Catholic Relief Services

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About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS' relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary

CRS’ Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement (IDEA) department advances the agency’s strategic position by engaging new and existing institutional donors to acquire and steward resources that deliver excellent programs to advance Vision 2030, CRS’ Agency Strategy. Teams within the department focus on three main pillars: engaging donors and strategic partners, acquiring new business, and delivering on the outcomes as outlined in the institutional award agreements, in compliance with donor requirements. The Business Development Specialist (BDS) II – Pricer is part of IDEA’s larger Growth Strategy and Support Unit (GSSU), which is a team that supports the department’s acquiring new business pillar by providing high-quality business development surge support to CRS country programs, regions and HQ teams on strategic funding opportunities. 

As BDS II, Pricer you will lead the production of high-quality applications and proposals, with a specific focus on cost proposals, for funding in support of CRS' engagement with institutional donors and initiatives involved in international development to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your knowledge and skills will allow you to provide specialized assistance in all dimensions of the BD cycle to cross-disciplines and cross-functional teams. 

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• With a particular focus on pricing strategy and cost inputs, provide BD expertise in positioning, capture planning and proposal preparation for specific opportunities with institutional donors (government and inter-governmental award issuing organizations, as well as foundations, corporations and other awarding non-governmental organizations), with an emphasis on US government donor agencies (including USAID, USDA, CDC and the Department of State)
• Serve as pricer/ budget lead on proposal teams, working with technical staff, management, local finance staff, and partner staff to integrate inputs into a responsive, cost competitive detailed budget and budget narrative. Collaborates with proposal teams to ensure an understanding of the proposal requirements and to establish competitive and reasonable cost and pricing data for the development of cost proposals in accordance and alignment with relevant proposal specifications. Create or modify budget spreadsheet templates in accordance with client requirements.
• Provide support to proposal budget processes, including compliance reviews, to ensure adherence to the solicitation, donor rules and regulations and internal CRS policies and cost standards.
• Manage partners as a part of the proposal process and perform activities including developing budget templates, providing budget assumptions, negotiating budgets, reviewing budgets and notes, and ensuring final submissions comply with donor requirements.
• Lead proposal teams in collecting, preparing, and analyzing historical cost data for use in budgeting.
• As appropriate and time permitting, may serve in other lead or supporting role on a proposal team, working with proposal teams to ensure the timely submission of high-quality proposals that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS' technical and cost standards.
• Train and mentor staff, as needed, to improve their skills in cost proposal and pricing strategy development across a variety of donors.
• Support and guide identification of partners and negotiation of CRS' role on proposal consortia, ensuring a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the agency's partnership principles and strategic directions. 
• Support and/or lead in developing and/or updating of relevant cost proposal tools, resources and training modules, including CRS’ Cost Application Guidance. Develop templates and tools for efficient and effective cost proposal preparation according to donor and industry best practices (e.g., Excel budget templates and cost notes).
• Actively contribute to CRS' Business Development Community of Practice and advance CRS' Business Development practices through contributions to strategic initiatives and annual summits. Cultivate collaborative relationships with other key stakeholders, including HQ and regional finance staff.

Required Languages - Fluency in English required; working ability in Spanish and/or French preferred.

Travel - Willingness to travel up to 25% a plus.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong Microsoft Excel skills and experience preparing complicated spreadsheets and budgets.
• Ability to manage multiple ongoing responsibilities and strong organization and prioritization skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills. 
• Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture.
• Strong relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented, detail-oriented and results-oriented.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience utilizing diverse, proactive strategies to competitively position his/her organization for new funding and productive institutional relationships.
• Demonstrated experience leading and producing competitive cost applications and proposals in programming contexts similar to CRS. Strong preference for experience leading complex US government contract proposal processes.
• Proficient in the application of relevant cost principles, budgeting methodologies, and cost presentations of US government donor agencies (USAID, CDC, Department of State). Preference for similar knowledge with other non-US government donors (e.g., FCDO, EU, and World Bank).
• Possesses working knowledge of all US government contract types, including CPFF, CPAF, FFP, T&M, and IDIQ.
• Demonstrated experience developing complete cost proposals (including detailed budgets, budget narratives and other supporting cost information) for a variety of donors, including USAID; experience with both cooperative agreement/grant and contract mechanisms strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with relevant institutional donor regulations, policies, procedures and priorities. Must understand Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), AIDAR, USAID Standard Provisions, 2 CFR 200 and 700, and other relevant federal regulations.
• Demonstrated experience managing teams and processes, leading teams to produce deliverables under tight deadlines and at exceptional quality. Experience providing remote support to diverse teams strongly preferred.
• Experience in developing content for and facilitating trainings related to key business development practices. Knowledge of adult learning approaches desired.
• Knowledge of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles a plus.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: GSSU and IDEA colleagues, the Business Development Community, country program staff; regional office staff; program quality staff, management quality and finance staff

External: Business development staff of collaborating partner organizations; select donor representatives as appropriate.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.