Business Development Officer at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

Position Summary

AGRA is engaged in developing and supporting a series of dynamic and innovative partnership agendas in line with its overall strategy.

The Business Development Officer is responsible for supporting a portfolio of AGRA’s top priorities in terms of partnership-building with the private sector, public sector, development banks, financial institutions, and major implementing partners. Working with the Vice President for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, the role holder will engage across AGRA’s teams and partners to translate high level strategic conversations into actionable partnerships, facilitate their finalization, and support their implementation over time as required.

This will involve work on a series of cross sector partnerships and business development objectives to achieve scalable outcomes. The role represents an exciting opportunity to work with a strong team at the forefront of platform and partnership design in the creation of next generation inclusive business development and shared value thinking. The position will be based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Participate in the design of AGRA’s overall process for business development, which is a core function for the institution in leveraging partnerships and investment to scale its strategy.
• Support the Vice President for Business Development & Strategic Partnerships with the day-to-day management of a portfolio of key strategic partnerships under development and/or under implementation and be responsible for driving discrete bodies of work.
• Support development, structuring, and finalization of strategic partnerships in collaboration with the strategy team, resource mobilization, technical teams, and country teams.

o Perform research and analytical work in support of the business development and execution planning process.

o Develop materials to drive partnership execution – e.g. analyses, project plans, meeting materials, strategy document outputs – and ultimately translate strategic vision and opportunities into practical partnerships and work plans that can be examined by institutional leaders.

o Employ strategic tools to develop and assess options, ensure logical reasoning, and challenge assumptions.

o Support strategy development process with a customer-focus orientation – e.g., effective communication – and emphasis on relationship management.
o Support the implementation of creative solutions to manage group processes

• Oversee work streams and manage cross-functional teams on institutional or country-level partnership initiatives.

Key Qualifications and Experience required

• Bachelor’s degree and an MBA or other advanced degrees in a relevant field like Business, Economics, Public Administration, Engineering, Sciences, or Planning
• Proven strength in structured problem solving and strategic business planning, with the ability to easily identify and communicate framework to analyze issue.
• Strong quantitative/financial knowledge, including experience creating complex models, with a demonstrated ability to extract appropriate data to convey complex information through the use of supporting tables, graphs and other visual representations.
• Demonstrated ability to bring new frameworks and tools to facilitate strategy and business development process.
• Excellent oral, facilitation, and written communication skills.
• Ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers, partners, and clients in constructive manner.
• Strong knowledge across relevant technical area/expertise, particularly ability to learn new content quickly, identify connections and second-order implications and demonstrate competence with internal/external teams.
• Deep knowledge of program development and end-to-end complex project management (including process design, team structure, analytical requirements, development of novel communication tools and external/senior leadership engagement).
• Effective as a collaborator in complex internal and external organizations.
• Works with efficiency and diplomacy.
• Excellent listening skills and empathy.
• Comfortable with unstructured and ambiguous situations and tasks; ability to proactively resolve.
• Ability to travel up to 25% - 35% domestically and internationally to engage with AGRAteams and government units in AGRA’s focus countries.