Program Development Officer at Save the Children

Reports to: Head of Program Development

Staff directly reporting to this post: None

Dimensions: Save the Children has been working in Somalia for more than 60 years. The Country Office has over 600 staff across 14 field offices (Boroma, Burao and Hargeisa in Somaliland; Bossaso, Garowe, Galkayo and Gardo in Puntland; Beletweyne, Adaado, Abudwak, Baidoa, Kismayo, Dhobley and Mogadishu in southern states). Our Country Office coordination and administration base is in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2017, as a result of significant scale up for the countrywide drought response, our annual spend FY2017 was US$117 million and we reached more than 2 million people through our humanitarian and longer-term development work in Health, Nutrition, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Education, Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL), Child Protection and Child Rights Governance. The Country Office manages 61 active awards totalling US$165 million from a range of governmental/institutional donors, including DFID, ECHO, EU, FFP, OFDA, and DANIDA being some of our largest.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Proposal Development Officer will support the Head of PD , and other country programme staff to grow Save the Children funding and partnerships at country level in order to resource the Country Strategic Plan.

To achieve the country’s programme ambitions in line with SC’s Global Breakthroughs, the Country Office Program Development Officer will be responsible for managing the proposal development process and ensuring the final product is responsive, competitive, and timely. S/he will be responsible for working with the PDQ, TE, and Supply Chain/Operations team to coordinate the proposal design process and collaborating with the Finance team to integrate the proposal budget into the final submission to the donor. The Country Office Program Development Officer will be responsible for inputting into the capture planning and continuous learning processes where applicable.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Background in proposal development and coordination required.

Required

• Demonstrated experience in coordinating and facilitating the development of medium to major proposals to institutional donors, multilateral agencies, corporate donors, and/or foundations.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex issues through critical thinking, analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in.
• A high degree of attention to detail and the ability to lead key tasks (e.g. proposal development) to on-time completion under significant pressure.
• Highly developed networking skills and ability to form productive working relationships with a wide range of internal colleagues and stakeholders (e.g programme, technical, awards, REALM, compliance, finance, program operations).
• Good personal organisational skills, including time management, and ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.
• Well-developed interpersonal and communication skills including communicating with impact, influencing, negotiation, and coaching.
• A high degree of flexibility and adaptability in order to respond to changing needs.  Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours in the event of major emergencies including travelling at short notice and for extended periods of time.
• Fluency in English

Desirable

• INGO, NGO, or non-profit experience and an excellent grasp of operational issues.
• Experience in developing project or proposal budgets including for Nordic donors and the UN bodies.
• Familiarity with Somalia/Eastern Africa context and funding landscape
• Proven ability to write persuasive, competitive, and compliant narrative proposals for institutional donors. 
• A detailed understanding on funding mechanisms for development work such as Save the Children’s.