Location: US or MENA locations

Status: Full-time, on-going

Salary level: Benchmark based on local salary scale and commensurate on professional experience 

Reporting To: Senior Business Development Advisor MENA/Europe and Asia

Closing date: Please submit application by Thursday May 28

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 30 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

The Program / Department / Team

Mercy Corps operates across a diverse and dynamic consolidated region spanning MENA/Europe and Asia — including Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Thailand. Contexts range from protracted conflicts, displacement, and acute humanitarian crises to climate vulnerability, poverty, and rapidly evolving development landscapes. Across this spectrum, Mercy Corps applies a layered resilience approach — delivering food and water security, economic opportunity, and energy access while fostering self-reliance and local leadership. The region also presents growing opportunities for private-sector engagement, blended finance, and innovative partnership models, enabling Mercy Corps to bridge relief and long-term development through climate-smart, evidence-driven programming.

Position Summary

The Business Development Manager-MENA/Europe and Asia will be part of a unified regional program team and will report to the Senior Business Development Advisor for MENA/Europe-Asia. This role will collaborate with both regional teams to address business development needs for country offices across MENA, Europe, and Asia. Team members are responsible for providing additional support on specific high-priority initiatives by assisting with tasks such as leading or coordinating proposal teams, executing team planning, conducting on-site participatory assessments and design work, producing extensive written materials, and providing high-quality reviews and edits.

The primary focus of this position will be on program development, with responsibilities distributed as follows:

• 60% Live Proposal and Opportunity Capture Management: Leading and supporting program development efforts throughout the region, including tracking and managing the pipeline of potential new business opportunities, coordinating proposal teams, and ensuring high‑quality submissions.
• 20% Donor Intelligence and Strategic Pre‑Positioning: Enhancing donor relations, diversifying the agency’s funding base, and driving proactive donor mapping and intelligence gathering to strengthen competitiveness.
• 10% Country Team Capacity Building: Strengthening the ability of country teams to engage in effective proposal development through mentoring, training, and facilitation of planning sessions.
• 10% Knowledge Management and Process Improvement: Improving overall proposal processes within the region, capturing lessons learned, and contributing to agency‑wide initiatives that enhance efficiency and competitiveness.

Essential Responsibilities

PROGRAM/PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT AND CAPTURE

• Support proposal development for: 1) small, medium, and mid-level proposal opportunities; 2) emergency and humanitarian proposal opportunities (generally smaller value but frequent); and 3) support work on larger strategic proposals, including for complex programs, multi-country opportunities, and/or contracts.
• Responsible for leading and/or supporting all aspects of the development of high- quality strategic proposals throughout the region.
• Guide opportunity capture from identification through proposal submission, and coordinate technical, programmatic, and operational inputs for high-quality proposal submission
• Apply the agency’s best practices in proposal development efforts
• Monitor and report on capture KPIs (pipeline coverage, win rate, and capture ROI).
• Support go/nogo decisionmaking to ensure pursuit of highpotential, missionaligned funding opportunities.
• Maintain up-to-date intelligence on donor priorities, budget trends, and acquisition forecasts relevant to Mercy Corps’ refreshed Pathway to Prosperity Strategy.

STRATEGIC PRE-POSITIONING AND DONOR ENGAGEMENT

• Support efforts that help Mercy Corps’ country and regional program teams

to more proactively influence donor planning and access funding.

• Facilitate proactive donor mapping and pipeline development aligned with regional and country program priorities.
• Conduct competitor and market analyses to identify trends, pricing benchmarks, and partnership opportunities.
• Support targeted assessments that will help create funding opportunities or increase the competitiveness of the agency in solicitations, in close collaboration with the Technical, Evidence, and Learning Teams.
• Facilitate strategic planning and capacity building sessions with country teams.

CAPACITY BUILDING AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING

• Strengthen capacity of Mercy Corps’ staff within the region to work on proposals and run strong proposal and program development processes through teamwork during proposal efforts, mentoring or tailored training activities.
• Promote the use of BD planning tools, and support pre-positioning and proposal development capacity at the country and regional level by organizing capacity building support from the global Institutional Donor Engagement unit.
• Support agency-wide initiatives that enable Mercy Corps to more efficiently produce competitive submissions (e.g., developing improved reference materials for proposal writers, contributing to efforts that capture learnings and results from our programs, and/or assisting with networking activities).  
• Help provide a link for flow of important information and idea-exchange between the Asia region and the agency overall.  

SAFEGUARDING RESPONSIBILITIES

• Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
• Practices the values of Mercy Corps, including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.
• Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms, e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

Supervisory Responsibility

None

Budget Management Responsibility

Not directly

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.

Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

●        Excellent written and interpersonal communication skills. Confident communication skills applicable to donor relations and inter-agency coordination.

●        Strong writing skills required.  

●        Proven ability to work productively with a wide variety of stakeholders to run both participatory processes and meet tight deadlines with an emphasis on producing quality products.  

●        Strong understanding of the programmatic, financial, operational, and administrative mechanisms that support a grant/project implementation life cycle.

●        Strong representation and relationship-building skills, including professional representation (e.g., donors, partner agencies, host governments, etc.).

●        Ability to lead teams, handle negotiations, and facilitate planning processes.

●        Ability to work effectively under tight deadlines and in sparse working environments.

Required Education and Experience

●        A BA/BS or equivalent in international development, political or social science, public administration, or business management is required.

●        5-7 years experience in program design and proposal development in a wide variety of sectors and geographic locations.  

●        Experience with a wide range of donors, including USG and European institutional donors. Familiarity with other donors, including corporate donors, is a plus. 

●        Demonstrated technical experience in one of Mercy Corps outcome or sub- outcome/distinctive areas of Pathway to Prosperity (P2P) is a plus.

●        Demonstrated understanding of the critical humanitarian and development issues in the region, and experience with the challenges of operating in the region.

●        Strong negotiation skills and experience conducting proposal development in consortia, prime- and sub-grantee roles, and other partnership arrangements.

●        Fluency in written and spoken English required.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

Some travel may be required, up to 30% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/short term assignment to a field posting. Staff are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Team Engagement and Effectiveness

Achieving our mission starts with how we build our team and collaborate. By bringing together individuals with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, we strengthen our ability to solve complex challenges and drive innovation. We foster a culture of trust and respect, where every team member is valued for their contributions, empowered to reach their full potential, and motivated to do their best work.

We recognize that building a strong and effective team is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to learning, improving, and growing together.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC, and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline ([email protected]).