USAID Engagement Advisor

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global unit spanning New York, Washington DC, London, Brussels, Berlin, Bonn, Stockholm, Nairobi, and Dakar. It has responsibility for identifying, securing and managing all funding from statutory donors, and was designed as an end-to-end business process owner and support structure for IRC’s awards lifecycle. The Unit is organized into five ‘pillars’: Strategic Partnerships; Program & Grants Support; Compliance & Policy; Business/Program Development; and Training & Curriculum Design.

The AMU is a bridge between donors and the IRC program offices: providing expert technical advice, while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency, compliance, and manage risk. This unit ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently, and supports all staff working across the awards management cycle for all restricted funding from global government and multilateral sources.

The USAID Engagement Advisor is part of the Strategic Partnerships Team in the AMU, and has responsibility for relationship management of IRC’s key institutional donors.

Purpose of the Role

The US Government is a key and strategic partner for the IRC and a primary target for the IRC Global Business Development Strategy. The USAID Engagement Advisor, in partnership with the Senior Advisor, US Govt and World Bank, will lead and guide IRC’s funding focused engagement with the agency. This is a new role to support IRC’s efforts to strengthen our positioning, engagement, and capture efforts to support IRC’s growth strategy for public donors, particularly for longer-term and development funding.

The Engagement Advisor will provide an internal and external “account management” function for key USAID bureaus/offices, including acting as IRC’s focal point and key representative for building relationships with these teams in Washington DC. The role works in coordination with AMU, Policy & Advocacy, Communications, Technical, Regional and Country Programs, and Business Development teams to strengthen existing relationships with USAID, build organizational capacity and intelligence on donor priorities, and explore new funding mechanisms and opportunities. The Engagement Advisor is responsible for providing expertise, strategic thinking, and leadership on donor relations, directly contributing to the IRC’s strategic goals particularly on growing the portfolio of USAID development and multi-year funding.

Scope and Authority

The USAID Engagement Advisor will, in consultation with stakeholders, develop and oversee the implementation of strategies to build proactive relationships with key USAID bureaus/offices, resulting in enhanced business development. The Engagement Advisor will play a central role in positioning IRC as a key partner for USAID, particularly for longer-term and development funding opportunities. The role is expected to develop and maintain positive working relationships and standards of collaboration with: AMU Program/Business Development, Program & Grants Support, Compliance & Policy, Regional and Country Teams, Technical Units, Policy and Advocacy, and IRC’s Senior Management.

Authority:

•Co-develops and implements the USAID donor engagement strategy, in close coordination with the Senior Advisor for US Govt & World Bank.

•Informs Senior Management/leadership in the AMU and across the global organisation on donor engagement priorities.

•Cultivates strong relationships with key USAID bureaus/offices, in coordination with the Senior Advisor for US Govt & World Bank, and colleagues across IRC.

•Coordinates and represents IRC as appropriate in external meetings with key USAID bureaus/offices, networks important to business development, and other key stakeholders.

•Guides and contributes to the development of strategic communications activities and materials, targeting donors and potential partner organizations.

Responsibility for Resources:

•This role will not have staff management or budget responsibilities.

KEY ACCOUNTABLITIES AND MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Positioning and Information and Knowledge Management

•Proactively identify and broker relationships with priority USAID officials and stakeholders.

•Cultivate relationships and broker opportunities for Regional, Country and Technical Unit engagement with priority stakeholders.

•Co-lead the development and implementation of the USAID donor engagement strategy.

•Support the delivery of profile-raising activities and events to demonstrate the depth of IRC’s technical and geographical expertise.

•Maintain and share up to date knowledge of IRC’s position relevant to USAID, including portfolio, pipeline, implementation and compliance issues, advocacy aims and the status of senior level HQ-HQ engagement.

•Maintain up to date knowledge of USAID strategies and policies relevant to IRC’s areas of work, such as funding priorities, geographical interests and political climate, providing analyses and synopses of press releases, policies and other announcements, and disseminating this information internally.

•Ensure up-to-date mapping of the organizational structure, key contacts and outreach plan for key USAID bureaus/offices.

•Input information and interaction with USAID officials on the contact management database and IRC’s Intranet.

•Contribute to the development of tools and resources to support donor engagement.

•Work with key Regional and Business/Program Development staff to support on USAID business development planning and positioning for funding.

•Coordinate internally with AMU, IRC leadership, Policy and Advocacy, and Communications colleagues to ensure consistency, accuracy, and timeliness of messaging for USAID.

External Representation

•Represent IRC at key external meetings, events and sector/relevant groups, including delivering presentations/briefings to senior donor representatives, forums and sector groups.

•Undertake direct representation with USAID officials, and support the development of IRC’s donor relationships, including brokering meetings between USAID and IRC Regional and Technical Leadership, Country Directors, etc.

•Participates in key meetings with USAID officials and stakeholders.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

•Strong working understanding of the US political environment and trends relevant to USAID

•Strong knowledge of USAID’s structure, policies, priorities, and financing mechanisms.

•Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills in English, including preparing briefings for senior leaders and representing with external stakeholders and donors.

•Ability to lead and manage projects, including working as part of remote/virtual teams.

•Good analytical skills and first-class attention to detail.

•Strong organisational and time management skills.

Experience:

•Experience of working with US Government donors, specifically USAID, preferred.

•Experience of business development, program management, advocacy or managing HQ-HQ USAID strategic accounts.

•Extensive experience of building and maintaining donor networks with influencers and decision makers.

•Experience undertaking reviews of policies, datasets and reports, and producing associated written and verbal guidance relevant to senior and operational staff.

•Proven ability to work supportively and successfully with virtual teams.

Desirable

•Demonstrable experience of driving integrated advocacy, communications and fundraising programmes to successfully position organisations for funding.

•Experience in negotiation of programmatic and financial arrangements with donors and partners.

•Experience of working in developing countries, NGO or International Organisation.

•Experience of developing business cases.