Senior Pricing Advisor, World Bank in London

International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

IRC’s Crisis Response, Recovery & Development department (CRRD) leads and delivers the IRC’s work in crisis-affected contexts around the world. In the last year, we served approaching 20M crisis-affected people with high quality humanitarian programming. This was achieved by over 12,000 staff across 300 offices in 40+ countries, working to deliver more than 600 individual grants and contracts.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU) within CRRD is responsible for identifying, securing and managing funding from government donors for the IRC. AMU is a bridge between donors and the IRC’s work on the ground. The team leads donor engagement, provides expert technical advice to colleagues delivering our services around the world, ensures consistency and compliance with donor policies and procedures, and manages associated risk. They also support all IRC staff working on awards from government donors and partners.

This role is open to candidates located and with the right to work in Kenya, United Kingdom and Germany.

Global Business Development

Within the Awards Management Unit, the Global BD team leads IRC’s public BD strategy and donor engagement for IRC’s international programs. The team brings together capacity across the organization to drive donor engagement and BD services to secure the public funding needed to deliver our work to clients. The team includes technical, operational and donor specialists able to lead our most complex proposals and manage our most important donor relationships.

Purpose of the Role

The Senior Pricing Advisor will join a global BD team and will help drive IRC’s new business development efforts- particularly with, but not limited to the World Bank- by engaging with global, regional, country, and financial staff throughout the business development cycle. The role provides essential guidance, technical assistance, quality assurance and hands-on support throughout the business development lifecycle, ensuring a delicate balance between cost recovery, risk mitigation, price competitiveness, and compliance with internal policies and donor regulations.

The ideal candidate will have significant, high-level experience in pricing for complex or high-value opportunities, with extensive experience working with the World Bank. Knowledge of other multilateral organizations and bilateral donors, such as FCDO, BMZ, AFD, is also highly desirable.

As a key member of proposal teams, this position collaborates closely with IRC Country Offices, Finance Department, and Technical Units to facilitate the development of cost proposals.

Responsibilities

• Capture & Program Design: Serve as the ‘Capture Pricing Lead’ to ensure IRC is well prepared to develop an effective budget proposal for important funding opportunities, particularly with, but not limited to proposals for the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks. Conduct research and evaluation of cost drivers specific to each country to understand cost proposal development challenges and opportunities to improve pricing strategies within the predefined clients’ needs and regulations. Aggregate all available budgetary details at the activity level, encompassing all anticipated interventions and necessary support provisions, into clear rough estimates.
• Pricing Strategy & Budget Development: Lead Budget Development and/or provide quality assurance or backstopping for budgeting for major proposals. Review released solicitations to assess whether cost-related considerations might hinder the development of a competitive, compliant, and viable bid. Provide pricing expertise to the donor budget proposal process to ensure proposals are of high quality; reflect the needs of the solicitation and include the necessary shared costs. Ensure the proposal team understands the financial requirements and donor regulations of the bid, by clearly communicating what is required and providing guidance and support as needed. Identify all key financial and commercial risks and proactively propose a tailored mitigation plan and adjustments as necessary. Drive and/or ensure that pricing inputs from IRC Country Offices, technical or other contributors are integrated effectively. Lead all aspects of detailed cost, and technical queries in anticipation of submission timelines. Maintain, expand and apply technical knowledge in World Bank by attending educational workshops and trainings, reviewing the latest donors’ regulations and policies and market trends. Offer guidance and strategies for creating intricate budgets, presenting cost-related aspects efficiently and effectively, developing payment by results structures and fee payment schedules. Develop comprehensive donor budgets in line with internal and external requirements, ensuring that all cost drivers are adequately considered, drawing input from different collaborators. Engage with and provide technical guidance to partners, and integrate all partner pricing inputs into the consolidated budget, budget narrative, and overall cost application. When required, develop or adapt budget development tools, guidance and materials for existing and new donors and contractual mechanisms. When required, conduct cost reviews of selected proposals. Ensure adherence to IRC's standard processes and policies, as well as compliance with solicitation requirements and client policies across a variety of opportunities and donors.
• Strategic Pricing and Capacity Building: As a donor budgeting expert, the Pricing Advisor will be invited to contribute to wider organizational initiatives to improve pricing approaches and capacity in the organization. This may include, the development or review of pricing tools, templates or strategies. Support training and other capacity development initiatives to strengthen organizational donor pricing approaches. Participate in learning initiatives, including After Action Reviews to ensure IRC continuously improves its pricing approaches.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Demonstrable experience developing cost proposals.
• Demonstrable experience developing cost proposals for grant and contract types including Payment by Results approaches and fee rate structures.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience preparing proposals, with a background at an INGO or a commercial organization.
• Demonstrates in depth understanding of World Bank financial rules and regulations; is able to identify donor-specific risks and design cost proposals in a way that mitigates those risks.
• Flexible work attitude: the ability to work in an inclusive team environment, independently and ability to meet unexpected demands.
• Demonstrates ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues in ‘remote’ and complementary teams.
• Excellent inter-personal skills and able to communicate clearly and concisely complex financial information with diverse set of stakeholders.
• Strong organizational and work prioritization skills, and ability to focus and pay attention to details.
• Able to plan ahead and manage a complex and diverse workload with tight deadlines.
• Ability to travel internationally; (up to 20% of time).
• Ability to work autonomously and under remote management.
• Proficient in written and spoken English is required; fluency in French is strongly preferred.

Compensation (United Kingdom): (GBP 52,210 - GBP 61,999 - annually). Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

Equal opportunity employer: IRC is committed to building a diverse organization and a climate of inclusivity. We strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate that they can contribute to this goal. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.