Strategic Partnerships Manager

Overview

To secure programme funding by building strong relationships with priority institutional donors, including major global functions and key implementing partners at a global level

Responsibilities

Relationship Coordination and Management

Manage VSO’s relationship development and proactive positioning with priority

institutional donors, including major global foundations.

Develop and deliver a focused engagement action plan to strengthen VSO’s positioning and relationships across a small number of major global foundations centrally and globally.

Manage VSO’s Global Foundations and implementing partner engagement building strong relationships with major global foundations, institutional donors and their key implementing partners. Proactively

• Ensure that priority global foundations centrally and globally understand how VSO can help deliver their priorities
• Influence priority global foundations on issues of mutual interest
• Support and lead work with other Institutional donors as required

Work directly and proactively with Practice Area technical leads, Country teams, Programme Design, Knowledge for Impact, and others to ensure proactive and widespread engagement with priority global foundations centrally and in-country.

Grow VSO’s new global foundations programme funding by identifying and creating opportunities, building winning partnerships with implementing partners, developing and submitting outstanding proposals and negotiating successful new VSO

Proactively build VSO’s understanding of major global foundations and key implementing partners to inform programmatic direction and content and ensure decision making is based on sound market knowledge and business intelligence.

Relationship development and opportunity response for other priority donor donors and their key implementing partners as may be required in the pipeline.

Strategic Partnership Team

Proactively coordinate with VSO’s other Strategic Partnership Leads, Country

Representatives and the Business Intelligence Unit, acting as part of a single,unified global team and sharing knowledge and learning to effectively respond to new business opportunities across our geographic and programmatic portfolio.

Coordinate, manage and deploy VSO’s and the Strategic Partnership Team’s resources to secure new programme funding, ensuring effective, high quality and timely response to agreed priority opportunities.

Contribute to and help drive VSO’s Project Magenta proposal development process and stage gate decisions to continuously improve VSO’s ability to prioritise, develop and win outstanding, professional new opportunity proposals.

Engage with the Business Intelligence Unit, ensuring provision of ongoing, high- quality research and funding intelligence for new business pursuit activities across the organisation

Collaboration

• Business Pursuit Team – including other Strategic Partnership leads, Country representatives and the business intelligence
• Practice Area Teams – collaboration on strategic alignment, pre-positioning with donors and key partners and technical input during bid development. Key engagement with practice area partnership leads and technical
• Programme Development and Quality team – key collaboration during bid development process where this team leads our technical design coordination
• Proposal development team – key collaboration during bid development where a member of this team leads the bid writing process and
• Global Implementation Team – collaboration on bid development, contract start up and
• Functional teams across VSO – including costing and pricing team (finance), people resourcing team, safeguarding/medical/security team, and knowledge evaluation and learning team amongst
• Country implementation teams – engagement around pre-positioning, bid development and contract start up
• Senior staff including Executive Board and International Board as required for donor engagement and approvals.

Additional education

• Graduate degree in relevant course of study (e.g., business/public administration, international development, public health, education)

Experience

Additional experience

• Significant business pursuit experience and expertise developing strong relationships with senior staff, decision makers and influencers at major global foundations, institutional donors and their key implementing
• Proven track record of securing large scale programme funding and follow-on programme wins with major global foundations and institutional donors over the past three to five
• Experience leading high performing business pursuit teams working with technical experts, geographic/country representatives, and external partners to win major programme
• Strong network of existing relationships and contacts working in international development programmes/funding for major global foundation, other major development donors and implementing
• Excellent interpersonal and coaching skills that will enable them to drive and build capabilities of VSO’s business pursuit and global leadership teams
• Strong political and cultural awareness and sensitivity
• Knowledge and understanding of the role of volunteerism in development
• Knowledge of and previous experience in leading successful business pursuit teams and sales performance
• previous volunteering experience (desirable)

Additional skills

• Excellent leadership skills, including the ability to inspire teams and partners
• Excellent personal relationship skills with substantial experience in networking and influencing a diverse range of stakeholders in the UK
• Fluency in written and spoken English and/or French (additional language abilities welcome)

Terms and conditions

VSO promotes equal opportunities and values a diverse workforce.

The successful candidate will be based either in UK or Kenya.

Please ensure that you have the right to work in UK or Kenya before you apply as we are unable to provide sponsorship for this position. We offer national terms and conditions in the country where you will be based.

Interested candidates to click the link to apply before 8th January 2022.

https://bit.ly/strategicpartnershipsmanager