Jobs at International Rescue Committee

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. At work today in over 40 countries and 25 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.

Job Overview/Summary

The IRC is currently deploying an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Management system, branded “Integra”, across Finance, Supply Chain and Program Management functions in all IRC locations. This project will retire some of IRC’s existing systems and tools, bringing them into a cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 environment.

The Programs Advisor serves as the focal points for the interests and support needs of the IRC’s program and grants users across the IRC’s network of offices. Working closely with the Integra Regional Deployment Leads and counterparts from Finance and Supply Chain, the Programs Advisor will support efforts to improve Integra deployment (focusing on program and grants staff perspective) and regularly liaise with Deputy Directors of Programs on Integra deployment matters. The Programs Advisor will also ensure Integra trainings engage program and grants staff and will collaborate with the Integra technical support team to resolve service requests from program and grants staff. The Programs Advisors will travel approximately 20% of their time to the IRC’s offices to support deployment as needed.

Major Responsibilities

• Represent Program and Grants staff and their system needs on the Integra project, regularly liaising with Deputy Directors of Programs, Program and Grants Coordinators, and HQ CRRD and AMU staff when required.
• Support deployment tasks related to Program and Grants functional areas, including data cleanup and migration from OTIS (the IRC’s grant management application), security role mapping, and developing guidance notes and other deployment-stage communications.
• Support Program and Grants superusers
• Collaborate with the Integra training team to ensure trainings are tailored and delivered to Program and Grants staff.
• Support Program and Grants teams as they test Integra system processes, collect feedback, and share with the Integra deployment team leads.
• Provide hyper support/operational support in response to requests from Program and Grants staff.
• Generate ideas and collect new requests for system enhancements relevant to Program and Grants staff and collaborate with Integra technical colleagues to review, implement, and test these enhancements.
• Contribute to project learning initiatives, representing the perspectives of Program and Grants staff.

Key Working Relationships

• Position reports to: Integra Cross Functional Lead
• Position directly supervises: n/a
• Indirect reporting: Integra Regional Deployment Leads

Other Internal And/or External Contacts

• CRRD: DDPs, Program and Grants Coordinators, HQ staff
• AMU: Compliance & Policy, Program & Grants Support, Strategic Operations pillars
• Integra Project Team: Project Management, Finance ERP DDFs, Supply Chain Advisors, Communications, Hyper Support Team, Trainers, Business System Manager/Analysts

Job Requirements

• Experience managing programs and grants in an IRC field office at a Manager, Coordinator or Deputy Director
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; training facilitation skills an advantage
• Experience working cross-functionally, especially with IT, Finance and Supply Chain teams
• Understanding of IRC finance, supply chain, and grant management processes
• Experience with IT systems; experience with Integra or other ERP systems an advantage
• Experience of working in formal project management environment an advantage
• Fluency in English; proficiency in Arabic or French, and other IRC languages an advantage

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The Purpose of the Role

The Senior Program/Business Development Advisor will join a global BD team and will help drive IRC’s new business development efforts by engaging with global, regional, country, and technical staff throughout the business development cycle from opportunity tracking and positioning/capture planning to proposal development, and submission. The SPDA will primarily serve as capture and proposal manager, s/he will also offer technical assistance and mentor staff working on proposals on relevant business development topics. The ideal candidate will have a successful track record of leading large-scale and complex new business efforts in international development with particular emphasis on FCDO commercial contracts.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage proposals from solicitation release to submission ensuring compliance with donor rules and IRC’s business development processes and practices.
• Manage positioning/capture from opportunity identification to solicitation release including developing capture plan and coordinating the capture team to complete milestones.
• Lead proposal development in response to requests for proposals, including those for field-based projects and large global opportunities. This will involve management of proposal teams, calendars, and deadlines; strategy development with technical staff; partner identification and negotiations; recruiting; writing; production; and after-action reviews
• Manage relationships with proposal partners and liaises with IRC’s Global Recruiter to secure key personnel.
• Collaborates with IRC’s pricing team, ensuring technical vs. budget consistency.
• Lead on advising other IRC departments when required on FCDO contract terms and implication for structuring proposal budgets, targets, and deliverables.
• Formulates the commercial strategy, including writing the commercial proposal for an FCDO contract
• Build and strengthen relationships with internal stakeholders (HQ-based regional and technical units, as well as IRC country offices) as well as with donor representatives, partners and other relevant stakeholders.
• Contribute to, and model the use of standardized business development processes, tools, templates and information.

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field, including international relations, political science, public administration, and communications.
• Seven years plus of experience developing funding proposals.
• Experience working with UK government donors.
• Substantial experience and a successful track record leading large proposal teams on complex subject, multi-year, multi-partner proposals with minimal supervision.
• Experience in proposal budgeting a plus.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively manage a variety of relationships in a multicultural environment;
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate equally effectively with colleagues in ‘remote’ and diverse teams, including as team leader for proposals;
• The ability to work productively and accurately while under pressure in a fast-paced, demanding environment;
• Flexible work attitude: the ability to work in a team environment and independently and ability to meet unexpected demands;**
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively;**
• Ability to travel internationally (up to 20% of time);
• Fluency in English with proficiency in one other language (French and/or Spanish) desirable.