Deputy Director, Strategy & Design - United States

Position: Deputy Director, Strategy & Design - United States Location: Bethesda, MD Job Id: 876 # of Openings: 1 Deputy Director, Strategy & Design Are you a creative thinker, driven by the desire to make a difference? Do you have a passion for designing innovative strategies and driving change? Are you ready to bring your talents to a fast-growing organization implementing on a global scale? Join Democracy International (DI) as Deputy Director of Strategy & Design, where you can shape the future of democracy and peace programs. If you're ready to be part of a team that values your creative vision and encourages bold ideas, we want to hear from you! As the Deputy Director, Strategy & Design, you'll play a crucial role in shaping the democracy, human rights, governance, peacebuilding, conflict prevention, stabilization, and political transitions technical sectors; tracking, designing, and managing new business efforts; and collaborating with cross-discipline teams. Your responsibilities will include: Thought Leadership : Influence the democracy, political transitions, and peacebuilding fields by developing cutting-edge approaches and applying evidence-based strategies. Program Design : Utilize your programmatic expertise to design innovative, multi-year international development programs, addressing complex challenges and ensure high-quality, timely bids for new projects for democracy, human rights, and governance and/or conflict, peacebuilding, and stabilization portfolios. Partnerships: Foster relationships with existing and new partners and clients, maintaining business relationships and exploring new opportunities. Process Execution: Be a proactive leader who implements processes, deploying iterative problem solving and executing necessary tasks to ensure their successful completion and outstanding quality. Collaborative Teambuilding: Exercise your leadership and management skills to foster team success, ensuring high quality communications, supervising staff for performance management, and mentoring team members for professional development. Required Skills and Qualifications: Master's degree in social sciences preferred (e.g., international affairs, political science, conflict resolution, peace studies). 7-10+ years of relevant professional experience. Experience managing and leading winning competitive bids for democracy, human rights, governance (DRG), peacebuilding, and/or political transitions programs funded by USAID and the U.S. Government. Significant leadership and supervisory experience and proven track-record of providing mentorship and guidance to teams that contribute to their success. Proficiency in tailoring content to specifics of bids and audience, ensuring compliance with requirements, and proven ability to effectively convey complex ideas in a clear and concise manner. Exceptional communication and negotiation skills with local and international partners. Demonstrated ability to foster strong team and cross-team collaboration to achieve results. 5+ years of experience managing the full cycle of bid processes for clients including USAID, related to DRG, the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), and/or Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS) portfolios, ensuring submission of high-quality, compliant, and competitive bids; extensive knowledge of donor regulations and policies (including AIDAR and FAR), especially as they relate to contracting and procurement. Experience serving in line roles on bid efforts including but not limited to conducting opportunity capture, identifying partners, and leading negotiations, reviewing technical and cost volumes for compliance, assisting with section writing, copy-editing, formatting, and recruitment as needed. Experience designing or managing democracy, human rights, governance, peacebuilding, stabilization, and/or political transitions programs overseas, including in complex or conflict-proven contexts, is strongly preferred. Familiarity with other USG funding opportunities and non-USG funding mechanisms is desirable. Desire to contribute to a positive and meaningful work culture. Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity and gender. Fluency in English and excellent writing and oral communications skills required; proficiency in a second language is preferred but not required. About Us: Democracy International (DI) is a dynamic organization with a strong record of designing and implementing groundbreaking democracy, human rights, governance, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding programs. We're seeking a Deputy Director of Strategy & Design to lead with creativity and innovation. Join us in our Washington, DC area office to be part of this exciting journey. This is a hybrid position, with regular office presence. We will only consider applicants who are based in the Washington, DC area or planning to move there. Location and Travel: This role is based in DI's home office in Bethesda, Maryland, with occasional travel (10-15% based on business needs). Reporting and Supervision: This position reports to the Director, Strategy & Design. This position will have supervisory responsibilities. Environmental Conditions: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Moderate noise (i.e., business office with computers, phone, printers, and moderate traffic). Ability to work in a confined office space/area. Ability to sit and/or stand at a computer desk for an extended period of time. Ability to travel on long plane flights across several time zones and at irregular hours. Physical Requirements Required to Perform Essential Responsibilities: While performing the duties of this job the employee is regularly required to; Stand, sit; talk, hear, use of hands and fingers, and perform repetitive motions to operate a computer and telephone keyboard. Reach, stoop, or kneel, to adjust computer and/or telephone equipment. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision requirements due to computer work. Hearing abilities required due to telephone. Light to moderate lifting is possible. Travel will require moderate lifting, sitting for extended periods of time, overnight flights across multiple time zones. Regular, predictable attendance is required; as business demands dictate. Democracy International is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation in its employment process for individuals with disabilities to meet any and all physical requirements of our jobs. Application Process: Interested applicants must submit a cover letter and CV . Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. DI is committed to attracting, hiring, and retaining the best talent, and the position will be filled as soon as a qualified candidate is identified. Applications without a cover letter will not be reviewed. The starting salary range for this position is $115,000 to $140,000, commensurate with experience. DI will only contact candidates of interest. All interested applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. at the time of application. DI will not sponsor applicants for work Visa. Democracy International maintains the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks. About the Organization: DI provides technical assistance, analytical services and project implementation for democracy, human rights, governance and conflict mitigation programs worldwide for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. State Department and other development partners. Since its founding in 2003, Democracy International has worked with civil society organizations, political parties, election-management bodies, government agencies, legislatures, justice-sector institutions, and others in 80+ countries. DI welcomes and supports a diverse and inclusive work environment. We are committed to equal employment opportunities (EEO) for all applicants seeking employment and for DI employees. DI makes employment decisions based on organizational needs, job requirements and individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, personal appearance, military status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, political affiliation, educational status, unemployment status, place of residence or business, source of income, or reproductive health decision making. Additionally, harassment or discrimination based on these characteristics will not be tolerated at DI. To perform the essential functions of this position, reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals with disabilities. #J-18808-Ljbffr