Sr. New Program Development Specialist, Humanitarian Emphasis
The Sr. New Program Development Specialist - Humanitarian, works together with country-based teams, technical and program staff to develop new programs and related partnerships in pursuit of funding, with emphasis on humanitarian opportunities.
With support from a Capture Manager, the Senior Specialist will provide coordination, support and guidance through the lifecycle of moderately complex proposals involving partnering and recruitment, ensuring overall responsiveness and successful submission across all donors, whether prime or sub. The Senior Specialist will apply best practices and standard operating procedures to ensure proposal teams meet timelines and deliverables, escalating highly complex matters to Capture Manager or supervisor, collaborating on solutions and approaches when needed. Applying critical thinking skills, the Senior Specialist will analyze new opportunities based on Jhpiego frameworks and country team strategies and make recommendations. The Senior Specialist will also participate in external relationship management such as donor meetings, technical symposiums, bidder’s calls, partnership exploratory calls, with support as needed.
We seek a creative, pro-active and passionate professional with a growth mindset who thrives on playing any role which helps turn ideas into action, working with and through technical and multi-disciplinary teams. The selected candidate can expect to grow core competencies working with field leaders to make real time decisions, facilitating and drafting compelling proposal content, and sharpening draft narrative. Similarly, the candidate will grow in contributing to an emerging competency area, supporting the development of customized approaches, donor strategy, partnership development, capacity strengthening and participation in related technical working groups. The successful candidate will bring acumen working under pressure and managing multiple tasks to tight deadlines across time zones and for a variety of internal and external audiences.
This position requires willingness and ability to travel at short notice to support Jhpiego humanitarian assessments, situation reports, partnering, donor communication, concept and proposal development.
Responsibilities:
Proposal Management
- Provides coordination, advice, guidance and high-level support through the lifecycle of prime and sub-proposals processes for moderately complex bids
- Acts as a catalyst for generation of new and creative responses by sourcing technical and non-technical inputs from key stakeholders and encouraging a collaborative work environment
- Serves as primary point of contact for moderately complex bids, answering standard and non-standard questions from internal stakeholders, partners and donors
- Escalates highly complex matters to Capture Manager and/or Supervisor as needed and provides recommended course of action
- Collaborates with Capture Manager to scope, assess and communicate proposal requirements to the team, providing key inputs and recommendations
- Administers the critical path of proposal development and responsible for completion and quality of overall product
- Conducts research, collects and analyzes information about key donors, partners and competitors to identify and track potential opportunities aligned with Jhpiego’s core competencies
- Produces and summarizes complex analyses into key findings on donors, partners and competitors to inform bid/no bid decisions
- Supports pitches that are aligned with interests of the sponsor, align with development best practices and emphasize impact
- Guides end-to-end activities of the proposal process including calendar of critical dates, ensuring teams are positioned to deliver on-time results that are responsive to donor requirements
- Uses non-standard templates and where needed, generates new proposal writing outlines to meet donor requirements. This will apply for all donors, including US Government, Foundation, Corporate, U.N. bilateral and other funding sources.
- Reviews final products to ensure completeness and that donor requirements are satisfied
- Coordinates and documents internal proposal debriefs and donor debriefs
Drafting/Writing/Design Facilitation
- Sources information and works with program and technical staff, drafts, edits and synthesizes proposal content in the format that will be most appealing to the donor (e.g. concept note, slide deck), including content for pitch ideas, corporate capability statements, past performance references, and other related content, assuring responsive to donor expectations.
- Serve as lead writer for technical narrative of concept papers for new funding opportunities working with teams composed of technical and program staff to produce a proposal that is cohesive, responsive to the donor, and compelling.
