Head of Science Engagement & Resource Mobilization at Bioversity International

Main responsibilities

• Leads the preparation of resource mobilization (RM) action plans, based on the Alliance’s RM strategy and Research Areas (i.e. Levers) priorities, with a focus on funder acquisition, funder retention, and improving the organization’s fundraising success rate.
• Ensures cross-Lever prioritization and synergies for proposal preparation and submission.
• Develops or adopts, in accordance with CGIAR guidance, a customer relationship management (CRM) system to support funder cultivation and stewardship.
• Ensures compliance with and raises awareness about the Alliance’s Proposal Development Process (PDP).
• Leads the Science Engagement & RM team, ensuring a high-level quality of support to researchers with proposal preparation and submission, and funder cultivation and stewardship.
• Institutionalizes a system for learning from success and failures in RM to continuously improve efforts.
• Procures “funding stream” expert guidance from the Global Partnerships team (e.g. private sector, philanthropy, official development assistance) in support of proposal preparation and funder cultivation and stewardship.
• Ensures regular and timely engagement with the leadership of Regional Offices to capture needs and priorities.
• Oversees engagement between the Pipeline Management Team, and Finance-PLANS, the Office of Program Delivery, including the Proposal Enhancement Team and Grants Management Unit, and the Legal Office, among others, for proposal preparation, submission and follow-up.
• Coordinates the development of communication actions plans and materials for Levers with the Communications team.
• Engages with the CGIAR RM Community of Practice, contributing to strategy development and implementation.
• Oversees strategy development, operations and deliverables of the Science Engagement & Resource Mobilization team.
• Oversees together with Research Area Directors a dedicated team to support RM and communications for funder engagement, which will support the research areas during the cultivation of funder relationship, proposal preparation and stewardship.
• Based on fundraising priorities set together with each Research Area Director, supports researchers in the process of funder engagement and proposal submission with a greater focus on 1) developing a funder engagement plan coordinated with respective researchers and regional managing directors, and 2) ensuring that institutional information, capacity statements, and other information needed to improve our engagement with funders before and during proposal preparation is delivered on time, strategically and in good quality.
• Leads or supports the production or upgrading RM-relevant institutional policies, processes and guidelines.
• Ensures timely and regular reporting on RM Pipeline performance to Alliance staff.
• Quality controls a representative sample of proposals from across all Levers to increase proposal success and reduce reputational liabilities.
•  Enhances the RM capacity development efforts for Alliance staff.

 Requirements

Education qualifications and experience

• Master’s degree in associated field (International development, Political Science, Business Administration, Agriculture, Environment).
• Full command of English, and proven high-level verbal and written skills.
• Advanced knowledge of Spanish and/or French is desirable.
• Minimum of 10 years of proven experience and successful track record in resource mobilization in agriculture, environment, rural development, and/or natural or social sciences.
• Minimum of 5 years working in international research-for-development organizations in mid to senior-level positions.
• Extensive proven experience in funder prospecting, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship, leading to major grants or gifts (US$5 million or more).
• Proven experience successfully managing globally-distributed teams from different disciplines and backgrounds.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to work effectively with other national and cultural backgrounds
• Excellent analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills
• Excellent eye for detail, critical thinking, high standards of excellence, personal organization, prioritization and time management skills, flexibility, and the ability to deliver on agreed deadlines.
• Ability to work with a considerable amount of autonomy in fast-moving environment.
• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary and multi-cultural environment
• Ability to liaise with other project implementing multi-disciplinary teams
• Must be able to work independently with minimum supervision, but also participate as a team member in the accomplishment of duties.
• Strong ability to coordinate, prioritize and organize workload; take initiative and work under pressure.
• Commitment to Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT’s mission and core values