VSO Job Senior Business Pursuit Lead (Band 6)

Job Description:	Senior Business Pursuit Lead (Band 6)	Responsible to:  Executive Director for Business Development (matrixed to Operations Directors)
Purpose of role: To deliver increased income for quality programmes within the region.  This role will work alongside the Operations Director, Country Directors and the Donor Partnership team to ensure we are positioning our offer well and integrating our management of donor relationships
Direct Team:  2/3x Business Pursuit Managers based per region and reporting directly to the post holder (plus matrix management of relevant fundraising staff in region )		Location:  3 roles – one of each based in Bangkok, Nairobi, Pretoria

Responsibilities Donor intelligence and relationship-building ·         Lead on developing strategic relationships with key donors and potential and actual consortium partners (especially lead agencies) at the regional level, ensuring VSO has excellent forward intelligence and positioning for forthcoming opportunities ·         Work with country directors and business development colleagues globally to ensure our donor understanding and intelligence across the region is shared and our interactions are seamlessly coordinated Aligning funding with programming ·         Play an active role in the regional management team convened by the relevant  director of operations ·         Ensure funding plans across the geography are ambitious, up-to-date, and aligned with what we need to deliver the signature programmes we have developed ·         Ensure business development perspectives inform the way we develop our programming portfolio ·         Help manage funding risks associated with match funding liabilities, performance related payment arrangements, consortium relationships, etc. Funding pursuit ·         Maintain a personal focus on large-scale and regional/multi-country opportunities where these make sense programmatically and from a funding perspective, acting as proposal lead as appropriate ·         Provide leadership and technically excellent advice in programme design and funding to ensure the funding and programme teams are best positioned for securing high value funding.  Coordination ·         Manage a geographically-dispersed team of business pursuit managers across the geography, ensuring it is a flexible resource that is utilized to maximum effect ·         Line manage business pursuit managers to high standards ensuring  the team is effectively allocated to optimise funding opportunities which are aligned with core programme areas and country funding plans ·         Develop and maintain highly effective working relationships with other business development and programme teams to integrate and align systems, approaches and priorities ·         Ensure business pursuit managers act effectively as facilitators/intermediaries between country offices and the broader business development function ·         Lead and coordinate the business pursuit managers’ engagement and contribution to the  global, coordinated funding strategy, centered around VSO’s core programme areas and approaches Senior management & coordination ·         Play an active role in VSO’s global leadership network ·         Bring together analysis of funding opportunities and pipeline health (proposal tracker), evaluating progress against ambition to inform regional planning and pre-positioning ·         Ensure an accurate and timely overview of funding priorities, pipeline health and analysis are shared across VSO’s business development teams to ensure smooth and effective prioritization of funding opportunities ·         Participate as a core member of the business development senior managers’ team to share learning, harmonize processes and support a VSO-wide approach to mobilizing resources and building strategic partnerships. ·         Manage proposal development consultants where required – identifying priority work, terms of reference, recruitment and management of these consultants		Skills, knowledge required Essential: Significant experience of managing a globally dispersed and highly technical team including proven ability to manage competing priorities Experience of developing funding strategies and delivering income against targets ·         Proven ability to research new funding opportunities and to make appropriate judgements about their potential to realise significant restricted income ·         Experience of establishing and cultivating strong donor relationships that have delivered substantially increased income ·         Proven track record in writing winning donor proposals for donors including USAID, EC, UKAID, SIDA and UN Agencies – including proven ability to develop log frames, monitoring frameworks, and theories of change ·         Experience of preparing compelling, high quality documentation (concept notes, presentations, proposals, budgets, reports, etc) for different donor and partner audiences Excellence in working at a senior level in an international organisation and leading and influencing a globally dispersed team; effective development of individuals and teams ·         Strong interpersonal skills, including written, verbal and presentation skills used in international settings – experience of leading and facilitating workshops and training ·         Ability to be self-directed and take initiative within organisational mandates – strong administrative and organisational skills ·         Experience of establishing partnerships between organisations including teaming agreement and consortia bid development including experience of working with the major development contractors ·         Understanding of commercial contracts ·         Strong analytical and financial skills ·         IT skills including fluency in Microsoft Office suite and database usage ·         Fluency in English (written and spoken). ·         Ability to travel globally (estimated 15-25% travel required) ·         Knowledge of the relevant geography, and existing networks/contacts with donors, etc. Desirable Master’s degree in International Development or a related subject