Business Development Specialist II, ESARO

Job Summary

Lead the production of high-quality funding applications in support of CRS’ engagement with institutional donors and initiatives involved in international development to serve the poor and vulnerable. Utilize knowledge and skills to provide specialized assistance in all dimensions of the Business Development (BD) cycle across disciplines and functional teams. As part of the global Institutional Funding Team, provide high-quality surge support on strategic funding opportunities focused in countries in East and Southern Africa.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Provide BD expertise to country leadership and programming teams in positioning, capture planning and proposal preparation for specific opportunities with institutional donors (government, multilateral, foundations, corporations and other awarding non-governmental organizations).
• Manage pre-positioning, capture and proposal development processes to ensure timely execution and submission of high-quality proposals that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS’ technical and cost standards.
• Deploy as proposal coordinator, and advise on opportunity analysis, lead go/no-go decisions, capture planning, and coordinate partner inputs and proposal review panels.
• Deploy as a lead or support writer on proposals, contributing both technical and non-technical content and integrating inputs from staff and partners into a responsive, coherent proposal with a compelling vision and clear win themes.
• Deploy as budget lead or to support the lead in developing proposal budgets. Provide recommendations to develop a competitive proposal, as required.
• Serve as proposal design lead, guiding technical strategy, structuring the design process, and coordinating inputs across regional, country, and global teams to ensure coherent, donor‑aligned proposals.
• Strengthen design quality and competitiveness of projects by ensuring evidence‑based approaches, integration of cross‑cutting priorities (., MEAL, partnerships, gender, climate), and timely delivery of high‑quality concept notes and proposals.
• Guide and advise on partner identification and negotiating CRS’ role in proposal consortia. Ensure a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the agency’s partnership principles and strategic directions.
• Liaise with senior management and donor engagement focal points to develop a resource mobilization strategy for a specific region, country, sector, or donor. Support senior management in cultivating and strengthening relationships with institutional donors, partner organizations and other stakeholders.
• Research, track and analyze new opportunities and CRS’ competitive position within the marketplace. Lead and/or support donor mapping exercises for a specific country or sector.
• Lead and/or support development of CRS BD tools, resources and guidance on BD best practices and CRS approaches across the BD cycle.
• Train and mentor staff, as needed, to improve their skills across the CRS BD Cycle, including in proposal development, representation to donor and partner organizations, intelligence-gathering, and marketing within their country program or portfolio.
• Work with appropriate staff to maintain data on past performance and corporate capacity, to provide timely information for proposal submissions. Support KML and Gateway maintenance.
• Actively contribute to CRS' Business Development and Donor Engagement Community of Practice and advance CRS' Business Development practices through contributions to strategic initiatives.

Required Languages: Fluency in English required; working ability in French, Arabic and/or Portuguese preferred.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 35%.

Location: Cross border or in CRS country office; prefer candidate located in East or Southern Africa; must be within 3 hours of East Africa time zone (GMT +3).

Supervisory Responsibilities: None