Head of Business Development at Save the Children Nigeria

Vacancy currently exists for the position of Head of Business Development at Save the Children Nigeria.

JOB TITLE:  Head of Business Development  

TEAM/PROGRAMME: SC Nigeria

LOCATION: Abuja, Nigeria

GRADE: 2

POST TYPE: Fixed Term – 2 years (Renewable based on funding availability & performance)

Also see: Massive Recruitments at Dangote Industries Limited

CHILD SAFEGUARDING: 

Level 3 – the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people.

About Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the world’s first and foremost independent children’s organization, dedicated to the transformation of lives and the future we all share.  We are delighted to collaborate with children, their communities, and our partners worldwide, in order to identify innovative solutions that will guarantee the survival, education, and protection of the world’s most vulnerable children. 

Our life-changing work reaches tens of millions of children in over 110 countries annually.

Objectives

Save the Children is looking for a creative, structured Head of Business Development who is excited about joining a worldwide team of people dedicated to improving the lives of children in Nigeria. 

The Head of Business Development is an important job in ensuring the successful acquisition of additional funds for the country program.  His/her actions and decisions in directing multi-divisional proposal response teams have a direct impact on the quality and competitiveness of Save the Children’s requests for fresh financing.

The Head of Business Development assists, supports, and trains technical advisers on new business development strategies and duties, from pre-positioning to proposal submission.  This job also oversees a unit that assists with technical and cost proposals. 

Strategically, he or she will take the lead in arranging suitable internal advance preparation, as well as communication about prospective new prospects.  S/he provides quality control and support for technical leads’ attempts to increase program impact by successfully pursuing larger and more strategic funding opportunities.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

General Management

• Identify and track relevant upcoming funding possibilities using advanced intelligence collection, partner relationships, and other available resources, and notify the Country Office SMT and key technical leaders.
• Lead the creation, execution, and consolidation of private-sector involvement processes.  Serve as a point of contact for public, private, and non-government stakeholders in your area of responsibility as needed.
• Conduct continuing proactive monitoring and research to find prospective collaborations with foundations, the private sector, and high net-worth philanthropic individual donors in the sector, both locally and abroad.
• Facilitate the creation of innovative funding solutions, such as diversification into social venture ventures and other funding channels that could benefit the Country Office’s bottom line. 
• Coordinate proposal development, which includes providing quality control to proposals through the design, implementation, and/or review of response strategies and action plans for technical and cost proposals, as well as writing, reviewing, and editing proposal sections, graphics, work plans, budget spreadsheets, and narratives; managing partner relations; and overseeing final proposal production for donor submission.
• Create and/or maintain suitable systems, procedures, policies, and documents to help identify, select, and respond to strategic opportunities.
•  Manage significant open solicitations and other proposal submissions, including teaming agreements, technical design and cost proposals, capacity statements, internal review/quality control processes, and authoring sections of the proposal as needed.
• Make prospecting visits to field offices to identify and prepare for future funding opportunities.
• Represent Save the Children in relevant strategic opportunities with donors, partners, and others, including attendance at meetings and conferences as needed.
• Strengthen staff capacity to respond to strategic opportunities by developing and/or delivering formal and informal training and tools.

Strategic leadership

• Lead the development and revisions of SC Nigeria’s country-specific funding strategy and donor engagement plan for the overall country program, as well as thematic, cross-sectoral, and emergency response programs and projects.
• Ensure strong coordination and cooperative decision-making with DPDQ, Director of Programme Operations, ACCM Director, and Country Director, as well as interaction with Members and Programme Funding leaders on new (strategic) funding options.
• Maintain timely strategic communication with donors, partners, and other external stakeholders.
• ensuring that funding is allocated appropriately to the CO’s strategic objectives and innovations; ensuring that program creation is based on previous project implementation learning and evaluation.

Business analysis and donor engagement

• Represent the Nigeria CO in appropriate donor fora, workshops, and conferences where new business development possibilities might be identified, as directed by the line manager.
• Build strong relationships with external stakeholders, funders, and possible partners for large-scale or strategic financing possibilities, whether as a prime or sub-recipient.
• Cultivate solid working connections with and serve as a focal point for SC Members and donor agencies at the regional and national levels.
• Ensure that essential connections, required formats, and donor strategies are up to date at the country office level.  maintains the donor and partner engagement tracking database.
•  Identify, study, and communicate information about new financing prospects from bilateral, multilateral, institutional, and non-traditional contributors (foundations, corporations, etc.).
• Explore and evaluate prospective private sector and other innovative sorts of partnerships, as well as stay up to date on the local funding environment.
• Maintain track of active funding opportunities, submission deadlines, and money availability.  Ensure that all applicable donor and SC proposal formats are available in the country. 
• Monitor the proposal pipeline and win rates, ensuring that current trackers are available for planning, and keep top management aware.