- Suggests/contributes to design approaches and execution and participating with design lead in design meetings
- Support advocating internally and across consortium partners, as appropriate, to assure designs, staffing and teaming reflect our best ideas
- Facilitate and/or support conceptualization, creation and/or visualization of graphics within the technical narrative, in collaboration with design lead
NPD Function Support & Enablement
- Identifies and tracks potential procurements that are consistent with Jhpiego’s core competencies and strategic interests
- Coordinates and prepares for funding opportunities by collecting and organizing essential content from various internal and external sources, including partners and consultants
- Gathers, synthesizes and supports analysis of information about donors, partners and competitors
- Suggests process improvements and support tool and guidance development for humanitarian proposals
- Supports understanding of our competitive market using critical thinking skills to inform organizational strategy and positioning for future opportunities
- Maintains updated information in Jhpiego’s internal-facing electronic libraries
- Drafts, routes and track contractual documents
- Retains existing proposal content, relevant donor feedback and program results to present in future proposals
- Proactively cultivate and forge connections and partnerships with donors, corporations, and foundations to support humanitarian and Disaster Risk Management (DRM) initiatives.
- Lead creation of donor-specific pitch decks, briefing papers, and profile-raising materials that highlight Jhpiego’s accomplishments and expertise.
Special Skills, Knowledge & Abilities:
- Demonstrated ability to effectively synthesize and organize others’ ideas into convincing narrative
- Successful experience developing and/or writing sections in winning proposals, particularly from humanitarian donors, such as BHA, PRM, GAC, European Donors (ex. ECHO) country specific donors such as SIDA, UN agencies, and/or non-traditional donors, private sector, and other philanthropies such as foundations, lotteries and trusts
- Experience traveling independently, particularly in humanitarian/emergency/crisis settings within low-resource countries.
- Familiarity with humanitarian, crisis and fragile setting donors, related priorities and proposal processes.
- Understanding of principles and issues related to the humanitarian – development nexus
- Relevant, short-term field-based experience in low- and middle-income countries
- Ability to self-manage and prioritize in fast paced environment
- Demonstrated analytical, organizational and decision-making skills
- Ability to synthesize and communicate key messages from large amounts of information
- Ability to draft concise and compelling concept/proposal narrative from technical and programmatic design inputs, aligned with proposal win themes and organizational value proposition
- Creatively design proposal development sessions with internal staff and external organizations, including local groups.
- Ability to travel on short notice and work additional hours during peak times
- Strong oral, written and presentation skills
- Proficient in MS Office and online resources
- Ability to travel up to 35% of the time
Minimum Qualifications
- Master's degree in a related field
- Five years related experience
- Additional related experience may substitute for required education.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree in relevant field
- Experience living and working for over 6 months in low- and middle-income countries on relevant topics strongly preferred
- Experience implementing health-related projects in protracted crises, sudden onset and/or humanitarian settings.
- Experience in external engagements, influencing, networking and working with the wider humanitarian donor and fundraising sector
- Ability to strengthen capacity of colleagues in the above knowledge and skills
- Fluency, oral and written, in a second language French (most preferred), Portuguese or Spanish
Classified Title: Proposal Officer
Job Posting Title (Working Title): Sr. New Program Development Specialist, Humanitarian Emphasis
Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PD
Starting Salary Range: $64,237 - $85,649 Commensurate with Experience
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: Mon-Fri 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Exempt Status: Exempt
Location: Jhpiego
Department name: 60000102-New Program Development - NPD
Personnel area: Academic and Business Centers
Total Rewards
The referenced salary range is based on Johns Hopkins University’s good faith belief at the time of posting. Actual compensation may vary based on factors such as geographic location, work experience, market conditions, education/training and skill level. Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here: https://hr.jhu.edu/benefits-worklife/
Please refer to the job description above to see which forms of equivalency are permitted for this position. If permitted, equivalencies will follow these guidelines:
JHU Equivalency Formula: 30 undergraduate degree credits (semester hours) or 18 graduate degree credits may substitute for one year of experience. Additional related experience may substitute for required education on the same basis. For jobs where equivalency is permitted, up to two years of non-related college course work may be applied towards the total minimum education/experience required for the respective job.
**Applicants who do not meet the posted requirements but are completing their final academic semester/quarter will be considered eligible for employment and may be asked to provide additional information confirming their academic completion date.
The successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check. Johns Hopkins is committed to hiring individuals with a justice-involved background, consistent with applicable policies and current practice. A prior criminal history does not automatically preclude candidates from employment at Johns Hopkins University. In accordance with applicable law, the university will review, on an individual basis, the date of a candidate’s conviction, the nature of the conviction and how the conviction relates to an essential job-related qualification or function.
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