go points etc.).
• Advanced level of Microsoft Office with sound generalist IT capability.
• Demonstrable understanding of and interest in international development and working in an international/multi-cultural environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills — able to establish and maintain positive working relationships both internally and externally.
• Fluency in English and German.

Desired qualifications/experience:

• Postgraduate degree in a relevant field.
• Experience in incorporating the impacts of shifting political economy dynamics in the strategy of business development objectives.
• Experience of operating within a global, matrixed organisational environment.
• People management experience (this can be developed).

Our offer:

• We enable colleagues’ capacity to grow professionally through enhanced learning resources, opportunities to work cross functionally, and space to engage with a range of internal and external industry events.
• Our non-hierarchical culture values support, collaboration, intellectual curiosity, and a rich diversity of perspectives.
• We provide an exceptionally generous annual leave entitlement and a hybrid working model to encourage and enable healthy work/life balance.
• Competitive salary and contributory pension scheme.

We are strengthened by the diversity of colleagues across our global business and are committed to being an equal opportunities employer, promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace for all. Our recruitment practices reflect our ambition to make the international development sector more inclusive and firm belief that our work delivers the best outcomes when we actively include a diversity of perspectives and experiences.

Application

If you share our vision for fair public policy that benefits both people and planet, we’d love to hear from you. We review and interview applicants on a rolling basis and encourage you to apply by way of CV via our careers site at the earliest. We may close this advertisement before the published closing date, should a suitable candidate be identified.

Unfortunately, OPM is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role and candidates must have a pre-existing right to work in Germany for their application to be consider

About the Organization

OPM provides evidence-based policy research, advice and implementation support on international development issues and major issues of public policy in developing countries. Our aim is to contribute in innovative ways to enhancing economic and social outcomes in developing economies. Our work aims, directly or indirectly, to reduce poverty through: · More effective macroeconomic management and sector policies and programmes. · Improving access to, and the efficiency of, key services for the poor (including health, education and safety nets). · Better management of public expenditure. · Governance reform.