Senior Business Development Associate – Office of Business Development (Mali, Niger, or Burkina Faso)

Current Job Openings --> Full Time --> Full Time Africa

Ouagadougou

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ID: 20121556

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Full-Time/Regular

About IFDC

IFDC is a public international organization active in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and America. IFDC uniquely approaches the global issues of food security and poverty by bridging the gap between research and impact, combining science-based innovations, holistic market systems development, an enabling policy environment, and strategic partnerships to assist farmers and countries to identify and scale sustainable agricultural solutions, including improved nutrient use efficiency. These approaches are needed to boost soil health and crop productivity while reducing the environmental impact of fertilizer use. IFDC translates research into action by using locally driven, environmentally sound, and impact-oriented solutions. With our partners, we seek to close the yield gap, eradicate global hunger, safeguard the soil on which our lives depend, and generate economic resilience for farming households and the countries in which they live.

Position Summary

The Senior Business Development Associate manages respective country portfolios as part of IFDC’s global business development agenda. The role involves executing various BD processes and multiple tasks, such as carrying out in-depth capture support, strategic analysis, and proposal development for new business development opportunities, coordinating with internal teams to ensure that technical content, budgeting, and donor requirements are aligned with a priority focus on European donors, foundations, private sectors and West African funding landscape.

Through quality donor forecasting, gathering of donor intelligence, conducting reconnaissance trips, and monitoring specific funding opportunities within their assigned portfolio, the Senior Associate delivers strategic insights to guide BD strategies, inform go/no-go decisions, and design robust bids and proposals, building IFDC’s reputation for quality project design and management in agriculture development.

The Senior Business Development Associate will also manage and coordinate concept notes, proposals and other written materials for donors and clients with a focus on IFDC’s proposal development efforts in West Africa and/or for European donors.

Responsibilities

Intelligence gathering

Coordinate with Key Account Leaders to provide strategic support in global (EU) trend mapping, foundations, private sectors and business development opportunity identification for the assigned countries in West Africa;

Track and analyze business development opportunities originating from EU member state funders, foundations and private sector for West Africa related to IFDC’s global strategy;

Review donor reports and updates and synthesize findings to share with global BD team;

Work with the Key Account lead and West Africa business development leader (e.g. Country Representative, Regional Advisor) to map regional and national agricultural and economic trends to identify business development opportunities;

Track key partner and competitor strategies, projects and performance in West Africa to inform IFDC business development activities;

Represent IFDC at stakeholder, donor and partner conferences, events, and workshops as needed;

Provide support to projects and programs to identify challenges that can be transformed into project opportunities.

Coordination

Collaborate with Country Representatives to provide relevant business development insights, identifying their needs, aligning with their specific BD strategies and driving the countries’ business development activities;

Engage with technical experts across IFDC and partner to gather insights and conduct analyses, informing and enhancing proposal design, relevance, and competitiveness.

Proposal Management

Manage, provide day-to-day operational support to opportunities as assigned, including ensuring support for rigorous opportunity assessment, capture, and proposal process implementation, including timely submission of high-quality concept notes, technical and cost proposals. This can include reading and analyzing donor and client request for proposals, background materials, partner capability statements and draft budget notes;

Ensure that IFDC proposals are developed according to internal BD processes (e.g. the BD Proposal Coordination Manual) and that proposals align with target timelines;

Review technical and budgetary inputs from contributors (e.g., finance, program, communications, and business development), providing guidance to enhance quality, ensure accurate costing, and align proposals with guidelines, donor requirements, and market insights;

Draft proposal sections such as capability statements, past project summaries;

Edit key documents as part of proposal submissions;

Coordinate and communicate with partners.

Requirements

University Degree in Business Administration, International Relations, Agriculture, socio-economic or a related field, graduate studies (e.g., MA, MS) preferred;

5 or more years of experience in proposal development and project management. Experience managing proposal processes and securing funding in an international organization, NGO, or private sector setting, preferably within the agriculture or development sectors. Familiarity with Shipley or APMP is preferred;

Fluency in English and French/Portuguese is essential to communicate in writing and speaking;

Excellent analytical and strategic thinking skills with the ability to synthesize complex information into actionable insights;

Strong writing, editing, and presentation skills in English (French is a strong asset);

Ability to coordinate multiple contributors under tight deadlines and manage competing priorities effectively.

Reporting and Work Relationships

The Senior Business Development Associate reports to West Africa Country Director.

Location

This is a national recruitment with a duty station at the IFDC office based in Mali, Niger or Burkina Faso.

Benefits

IFDC's benefits include annual and sick leave, health and group life insurance coverage, a 13th-month salary, social security and pension contribution in compliance with local laws and end-of-contract benefits.

Salary Clause

The salary grade for this position is BG 9.

The determination of new employee salaries considers various factors. These include the salary range linked to the assigned job grade, the candidate's qualifications in relation to the job's responsibilities and prerequisites, internal fairness, the competitive state of the job market, as well as potential organizational and budgetary considerations.

Diversity Clause

IFDC is committed to fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We believe in the value of bringing together people with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. All employment decisions at IFDC are made based on ability, performance, and organizational need, in alignment with our values of fairness, respect, and opportunity for all.

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