Manager, Strategic Growth and Partnerships

The Manager will play a key role in advancing Land O’Lakes Venture37’s growth and impact strategy, primarily by cultivating and securing impactful USAID and USDA new business opportunities. The Manager is a business development professional with experience leading/managing competitive USAID/USDA bids, ideally in the agriculture development and/or economic growth space.

Responsibilities will include:

Strategy and Pipeline Development

• Drive business development strategy for countries/opportunities in your portfolio, ensuring early intel capture and targeted pursuit of new business opportunities.
• Identify funding trends and contribute to bid analyses and capture plans to position V37 competitively.
• Manage and update opportunities and contacts in Salesforce.

Capture Management

• Cultivate relationships with key USAID staff (e.g. Economic Growth staff); develop and demonstrate strong understanding of key influencers and donor insights.
• Cultivate relationships with implementation partners including international NGOs, priority local partners, private sector companies and academic institutions.
• Organize and conduct in-country information gathering trips to collect/analyze data informing proposal design and to cultivate/strengthen partnerships.

Proposal Management

• Serve as proposal lead – with responsibilities including development of teaming strategy and scopes of work, sub-partner relationship management, and management of overall proposal development.
• Lead and orchestrate project design sessions incorporating theory of change to create compelling, innovative and customer-responsive approaches and solutions.
• Ensure technical requirements and details are aligned with cost proposal development in close collaboration with finance and costing teams.
• Manage on-time, compliant and cost-effective delivery of proposals.

Thought Leadership and Marketing

• Lead the development of donor/partner-appropriate pitch decks and other marketing collateral that showcase V37’s work and thought leadership.
• Conduct marketing trips to meet with key donors and partners and organize donor to influence program design.
• Position Venture37 for new business opportunities at industry events.

Required Experience/Knowledge:

• University degree in International Studies, International Development, Business Administration, Agriculture, Economics or related field.
• Minimum of four years relevant work experience, or combination of additional education and experience to total seven years.
• Demonstrated experience leading USAID bid strategies and proposals.
• Demonstrated ability to work with technical leads to conceptualize and develop competitive, innovative, impactful program designs.
• Ability to work and lead effectively in a team environment and work with people of diverse backgrounds in various cultural settings.
• Proactive, detail-oriented, flexible and able to focus and guide others in accomplishing time-sensitive work.
• Strong relationship-building skills and customer-centered approach to partnership development
• Familiarity with emerging trends in international agriculture/economic development.
• Ability to write and/or review – including proposals sections, concept notes, RFI responses and marketing materials.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Ability to travel and work effectively in emerging economies

Preferred Experience/Knowledge:

• Masters Degree in International Development, Agriculture, Business, Economics or related field.
• Proposal writing experience (i.e. technical writing).
• Demonstrated experience and success leading winning USDA bid strategies and proposals.
• Program management experience; experience working on projects with an agriculture focus.
• Experience living and/or working in developing countries, particularly in Africa and Asia.
• French language skills.

Salary Range: $89,000 – $100,000