Business Development Manager - Africa and Latin America

iDE creates income and livelihood opportunities for poor, rural households. We have powered over 40 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 to power one million women entrepreneurs to foster prosperity in their communities for 100 million people.

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 1,000 staff globally across our 12 country programs, headquarters, and UK office, 96 percent of whom are nationals (factoring out expatriates). Our 2024 budget of $52,535,431 includes funding from nearly 40 institutional donors, including USAID, FCDO, SDC, GAC, Unicef, and New Zealand MFAT, as well as corporate and individual partners.

Global Business Development:

We 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, identifying business opportunities, coordinating proposal processes, and facilitating the design of new programs.

GBD supports iDE globally to:

1. Build foundations for growth in new or early-stage offices and teams

2. Maintain growth and scale in established offices

3. Gather and analyze business intelligence locally, regionally and globally to inform BD decisions.

4. Provide surge support to country programs experiencing a high volume of proposal submissions or declining funding

5. Identify and develop market entry and expansion strategies for new countries, donors, and technical sectors.

6. Establish and manage relationships with iDE-relevant donors and partners in the countries and regions of assignment.

7. Contribute to marketing and communication materials for raising visibility and positioning iDE.

8. Represent iDE in the countries and regions of assignment and globally, as needed.

9. Keep the global BD and fundraising teams abreast of regional intelligence that can benefit iDE’s resource mobilization work.

Who we are looking for:

We are seeking an experienced, strategic, and entrepreneurial 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.

This role will contribute to the Fund Development team’s priorities in the following key areas with the approximate level of effort (LOE) outlined for each. The estimated LOE may fluctuate depending on donor needs and may evolve as the organization grows over time.

• Sub-Saharan Africa support (approximately 40% LOE):
• Primarily support BD efforts and priorities to develop the pipeline and secure a strong backlog for 2-3 of iDE’s Africa country programs. This includes:
• Lead on donor landscaping, relationship building and prepositioning to help country teams strengthen donor and partner relationships
• Manage capture efforts for unsolicited and solicited opportunities
• Engage in live bid roles including coordination, writing, and others depending on need.
• Work with country teams to chart strategies, execution plans, and funding targets.
• Coordinate with HQ Programs, MERL, GESI, and other teams to ensure country alignment with global strategy, standards, and processes.
• Work with the Business Development team and other HQ teams on African expansion opportunities as they arise.
• Latin America support (approximately 30% LOE):
• Primarily support Business Development efforts and priorities to grow our Honduras country program (as specified above), as well as explore and seize on opportunities to expand iDE’s presence in Latin America.
• General support (approximately 30% LOE):
• Assist the Senior Director of Business Development and the broader Fund Development team on multi-country proposals, systems, knowledge management, and other special projects.

Performance driven:

• The Africa and Latin America Business Development Manager will be a key leader within the GBD team, reporting to the GBD Senior Director, possibly managing at least one associate, and working effectively with staff at all levels across the organization. They will closely work with the GBD team and serve as a primary point of contact on the GBD team for our Honduras country office and 2-3 of our Africa country offices (specific offices dependent on candidate expertise).

• The Africa and Latin America BD Manager will be responsible for delivering an average of at least 10% annual growth of the portfolio under their management, evidenced by growing the combined backlog in countries within their portfolio.

• The Manager will be responsible for advancing iDE’s expansion strategy for Africa and Latin America. Additionally, they will provide support to multi-country proposals and those for new countries, as well as general support to other GBD priorities and projects.

Strategic thinker:

• They must be an experienced strategist and advisor, with a track record of identifying, developing relationships and leading program design conversations with major foundations, bilateral/multilateral donors, and partners. They must be adept at understanding donor and partner strategies and aligning these with iDE’s strategy and value proposition to maximize donors and partners to champion, invite and invest in our work. 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.

• They must be able to take a lead role in guiding country offices, where appropriate, to develop clear and ambitious business development strategies and to ensure accountability and follow-through on these strategies. They must also lead the development of regional BD strategy and significantly contribute to the global BD strategy.

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. In particular, they will maximize opportunities to diversify iDE’s funding portfolio by creatively and strategically engaging with new and emerging business units.

• They will be able to work across iDE communities of practice and build effective working relationships and trust to ensure strong and effective cross-team collaboration is maintained during crunch times – particularly with respect to prepositioning, capability statements, and technical design during proposals. In particular, they will work directly with the Programs and Technical teams and through other available resources to contextualize iDE’s global strategy to country-level opportunities.

• They must become comfortable representing iDE externally, including substantive technical conversations with partners and at conferences and other networking events. They must also have the capacity to represent and enhance iDE’s reputation as a thought leader at the country and regional levels in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.

• They will excel at supporting various communication and knowledge management needs, including the development of or contribution to 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 tools, 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 be a collaborator and active participant in department-wide priorities and initiatives.

• They will have the capacity to juggle multiple engagements across 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 and that key donor/partner strategy, meeting notes, and other information is adequately captured and organized.

• 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. In particular, they must be able to coach and support Country Office teams to build relationships with and effectively pre-position with donors at the country and regional levels.

• They will consistently engage with Fundraising colleagues to ensure CO funding strategies maximize a diverse and flexible donor base. This person will be a leader in driving the integration of the Business Development and Fundraising teams, ensuring sharing of best practices, alignment of country funding priorities and strategy across the full department, and working with Fundraising colleagues to maximize funding opportunities to achieve country-level and global strategies.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Fluent in English, with professional proficiency in Spanish strongly preferred. Professional proficiency in Portuguese and/or French is a plus.
• Excellent writing, editing, and formatting skills. Strong technical writing ability is 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.
• 5-7 years’ combined academic/professional experience required, including multilateral and bilateral proposal processes.
• Skilled in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and/or 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 highly desirable.
• A valid passport is required at all times.
• The role may require field travel and will involve some work on evenings and weekends.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT

At iDE, we believe diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental to achieving our mission and fulfilling our vision of a just and equitable world. We embrace a range of human differences and value the unique perspectives and experiences each individual brings. We are committed to creating fair access and opportunities, examining our employment practices and striving to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.

BENEFITS

iDE offers a competitive benefits package which includes comprehensive health insurance (including medical, dental, and vision coverage), 403(b) inclusion (or a country-specific pension plan), company-paid short and long-term disability, company-paid life insurance, a generous PTO and holiday policy, access to peer learning, and professional development . (The benefits listed are for US-based employees and might vary depending on location based on country laws and regulations)

LOCATION

Applicants must live in and have the right to work in any of the following: United States (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C.), United Kingdom, Honduras, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia. Strong preference for a US- or UK-based candidate. Candidates willing to relocate to one of these locations must do so at their own expense.

Please note that the listed salary range is applicable to US-based employees only. Compensation for employees in other countries will be determined based on iDE's compensation structure specific to the individual country where iDE has an established entity.

Deadline to apply: 1/2/2025