Proposal Coordinator

The Director General’s Office (DGO) of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks a highly-motivated Proposal Coordinator to join its team. The ideal candidate will be innovative, self-motivated, and goal-oriented, with experience crafting compelling messages out of complex and highly technical information.  The incumbent will be responsible for supporting strategic proposal development and coordinating key proposal efforts across the institute.

This locally recruited position is a two-year, renewable appointment and is located at IFPRI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Essential Duties:

Specific duties include but are not limited to:

• Proactively liaise with research units to facilitate proposal development efforts, streamline the process, strengthen the output, and track progress and staff input throughout the proposal process.
• Perform competitive intelligence gathering through research and analytics, assist in advising staff on strategy for approaching funding prospects (government, multilateral agencies, private industry, foundations and individuals) and implementation, advocacy and research partnerships. Focus will be on major donors such as USAID, FCDO, the European Commission and others.
• Work closely with and support research units from project concept to full proposal development, incorporating input from multi-disciplinary staff.
• Provide high quality review for key proposals to ensure output complies with proposal requirements, and facilitate professional service support (grant writer, editor, etc.), in collaboration with research units and finance.
• Collaborate and communicate across the institute, including with communications and finance.
• Continually assess and propose improvements for practices/procedures/systems involving IFPRI’s proposal pipeline and funder/funding intelligence.

Other duties may include:

• Support to IFPRI’s Senior Management Team (SMT) and Extended Management Team (EMT). This would include coordinating SMT and EMT meetings, preparing minutes and documentation, tracking and following up on action items, recording decisions, and managing SMT/EMT-related activities, as needed.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree plus 10 years of relevant work experience or master’s degree or equivalent certification plus 8 years of experience, preferably 4 years of experience in a business development team supporting international development clients, including USAID and US government contracting.
• At least 2 years of management experience.
• Exceptional and demonstrated knowledge in proposal and concept note development targeting various funding sources (government, private industry, foundation and individuals), preferably in agriculture, nutrition and/or relevant fields.
• Highly effective and versatile communication skills--both written and oral.
• Ability to effectively synthesize scientific/programmatic content for multiple audiences.
• High level of professionalism, including the ability to diplomatically coordinate individuals with various disciplines to accomplish common objections.
• Self-motivated, with proven ability to work independently and multi-task to accomplish key goals and complete projects.
• Strong analytical skills
• Comfortable in a global team, including working well with team members and collaborators located in multiple time zones and countries.
• Willingness and ability to travel as needed.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proficiency in a second language of the U.N. system
• International experience, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office and donor databases
• Background, or interest in, international development

Physical Demand & Work Environment:

• Employee will sit in an upright position for a long period of time.
• Employee will lift between 0-10 pounds.
• Employee is required to have close visual acuity to perform activities such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing computer terminal; extensive reading.  

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an equal employment opportunity employer - F/M/Disability/Vet/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity