Senior Program Officer, Pre-Award

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The IRC is one of the leading providers of high-quality programming for refugees, immigrants and asylees. The IRC Resettlement, Asylum and Integration (RAI) network creates opportunities for refugees and other vulnerable migrants to survive and thrive in the United States and in Europe. The IRC RAI network currently has 28 U.S. offices. 

The IRC is committed to developing innovative, context-specific programs in response to strategic funding opportunities with a range of local, state and federal government agencies, as well as private foundations and corporations. This work is led by the RAI Resource Acquisition and Management (RAM) team, in close collaboration with RAI Offices and Learning & Impact units as well as the IRC Finance and Budget departments.

The Senior Program Officer, Pre-Award serves as a key focal point for the pre-award management and compliance oversight of federal, state, and local grants and contracts, with involvement in a variety of city, state and federal donors to include the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and others. This business development position will lead strategic bids for the organization with a specific emphasis on contracts. The Senior Program Officer will support teams with strategic opportunities from the identification phase through capture, proposal development, and donor negotiation/award. This includes editing and submitting proposals to public and private donors, ensuring consistency with the organization's quality standards and responsiveness to the donor's programmatic priorities. The position will ensure proposals go through the various color review meetings and that senior leadership has a clear assessment of risks and opportunities associated with each award. This position requires close collaboration with colleagues across the organization to ensure that proposal submissions consistently meet high standards and lead to effective program implementation.
This position reports to the Director, Business Development and collaborates closely with the post-award and finance teams.
 

Key Responsibilities

Proposal Development 
•    Liaise with staff to understand technical strategy, win themes and value-for-money proposition.
•    Ensure all stakeholders (local office, HQ Support, and Senior Leadership) understand funding mechanism (especially contract type) and associated risks and opportunities based on the mechanism.
•    Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to align financial deliverables with strategic project outcomes.
•    Drafts and presents proposal risk assessment and risk mitigation measures throughout the Capture and Proposal Development phases. Evaluate responses to solicitations, including price reasonableness, adequacy of competition, compliance with solicitations, and probability of meeting requirements.
•    Support the development of the rationale and justification for proposal consortium partners and subcontractors in alignment with IRC PEERs principals.
•    Contribute to determining the contract type and budget negotiations with subcontractors (consortium and delivery partners).
•    Work closely with proposal budget lead on competitive cost and pricing development including developing robust and comprehensive budgets, ensuring alignment with donor regulations, internal policies, and cost recovery priorities.
•    Provide strategic analysis and recommendations to support competitive and quality proposal submissions.
•    Conduct and maintain pricing research across target donors to inform back of the envelope and full cost and technical proposal details.
•    Upon request, represent RAI in discussions with strategic donor and implementing partners, communicating complex financial and technical insights effectively.
•    Maintain up-to-date knowledge of key donor regulations, procurement processes, and cost principles.

Direct Supervision
•    Provide oversight and capacity building to two direct reports (Program Officers) on business development.
•    Ensure balance of workload especially during heavy proposal periods and manage external proposal support (consultants) as needed. 
•    Offer regular coaching on business management skills like budgeting, financial analysis, and reporting
•    Identify skill gaps and create development opportunities through training, stretch assignments, or mentorship
•    Review work products for accuracy, completeness, and alignment with organizational standards
•    Manage performance through clear goal-setting, regular check-ins on progress and challenges, formal evaluations with ongoing feedback, and prompt, constructive resolution of performance issues

Training & Capacity Building
•    Conduct training and advisory sessions for program, leadership, finance and non-finance stakeholders to build capacity and ensure compliance.
•    Provide advisory services to grant managers and project management units on complex RFP or RFA reviews, fee payment schedules, competitive range negotiations, subcontractor pricing negotiations, and nontraditional partnering strategies.
•    Contribute to and deliver business development training for program, finance, and other staff to strengthen understanding of key donor regulations, organizational policies, and ethical standards.
•    Support continuous learning by creating resources, checklists, and templates that promote compliance and operational consistency across offices.
•    Contribute to the development and refinement of contract management policies, procedures, and tools to strengthen internal controls and ensure alignment with best practices with particular emphasis on contract mechanisms.
•    Identify risks in business development practices, propose corrective actions, and track remediation efforts to resolution.

Coordination & Reporting
•    Lead high levels of coordination between RAI offices and HQ teams; provide support to offices in navigating IRC systems and processes. May have assigned offices to support and/or may require ad hoc support to network in instances of complex cases or peak times.
•    Collaborate with post award teams to share insights from business development that inform post-award management and donor compliance.
•    Serve as a liaison between program, finance, and other teams to ensure coordinated development of all types of proposals including grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts.
•    Provide regular updates to leadership on portfolio business development performance, risks, and compliance trends.

Qualifications

•    Education: Bachelor’s degree in public administration, business, international affairs, or related field required; Master’s degree preferred.

•    Experience:
o    3-6 years of progressive experience in grant and contract management, compliance, or related field within a nonprofit or public-sector environment.
o    Demonstrated expertise in federal award compliance, including FAR and 2 CFR 200 as well as agency-specific requirements (e.g., ORR, HHS).
o    Experience with risk management, internal audit, or subrecipient monitoring strongly preferred.
o    Prior experience supporting field-based programs and liaising with government donors required.

•    Skills:
o    Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
o    Excellent communication and facilitation skills.
o    Proven ability to interpret complex regulations and translate them into practical guidance.
o    High attention to detail and organizational skills; ability to manage multiple priorities.
o    Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and familiarity with award management systems.

Working Environment
•    Standard office environment, with flexibility for hybrid or remote work arrangements.
•    Occasional domestic travel may be required to support field offices, audits, or training events.
•    May require flexible hours to accommodate donor or cross-regional coordination.

**Compensation: (Pay Range: $76,000 - $102,600)**Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget.  Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles. 

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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