Business Development Specialist II at The Aurum Institute

Work Description

• The Business Development Specialist II provides specialised expertise and aids in all aspects of raising support from funders, overseeing grant-funded programmes, and potential business opportunities.  This includes supporting grant writing and applications and ensuring that the Company complies with the funder’s grant policies and regulations. The Business Development Specialist II will support and advance Aurum business development opportunities. S/he will be responsible for the application process for new opportunities across identified market areas including NGOs, Foundations, international donor communities, multi-lateral/bilateral agencies, life sciences companies and others as indicated.  The position will work with an integrated, global health and research team (US, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana and other country programs) to secure project and program funding from a variety of sources.

Primary Work Objectives and Functions

• Liaise with external and internal stakeholders.
• Identify and develop new business opportunities.
• Organizes and supports meetings related to business development capture processes, proposal design, budget development, and proposal after-action discussions.
• Research and identify new potential foundation and corporate donors, while keeping up with donor-giving strategies and trends.
• Create strategic correspondence, including program briefs, presentations, capacity statements, and other stewardship materials, to engage donors and prospects.
• Strengthen and grow a portfolio of strategic partners with a specific focus on securing programmatic funding and shared-value partnerships from foundations and corporations in collaboration with Aurum’s country offices.
• Support the development of high-quality, compelling, programmatically sound proposals, program concepts and proactive pitches for a variety of foundations and corporations in collaboration with the Business Development team and country programs.
• Collaborate with various teams, both in HQ office as well as worldwide, such as Communications, Marketing, Development, and Finance, to support the achievement of the Company’s mission.

These objectives are achieved through:

Stakeholder Engagement

• Liaise with stakeholders and contribute towards the achievement of company, country and divisional goals.
• Liaise with role players and inform them when contracts need to be renewed and reviewed.
• Make a demonstrated contribution to referring potential business to other parts of the business.
• Build strong relationships with both global and local internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide effective communication with relevant stakeholders regarding constraints and appropriate resolutions.

New Business Development 

• Attend to queries regarding new projects as well as the renewal of project grants pertaining to the areas of grant compliance and grant administration.
• Responsible for preparing and maintenance of funder pipeline reports showing current pipeline and funding pipelines by the project.
• Support the identification and development of business opportunities with global partners globally by staying abreast of business investment strategy and Aurum 5-year strategy and core technical issues according to market segments through research, reading, workshop participation, and field visits.
• For selected donor opportunities, lead the development of proposals for submission by applying your technical expertise in the: 
• Identification of, and strategic engagement with international, national and local agencies, and private sector consortium partners as required for bid development.
• Identification, development and sourcing of potential business through funder, personal and client referrals and internal referrals and networks.
• Negotiation of the proposed Aurum scope of work with international, national, and local potential partner organisations for bids where the Aurum or its affiliates are  sub-contractors
• Gathering, tracking, and synthesizing market and competitor intelligence
• Draft, synthesize, and edit technical narratives for proposal development.
• Overseeing proposal preparation to ensure the quality of all project reports and deliverables.
• Coordination of responses to questions, best and final offers and facilitating post-submission debriefings during the post-proposal period
• Hand-off and transition of awarded projects to the delivery team(s)

Human Capital Management

• Exercise adherence to the relevant legislation, codes of conduct and SOPs
• Participate in proactive team efforts to achieve departmental and company goals.

Company Strategic Intent

• Comply with all safety policies, practices and procedures according to prescribed legislation.
• Report all unsafe activities to Senior Management/Human Resources
• Adhere to, and maintain, decision-making procedures as allocated to the position.

Requirements

Education

• A bachelor’s degree in Public Policy, Public Health, Health, International Studies Finance or Business Administration
• Post-graduate qualification in a related field

 Experience

• At least 5-7 years’ experience with a minimum of five years’ experience in leading the full business development cycle (from research to proposal submission and negotiation)
• 5+ years of hands-on proposal experience including managing, developing, writing, editing and budgeting for large-scale, complex proposals for institutional donors such as USAID, CDC, European and UK-based donors, private foundations, or the private sector with an emphasis on healthcare issues including tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, health systems strengthening, infectious diseases, etc. 
• Programme development and management experience desired 

Advantageous

• Certification in Project Management or Grant Coordinator Course
• Portuguese, French, and/or another African language