Head of New Business Development

Save the Children International – Role Profile

Title

Head of New Business Development

Team/Programme

PDQ

Location

Freetown, Sierra Leone

Grade

2

Contract Length

12 months

Child Safeguarding

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

Role Purpose

The Sierra Leone Country Office Head of New Business Development (NBD) plays a pivotal role in driving and coordinating the growth and diversification of funding for the Country Office in alignment with its strategic priorities. This role will support the Country Director, Programme Development and Quality (PDQ) Director, 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 Head of New Business Development will be responsible for coordinating the development of the annual funding strategy, developing an engagement plan across members, donors, implementing partners and other necessary stakeholders, and creating and managing an efficient system to identify and develop new funding opportunities.

The post holder will be expected to work across the Movement (Regional Offices, Members, and other Country Offices as necessary) in achieving the country funding strategy and be the primary link with Regional Offices for all NBD best practices and capacity building efforts.

Scope of Role

Reports to: PDQ Director
Dotted Line: Resource Mobilisation team at regional office
Staff Reporting to this Post: 0
Budget Responsibilities: N/A
Key working relationships: Act as day-to-day focal point with regional Program Funding team, ensuring appropriate coordination between members and country team. Engages with CO SMT, Finance, Awards, Technical Experts/Operations, PDQ Director, and other necessary stakeholders to coordinate strategic resource mobilization across the country office.

Key Areas of Accountability

Proposal Writing and Coordination – 25%

• Work with PDQ Officer/Coordinator and Technical Advisors to oversee coordination of high-quality business development and fundraising activities, including concept note development, proposal design, proposal writing, risk assessment, budget development, etc.
• Liaise with Country Office, Regional Teams and Member Offices focal points to ensure timely reviews, respond to feedback and finalise high quality submissions.
• Guide adherence to donor and SC procedures (e.g. Go/No-Go, NBD RACI, sign-off protocols), and maintain integrity of all submissions.

Capture Planning and Opportunity Preparation – 20%

• Lead opportunity scoping and capture planning processes to position Save the Children for high-value and strategic funding opportunities.
• Facilitate conversations with PDQ, technical experts and Operations teams to gather intelligence, assess competitiveness, coordinate Go/No Go decisions, and adequately resource teams build for pursuing all strategic funding opportunities.
• Maintain and build capacity in systems or processes for collecting donor, implementing partner, and competitor intelligence and information.
• Contribute to quality assurance of capacity statements, donor briefing packs, and engagement materials.

Funding Strategy and NBD Change Management – 20%

• Lead country office to develop and implement high quality Country Funding Strategy and Donor Engagement Plan, linked to the Country Strategic Plan.
• Lead design and delivery of the country office funding strategy which aligns program demand (Country Strategic Plan) with funding supply (donor landscape), with a focus on priority thematic areas. This strategy will include both public and private funding sources.
• Drive and accelerate sustainable portfolio growth for Save the Children in the country, working in alignment with the regional and global funding strategy.
• With guidance and support from regional Program Funding team, supports country TE, Finance, Award Management and PDQ staff with capacity building around business development and fundraising.
• Ensure best practice ways of working by attending business development and fundraising Communities of Practice and embedding best practice into country ways of working.
• Establish continuous learning efforts in order to implement best practices and learn from process so future business development/fundraising efforts are improved.

Forming Partnerships – 10%

• Proactively guide and support PDQ and technical expert teams where necessary to rigorously assess the strengths and weaknesses of potential strategic partnerships for programme development and implementation.
• Support country leadership’s strategic decision making to form programming consortia which strengthen both programming and resource mobilization outcomes.

Relationship Management – 10%

• Support the Country Director, PDQ Director, and Technical teams to build strong relationships and funding partnerships.
• Proactively engage on a strategic basis with institutional donors at country level in order to facilitate technical programme exchanges, influence policy and thinking, and identify key areas of potential cooperation, including programme funding.
• Represent Save the Children as needed with key institutional, corporate, foundation and other donors.
• Ensure teams have best practice approach and system to planning, and undertaking stakeholder engagement with identified prospects and ongoing key partnerships.

Strategic Portfolio Planning – 10%

• Support strategic planning and operational processes and tools that achieve high quality award portfolios.
• Understand and effectively communicate the country’s pipeline and priority funding gaps, as agreed with CD and country leadership. These may include thematic/program gaps, co-financing gaps, and operational sustainability gaps.
• Proactively work with the program funding teams to drive improvement in strategic portfolio planning across the movement.

Humanitarian Response – 5%

• Drive effective and joined-up strategic resource mobilization for emergencies within the country.
• When possible, deploy immediately to support funding coordination in the first phase of major regional responses as required.

Behaviours (Values in Practice)

Accountability

• holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

Qualifications

Degree in International Development, Project Planning and Management, Social Studies or related, or equivalent experience.
Background in business development, donor and relationship management, strategic portfolio analysis and planning, and change management required.

Experience and Skills – Required

• 5+ years demonstrated experience identifying and securing funding from government donors, multilateral agencies, corporate donors and/or foundations in Sierra Leone
• Demonstrated experience in leading assessments of funding landscapes, and developing programme funding strategies to meet strategic goals.
• Demonstrated experience in programme design and proposal writing.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex issues through critical thinking, analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in.
• Highly developed networking skills and ability to form productive working relationships with external donor agencies.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including communicating with impact, influencing, negotiation, and coaching.
• Demonstrated people leadership skills, able to effectively manage direct reports.
• Ability to work under pressure with a multitude of stakeholders to meet deadlines
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as a member of an extended senior management team, contributing constructively beyond the role’s specific resource mobilization remit.
• Experience in project and change management related to organisational development projects and international, cross-functional teams with a proven history of delivering results.
• 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.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.

Experience and Skills – Desirable

• NGO experience and an excellent grasp of operational issues.
• A detailed understanding on funding mechanisms for development work such as Save the Children’s.
• Thematic experience in one or more of Save the Children’s priority areas for Sierra Leone (basic education, child and adolescent health, child protection, livelihoods and climate change).

Additional Job Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.