Director, Strategic Growth

About Palladium:

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

This Opportunity:

The Director, Strategic Growth is a key position within the Americas Regional Business Partnership’s (ARBP) Strategic Growth Team that is responsible for helping to achieve Palladium’s growth objectives and managing a cadre of business development staff and the sourcing, bidding, and winning of contracts and cooperative agreements. The Director will lead the Market Trends and Analytics workstream within the Strategic Growth Team. The Director will work directly with the Palladium Strategic Growth Team and all of Palladium’s International Development practice areas and portfolios to secure work from new and existing clients.

Location:

The position is based in Palladium’s Washington D.C. office.

You and Your Career:

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have deep expertise in market trend analysis and analytics, proposal writing, leading, and managing the capture and the proposal development process while training and mentoring others, we are interested in hearing from you.

We are a learning organization and provide growth opportunities from the start. We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Reporting and Supervision:

This position will report to the Senior Director, Strategic Growth
This position has the high potential to supervise up to four staff
Liaise with Palladium Pricing & Value Analytics (PVA) team and Contracts & Compliance (C&C) team on cost proposals
Provide inputs to the ARBP monthly business review reports as required
The role will be required to liaise closely with Practice and Portfolio Areas and Corporate Support Function employees, Consultants, Partner Organizations, and Donor Agencies/other funding entities

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Lead donor and client market trend analysis to inform BD strategies across the various Palladium portfolios
Help to ensure that market trend analysis results are incorporated into portfolio pipelines and other key areas such as staff recruitment and selection of partners
Provide capacity building for portfolio staff in analyzing market trends and market data to build a cohort of market trends specialists within the ARBP
Provide Palladium Managing Partners with market trend data
Oversee the quality of capture efforts and proposal development across ARBP
Support the “Palladium” way of capture and proposal development and support Portfolio Leads to ensure adherence to established Palladium SOPs
Participate in the establishment of a culture of continuous improvement to BD process and tools that increase effectiveness of capture efforts
Act when strategically necessary as a technical writer, capture manager or play another key proposal role such as technical input or forming consortium partnerships
Participate in ARBP compliance and proposal color reviews

Relationship Building

Create meaningful relationships with Practice leadership and staff, Corporate Function staff, bid partners, and consultants
Attend key internal and external meetings and represent ARBP and the company, including with the client and potential partners, both in the U.S. and globally
Maintain excellent relationships with clients and other organizations as relates to procurement and partnership matters
Develop relationships and identify opportunities for cross-collaboration and synergies with other parts of the Palladium’s business (e.g., other Partnerships, regions, and divisions)
Help promote a culture of “new business is everyone’s business,” within Palladium, and leveraging relationships with
Portfolio Leads to cascade cultural changes and business development expectations throughout the company

Increase Capacity and Efficiencies

Provide guidance and mentoring to staff at all levels and in all proposal roles, with special attention to mentoring, coaching and oversight (as appropriate) to new capture/proposal managers and proposal coordinators
Train and develop the team, ensuring their achievement of excellent levels of BD skills, strategic thinking, responsiveness, and results

Key Competencies Required:

Strong international development work experience, including proposal expertise with USAID, and/or other international donors
Demonstrated experience conducting market trend analysis
Proven experience in business development, including writing, capturing, tracking and managing successful proposals
Prior experience directly supervising a team of employees (>2 staff)
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong analytical and writing skills, and the ability to conceptualize and write proposals either in part or the entire technical narrative
Sound business development and internal customer/client relationship management skills
Ability to provide timely and direct feedback to direct reports and other departmental staff with appropriate diplomacy
Deep understanding of international development procurement processes and general familiarity with technical subject matter
Adept at working under tight deadlines, with multiple/simultaneous bid efforts, and across time-zone challenges
Financial acumen and the ability to interpret and analyze financial reports
Sound problem-solving and decision-making skills
Well organized and high attention to detail

Professional Expertise/Competencies Preferred:

Ability to work in French or Spanish
Experience living and/or working abroad preferred