JOB DETAILS:

Summary of the Role:

The Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, is a senior executive leader responsible for driving organizational financial sustainability, building high-value partnerships, and leading growth through innovative income generation strategies—including grants, philanthropy, private sector partnerships, and social enterprise initiatives.

This role calls for a seasoned professional with a proven track record in high yield grant writing, multi-year strategic planning, revenue diversification, and leadership of business development functions across multiple countries. The successful candidate will build and lead a high-performing department, work across AIRD’s humanitarian-development spectrum, and represent the organization at the highest levels of influence, advocacy, and negotiation.

Core Responsibilities:

1. Strategic Leadership

• Lead the strategic visioning, design, and execution of a comprehensive business development strategy aligned with AIRD’s long-term mission and financial sustainability goals.
• Oversee the reorganization and staffing of the Business Development and Strategic Partnerships (BDSP) Department to build capacity, improve productivity, and increasingly deliver measurable results.
• Lead annual business planning and multi-year strategic growth frameworks to guide fundraising and partnership efforts.
• Provide a leadership and oversight to the staff and inspire them as a role model.

1. Fundraising, Grant Acquisition & Donor Relations

• Serve as AIRD’s chief grant strategist, ensuring high-value proposal development for institutional donors, foundations, corporates, and individual philanthropists.
• Maintain a high harvest ratio by managing the end-to-end grant acquisition cycle—from pipeline development to proposal writing, submission, follow-up, continued reflection and learning.
• Cultivate and sustain funding relationships with C-level executives, high-net-worth individuals, and key donor partners.
• Strengthen donor stewardship and reporting processes to improve compliance, visibility, and trust.

1. Social Enterprise and Income Generation

• Design and oversee social enterprise models and income-generating initiatives, including multi-purpose skilling and vocational projects, logistics value chain, construction and AIRD Academy/Institute
• Design and oversee an end-to-end business planning cycle i.e. (a) relief/emergency/humanitarian response/logistics, (b) Rehabilitation, coping and resilience building, and (c) Long term sustainable development
• Integrate entrepreneurial thinking into project design to drive sustainability in humanitarian and development interventions.

1. Representation, Advocacy, and Influence

• Represent AIRD in high-level forums, donor briefings, inter-agency meetings, and sectoral platforms.
• Advocate for AIRD’s value proposition and influence funding priorities in line with AIRD’s mission.
• Act as a key spokesperson and ambassador for AIRD’s fundraising, partnership, and innovation agenda.

1. Marketing, Communications, and Visibility

• Guide internal and external communications, marketing, and donor-focussed messaging to enhance AIRD’s visibility, reputation, identity and branding.
• Oversee development of marketing tools, social and print media campaigns, and storytelling assets to support donor engagement.

1. Team Leadership and Organizational Culture

• Mentor and grow a dynamic team across AIRD’s Head Office and Country Programs, fostering a high-performance, learning-oriented culture.
• Model AIRD’s core values, championing bold decision-making, accountability, and results orientation.
• Promote a mindset of innovation, agility, and shared ownership within the BDSP department and across the organization.

Essential Qualifications and Competencies:

• Minimum of 15 years of leadership experience in business development, strategic partnerships, and fundraising, ideally in international NGOs or social enterprises.
• Proven success in securing multi-million-dollar funding from foundations, corporates, HNWIs, and institutional donors.
• Demonstrated capacity to build and reorganize departments, manage multi-country teams, and deliver against ambitious financial targets.
• Experience with social enterprise design and implementation of sustainable skilling and livelihood programs.
• Deep understanding of humanitarian, resilience, and development programming cycles.
• Expert in strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, negotiation with C-level leaders, and donor influence.
• Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to interpret internal and external trends and guide decision-making.
• Bald, ambitious, be a people centered, positive and energetic
• Right positive attitude, behavior and mindset
• Fluent in English; proficiency in French is required.

Skills and Attributes

Successful applicants will embody the following characteristics

• Proactive Ownership: Anticipates needs, takes initiative, and owns their tasks.

• Focus on Execution and Delivery: Prioritize results by setting clear, measurable goals and driving accountability for delivering outcomes on time.

• Culture of Continuous Learning and Improvement: Have a learning mindset that continuously develops skills that support their roles and the team’s goals.

• Encourage Proactivity and Personal Accountability: Prospective team members are self-starters who actively seek ways to contribute and improve.

• Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Prospective team members build a collaborative culture where information is freely shared, and team members work together to solve problems.

• Resilience and Adaptability: Encourage a mindset that can handle setbacks and adapt to changing circumstances without losing momentum.

• Result-Oriented Communication: Ensure all communication is clear, purposeful, and focused on achieving results.

• Focus on Impact and Value Creation: Drive efforts toward outcomes that directly benefit the organization, “customers”, or stakeholders.

• Humility: Humility is the ability to recognize one’s limitations and value others’ contributions without ego. It involves acknowledging that learning is a continuous process and that others can offer valuable insights.