New Business Development Specialist

Land O’Lakes Venture37 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to helping communities around the world build economies by strengthening local agriculture, helping agribusinesses create jobs and linking farmers to markets. Since 1981, it has implemented integrated dairy, livestock and crops development programs in nearly 80 countries — creating lasting impact by linking farmers, businesses, and the public and private sector in local and global contexts. Land O’Lakes Venture37’s long-standing affiliation with Land O’Lakes, Inc. sets it apart. Land O’Lakes, Inc. is one of America’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives. It supports Land O’Lakes Venture37 project implementation with nearly 100 years of expertise in dairy, animal nutrition, crop inputs and agricultural insights and technologies. This gives Land O’Lakes Venture37 development projects a unique global view of agriculture, food and the power of well-functioning market systems. Land O’Lakes, Inc. supports these efforts as part of its enterprise purpose of Feeding Human Progress at home and around the world.

The New Business Development Specialist will work to support the objectives of Land O’Lakes Venture37 Plan for Growth focused on securing from United States Government partners. She/he will play an important role in managing various aspects of capture and proposal development with an aim to prepare for and drive quality and competitive project designs, and will contribute to project implementation support, as necessary. The NBD Specialist is expected to travel 10% of the time.

Proposal Development and Support

• Provide overall support including coordination using Venture37 new business development proposal processes.
• Develop and track capture and proposal budgets, prepare monthly spending updates.
• Organize design session and participant logistics.
• Work with Venture37 preferred provider list to secure consulting agreements and contracts with individuals/firms that support new business bids.
• Format and provide light touch edits to proposal documents and coordinate delivery.
• Assist in developing scopes of work for assessments to inform project design, linking to and drawing upon technical expertise and strategies.
• Prepare scopes of work for information and data collection needs during project design.
• Schedule proposal team meetings, take notes, and keep proposal teams informed of progress and deadlines working with proposal leads.
• Take on team roles including section writing, budgeting, economic modelling and analysis, and compliance matrix reviews.
• Participate in project design sessions incorporating theory of change.
• Work closely with technical experts, provide relevant written content to technical proposal sections such as management and corporate capabilities.
• Incorporate gender analyses and leverage existing technical resources so that gender considerations are incorporated into project design.

Customer and Partner Development

• Prepare teaming agreements with partners.
• Conduct secondary research and synthesize data for the formulation of new business development.
• Work with technical team to develop scopes of work for sub partners and draft teaming agreements.
• Manage and review proposal inputs and outputs of sub-partners.
• Retain working knowledge of customer strategies including USDA agricultural development strategies, USAID Mission CDCS, USAID GFSS.
• Attend and provide input in customer and partner meetings.
• Support the development and execution of customer development strategies in collaboration with Design and Tech portfolio leads.

Strategy and Pipeline Development:

• Support the evolution of Design and Tech strategy with fact base and experiences to help guide target country and sector opportunities.
• Support country specific capture and pre-positioning efforts.
• Track donor websites and identify opportunities addressing Venture37 areas of expertise; track competitors and solicitations in core portfolio of countries.
• Manage and update opportunities and contacts in Salesforce.
• Analyze data and prepare reports on the overall Design and Tech metrics/performance.

Marketing

• Support team in development of appropriate pitch decks that contain evidence base appropriate for audience (e.g. client, partner, key stakeholder).
• Support marketing trips to USAID and USDA staff in field and in Washington D.C.
• Collaborate with communications team and technical teams to keep Venture37 collateral materials up to date and relevant for clients.
• Expand network in peer organizations and key customers to help position Venture37 for new business opportunities.

Required Experience/Knowledge (to be able to perform this job):

• Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in International Development, International Affairs, Business Administration or relevant field.
• At least two (2) years of experience in professional work environment.
• Strong written communication skills.
• Demonstrated interest in international development issues.
• Demonstrated leadership, ethics, and sound judgment, both independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to work independently, maintain maturity and patience, interpret and implement company policy, and adjust quickly to change in fast-paced, multicultural team environment.
• Experience with MS Office Products with the ability to learn additional software packages.
• Excellent organizational skills with an emphasis on attention to detail and accurate recordkeeping.
• Strong collaboration and facilitation skills to establish and maintain good working relationships with global colleagues and partners in multi-country and multi-language settings.
• Developing-country work or volunteer experience and proposal experience a plus.

Preferred Experience/Knowledge:

• Masters Degree in International Development, Agriculture, Economics or related field plus a combination of additional education and experience to total five (5) years.
• Experience with USAID and/or USDA proposal development efforts.
• Experience working on projects with an agriculture focus.
• Experience with supporting business development efforts.
• French and/or Portuguese language skills.

Land O’Lakes, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) M/F/Vets/Disabled. The company maintains a drug-free workforce, including pre- and post-employment substance abuse testing pursuant to a Drug and Alcohol Policy.

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