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
How to apply
Please apply through Land O’Lakes Venture37’s website.