£46,750 – £55,000
Farringdon, London / Home-based
Fixed term contract for 12 months
Closing date: 27th September 2023
Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a Business Development Team Lead to join our Global Programmes divisionto lead some of our highest profile funding opportunities in the growth area of Climate Change and Environment.
About Us
We are Save the Children. Together, we fight for children every single day so that they can make their mark on the world and build a better future.
We stand side by side with children in the toughest places to be a child. We do whatever it takes to make sure they survive, get protection when they’re in danger, and have the chance to learn.
About the Team
The team is comprised of business development experts with a full range of bid development skills covering the technical and commercial expertise required to secure multimillion pound income by bids from Save the Children UK’s major institutional funders. The team also supports bids to trusts and foundations that act like institutions. The team works closely with colleagues from across Save the Children UK (SCUK), other Save the Children Members and with Save the Children International (SCI) country and regional teams to deliver on our partnership objectives. The team is at the forefront of demonstrating to our funders the benefits for them of working with Save the Children, by delivering compelling, mutually beneficial proposals which deliver real change for children.
About the role
You will lead and manage Save the Children UK’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) Business Development portfolio which consists of four concurrent complex and high-value project designs in Sub-Saharan Africa.
You will be responsible for matrix management of a multi-disciplinary team of BD and commercial resources, technical advisers, and other key Green Climate Fund stakeholders to ensure timely programme design and proposal development.
You will also be responsible for identifying, managing, and escalating key risks to the design process and engaging high-level stakeholders as necessary in order to gain relevant approvals throughout the proposal process.
In this role, you will:
- Lead a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) of key staff working on the Green Climate Fund to ensure portfolio of proposals are submitted on time in accordance GCF guidelines.
- Secure engagement and buy-in of senior stakeholders, to drive progress on the GCF project designs, ensure key risks are identified, mitigated, and escalated where relevant.
- Matrix/Project/Task management and leadership of a multidisciplinary team, including direct line management of one Senior Business Development Manager and indirect matrix management of two climate technical experts
- Manage resource allocation and provide strategic support to the GCF team’s portfolio of projects, ensuring that the team develop and share best practice and learnings.
- Develop and maintain systems, tools and best practice, for effective management of the GCF design process.
- Ensure the GCF MDT is building the capacity and knowledge of SCI’s Country Offices (COs) to implement large-scale climate programming through GCF funding.
- Lead the project management of the multi-year GCF design process and undertake bid work in conjunction with the Senior BD manager, ensuring projects are designed to include sufficient resourcing at all levels.
- Support SCI Country Offices to manage the high volume of specialist consultancy services and input to the design process
- Manage high-value co-financing needs of GCF, working closely with the Business Programme Hub and Partnerships and Philanthropy Department.
- Work closely with the Partnership Development team, supporting them to develop strategies to engage institutional partners for co-financing and parallel financing.
- Lead and/or support proposals, applications or pitches to institutional partners to generate co-financing for the GCF projects.
- Lead on approval processes and internal risk discussions (Go/No Go) for the GCF MDT, including assessing, capturing and mitigating key commercial and operational risks, determining resource mobilisation requirements and ensuring project design quality.
About you
To be successful, it is important that you have:
- Proven track record of institutional funder business development, proposal development and raising income, including development of consortia.
- Strategic skills and ability to apply these to building broad partnerships, i.e., to consider strongest positioning with the funder in pursuit of funding and influence objectives
- Previous experience working at management or senior management level within INGOs, consultancies/contractors or funding agencies or other global organisations
- Understanding of programme design, quality programming and effective delivery
- Excellent grasp of financial and commercial issues, including Value For Money, and ability to present complex financial information clearly and effectively
- Good understanding and knowledge of development and humanitarian programming, preferably including development and delivery of a significant institutionally funded portfolio.
- Strong commercial, proposal writing and financial skills, including experience of building large budgets (£5M plus) and payment by results contracts or grants.
- Proven matrix and line management skills, preferably with experience of leading or building a team.
- Commitment to Save the Children’s vision, mission and values.
To learn more about the position, please review the Job Description in the attached Documents.
What we offer you:
Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.
- We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
- We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. You can read more about our benefits here.
Please note:
To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
Ways of Working:
Remote First – The majority of our roles can be performed remotely, however you may work from the office as often as you wish. Whilst you will be predominantly working from home, we may at times require you to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter). Note: This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team. This is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building.
On-site – There are certain roles that cannot be performed remotely and so your role will be based in an office location and you may occasionally be able to work from home.
Flexible Working – We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview**.**
Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:
Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be “Free to Be Me”. We are not looking for just one type of person – we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think.
We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences – of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability – help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.