Oversee proposal development

• Lead the creation of high-value or complex proposals for donor grants and contracts. 
• Provide leadership and coordination to the proposal development team, managing and assuring the quality and compliance with donor standards of all SC Nigeria proposals in development. 
• Work closely with the Programme Operations, ACCM, HR, and Finance teams, as well as technical advisers, to ensure that all information is produced in a way that supports the quality and integration of SCI interventions during the program design and reporting stages.
•  Ensure that concept notes and funding proposals are well aligned with the Country Strategy Plan, thematic plans, geographic priorities, master budgets, Monitoring and Evaluations, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) frameworks, and SLT decisions.
• Create and monitor proposal development schedules, and collaborate closely with PDQ, Program Operations, ACCM, Finance, HR, Security, and Supply Chain to ensure adequate and timely input into proposal and budget creation.
• When appropriate, work with Members to broker technical expertise and other resources to support proposal development. 
• Facilitate the hiring of consultants for large-scale proposals or where technical skills outside of Save the Children personnel are required. 
• Represent Save the Children (together with technical experts) at consortium meetings for proposal development.
• Ensure that all new proposals address the Programme Quality Framework and incorporate essential elements of programme quality (e.g., child engagement, child protection, lessons learned from previous proposals, accountability, risk assessments, and an effective partnership strategy).
•  Before submitting a proposal or concept note to a donor, ensure that it is complete, follows Save the Children and the donor’s standards and rules, and has been reviewed and approved by the SMT and other country personnel as required.
• In partnership with the Awards team, lead the effort to keep the database of applications submitted, accepted, denied, and reports given to donors/SC members up to date. 
• Ensure the Program Development team supports preparing all the essential information for the Prime system; the awards kick-off process, and budget and proposal re-alignments throughout the implementation, as well as cost and no-cost extensions, ensuring initial proposal compliance
• Work with the Safeguarding Team to budget for Child Safeguarding Activities during proposal creation, ensure that safeguarding activities are reflected in project design, and include full Safeguarding narratives in all future proposals and opportunities.

People management, mentoring and development 

• Assist the DCD/DPDQ in proactively developing and maintaining technical skills and competences required for leading and/or inputting into first-class programs.
• Be an excellent mentor and coach for the personnel that report to this function, as well as other employees who help prepare proposals and write reports.
• Support the creation of an organizational culture that reflects our broad-spectrum programming values, promotes accountability and high performance, fosters a team culture of learning, creativity, and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver exceptional results for children and excellent customer service to our members and donors.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Understands and respects the necessity for processes, rules, and planning for safety and security management in providing humanitarian aid.
• Holds oneself accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, attaining and role modeling.  Save the Children’s values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their obligations, giving people the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, offering the required development to improve performance, and imposing appropriate consequences when results are not met.
• Creates a managerial atmosphere across the team to lead, enable, and maintain our culture of kid safety.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and difficult goals for themselves and their team, takes personal responsibility for their own development, and encourages their team to do the same.
• Future-oriented, thinks strategically and on a nationwide scale.

 Collaboration:

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to; develops and maintains strong connections with coworkers, Members, and external partners and supporters.
• Values diversity and diverse people’s ideas; capable of working across cultures.

Creativity:

•  Promotes innovative solutions while maintaining integrity.
•  Honest, promotes openness and transparency, fosters trust and confidence
•  Exhibits consistent outstanding judgment.

 Qualifications, Experience, and Attributes

 Essential

• Master’s degree in social sciences or any development sector.
• 8-10 years of experience in international development, with at least 5 years of experience developing successful proposals for institutional and corporate donors, including pre-solicitation work.  Experience with major funding donor solicitations is necessary; however, substantive relevant experience in proposal development for other multilateral or bilateral donors may be considered within the desired years of experience.
• Experience training employees and developing training modules and resources.
• Experience leading a small team.
•  Masters degree in international development or a similar topic.
• Preference given to those with international field experience.
• You must be willing to travel to state offices up to 20%.
• Ability to manage numerous projects at once, perform well under pressure, and fulfill deadlines.
• Ability to successfully communicate with and coordinate the actions of many partners, especially field-based personnel.
•  Excellent technical skills in writing, editing, formatting, research, negotiating, and verbal communication are necessary, as is attention to detail.

How to Apply for Head of Business Development at Save the Children Nigeria

Click on the application link below to start your application online: