Business Development Specialist

The Business Development Specialist works in collaboration with the staff of the Strategy, Business Development & Partnerships (SBD&P) unit, Cost Proposal Unit, Human Resource, Technical Units, and countries to ensure the successful completion and responsiveness of MSH’s solicited and unsolicited coordinates the development of proposals, is responsible for a number of proposal deliverables, and ensures submission of the proposal. The Business Development Specialist also plays a support role in coordinating MSH positioning activities for specific new business opportunities. These activities may require travel to the field. The Business Development Specialist may have lead responsibility for special BD&P-related projects or initiatives as required. The Specialist may also assist with general department administrative duties as needed.

Specific Responsibilities

Proposal Coordination and Development (75%)

• Coordinate the proposal development process and all internal and external inputs to the proposal, including:

• Developing and managing a calendar and outline for the technical and cost proposals.

• Coordinating team communications through meetings and email and ensuring clarity of roles and responsibilities of team members.

• Collecting and tracking proposal-related information and disseminating information to team members.

• Compiling questions to donors.

• Communicate with partner organizations about MSH proposal policies, procedures, standard forms and requirements, and facilitate communications within the proposal team. Solicit partner and collaborator inputs and assist in planning joint business opportunities. Contribute to building local partners’ capacity by working with them to complete proposal deliverables.

• Coordinate logistics for strategy meetings. Draft management plans, institutional capability and past performance statements, staffing sections, CVs, and implementation plans as needed.

• Facilitate communication between the cost and technical team members to ensure the technical strategy/proposal is integrated with the corresponding cost proposal.

• Work with technical team to develop annexes/attachments, diagrams, and figures to meet the requirements of a solicitation and showcase the work of MSH. Collect personnel and technical documents which appear in the annex/attachments. As requested, prepare and coordinate past performance references and skills matrices. As assigned, responsible for developing organizational charts, results framework, and other graphics and charts.

• Coordinate reviews of proposal drafts by internal and external reviewers. Ensure reviewers’ availability and provide background documentation, set up review meetings as needed, and compile comments to deliver to the proposal team. May also be assigned to review drafts for issues of presentation, compliance of response, and responsiveness to bid document.

• As needed, may be responsible for production of the final technical proposal, including proposal formatting using Word and saving proposals in PDF, as well as printing and binding the final document and ensuring the proposal package is complete.

• Responsible for ensuring the proposal is complete, compliant, and delivered on time. This includes coordinating with the editor and production staff to ensure copy-edit and formatting of the technical proposal, ensuring and scheduling final sign off, ensuring that all materials are included in the final proposal, managing delivery arrangements through shipping or travel, and ensuring the client acknowledges receipt of the proposal.

• Edit selected proposals efficiently in accordance with the standards of the Business Development and Partnerships unit.

• Proposal Close Out: Organize electronic proposal documents according to BRD procedure. Coordinate after action review. Update proposal-related materials in BRD file systems.

• Following Notification of Award: Ensure partners, proposed candidates, and the proposal team members are all notified of the proposal result. Coordinate final proposal debrief and compile summary notes including recommendations for process improvements.

• In support of the Technical Strategy Lead, may assist in the development of concept papers.

Positioning Activities (20%)

• In collaboration with MSH leadership, contribute to annual and multi-year business development strategies that leverage MSH capabilities to identify and win new business opportunities, contributing to financial sustainability across the organization.

• Within MSH’s target technical, donor and geographic priorities, serve as a "positioning lead" to identify new business opportunities, ensure up to date donor knowledge, and co-ordinate geographic relationships with MSH staff, potential partners and consultants. This includes working collaboratively with designated technical and programs staff to develop and implement intelligence gathering and positioning strategies to strengthen MSH stature, credibility, and likelihood of winning new business.

• Responsible for coordinating and disseminating business intelligence and positioning information, when assigned to a specific country or specific opportunity.

• Consider potential opportunities, intelligence, and information from positioning efforts and prepare BD’s analysis for specific bid recommendations including internal and external resource needs.

• Support field-based business development activities and preparations for new and follow-on projects, including review of internal and external evaluations of projects. As required, provide direct support to development of field-based proposals.

• Assist MSH to identify partnering opportunities and to establish new institutional partnerships and manage existing ones.

• Cultivate relationships with specific partners and coordinate regular communications with strategic partners as necessary.

Capacity Building (5%)

• Build the capacity of other staff in production of proposals and other areas.

Education

Bachelor's degree required

Experience

Minimum of 3 years of work experience, with specific experience in international public health desirable

Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to initiate and organize work, establish priorities in a time-sensitive environment, and meet deadlines with attention to detail and quality.

• Strong interpersonal and English language communication skills; demonstrated ability to interact professionally with culturally diverse staff, clients, and consultants.

• Excellent research, data analysis/synthesis, and presentation skills.

• Skills in persuasive writing and the ability to present technical ideas in a concise way that is relatively free of jargon

• Strong editing skills

• Experience in proposal development desirable.

• Knowledge of or interest in proposal management standards.

• Strong knowledge of the Microsoft Office products including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Foreign language capabilities in French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Arabic desirable.

Competencies

• Excellent interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to handle the high stress environment of business development with diplomacy and a sense of humor.

• Ability to initiate and organize work; think critically; establish priorities and make decisions in a time sensitive environment; and meet deadlines with attention to detail and quality.

• Demonstrated good judgment and ability to prioritize multiple tasks simultaneously and work proactively

Physical Demands

• Keyboard use, pulling drawers, lifting papers <10 lbs.

• Availability to travel up to 10%.

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