JOB DESCRIPTION

Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Senior Advisor for Business Development and Donor Engagement to be based in Nairobi working with our country offices across East Africa and the Great Lakes region.

 

ABOUT THE JOB

Responsibilities:

The overall responsibility of the Senior Advisor for Business Development and Donor Engagement is to develop, coordinate, and lead regional processes for business development and strategic programme development and support donor engagement and the development and maintenance of strategic partnerships in the region. The role also provides business development support to country programmes within the region upon request, and coordinates with relevant global functions to ensure regional efforts are in line with organisational strategies.

Partnership Engagement

• Contextualize global fundraising and engagement strategies for the region and develop regional donor engagement plans to foster and maintain constructive, long-term relationships with strategic regional donors and partners.
• Lead regional donor mapping exercises to identify strategic donors (including institutional, private sector, foundations, and non-traditional donors) and areas of programmatic priority overlap and alignment.
• Support donor and partner engagement efforts of the EDH through preparation, intelligence, follow up, and general maintenance of strategic regional partnerships.
• Maintain a comprehensive regional donor database to track donor engagements and coordinate donor outreach and communications throughout the region, in line with global donor databases and tracking efforts.
• Develop campaigns, appeals, marketing materials, capacity statements, and other communications at regional level in close coordination with global colleagues, particularly relevant Advocacy and Communications colleagues.
• Proactively monitor donor portals and track donor engagements to identify and disseminate new and strategic funding opportunities throughout the region and coordinate with relevant colleagues, and maintain a regional pipeline overview of opportunities
• Provide expert advice to country programmes around engagement and fundraising strategies and support country programmes in the development of country engagement strategies, donor mapping exercises, and identification of funding opportunities.

Knowledge Management And Intel

• Maintain regional overview of donor intel to support country, regional and HQ engagement and strategy development
• Support HQ donor focal points with trends analysis and the like to enable DRC to preposition for opportunities in a timely manner.

Strategic Programmatic Development

• Collaborate with regional programme and support teams including the Commercial Contracts and Consortia team to align and adapt strategic programmatic priorities and regional capacity with regional donor strategies and funding opportunities.
• Under the direction of the Head of Global Foundations and Institutional donors and in close coordination with Head of Programme Support and relevant technical colleagues lead or support country programmes in the development of new, strategic, or complex interventions for prepositioning outside of country programme capacity or resources to maintain or diversity country portfolios

 

ABOUT YOU

To be successful in this role we expect you to build and maintain strong, strategic relationships with diverse regional donors, ensuring alignment between donor priorities and DRC programmes. It also requires proactive gathering and analysis of donor intel to identify funding opportunities and maintain and clear pipeline. Finally, close coordination with regional, country and HQ is key to success. Moreover, we also expect the following:

Required

• A minimum of  3 years of experience at a senior level leading strategic new business development, strategic engagement, and fundraising efforts.
• Strong understanding of the humanitarian and development landscape and architecture globally and in the East Africa and Great Lakes region
• Demonstrated experience with effectively engaging, coordinating, and maintaining networks with donors, partners, and local actors.
• Demonstrated experience of building a pipeline of opportunities with a diverse number of donors – institutional, foundations and/ or private sector etc.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with an ability to identify, address and communicate the core of an issue even if very complex
• Demonstrated experience with effectively engaging, coordinating, and maintaining networks with donors, partners, and local actors.
• Experience in working in an international, multicultural work environment, experience at country or regional level will be considered an asset
• Demonstrated knowledge of humanitarian and development programming in the East Africa and Great Lakes context.
• Political and cultural sensitivity, patience, tact, diplomacy, persistence, and a team-oriented attitude.
• Willingness to travel across East Africa and Great Lakes region, sometimes at short notice.

Desirable

• Previous experience from DRC or a similar sized displacement organisational
• Master’s degree in relevant field of study or equivalent in experience

 

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

 

WE OFFER

Contract length: 12 months

Band: F-1 non-management

Work location: Nairobi, Kenya

Designation of Duty Station: Unaccompanied

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for employees on national/expat contracts dependent on the selected candidate, please refer to our website for more details drc.ngo.

 

APPLICATION PROCESS

All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English. Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Closing date for applications: 12th September 2025

For more information about the Danish Refugee Council, please visit our website drc.ngo.

Danish Refugee Council is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive and positive work environment based on mutual respect for all employees. All applicants are considered for employment regardless of personal characteristics or attributes.

 

Danish Refugee Council is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive and positive work environment based on mutual respect for all employees. All applicants are considered for employment regardless of personal characteristics or attributes.