Senior Partnership Manager - J-PAL Southeast Asia

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a research center globally headquartered within the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. J-PAL's mission is to ensure that policy is informed by scientific evidence. J-PAL Southeast Asia (J-PAL SEA), based at the Institute for Economic and Social Research in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Indonesia (LPEM FEB UI) in Jakarta, is one of seven independent regional offices hosted at leading universities around the world. J-PAL SEA conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking, and helps partners scale up effective programs. Our work spans a wide range of sectors, including social welfare, migration, health, good governance, and financial inclusion. We conduct capacity-building activities for policymakers, researchers, and academics seeking to learn and apply rigorous impact evaluation, and work with central and local governments to help build a culture of evidence-informed decision-making in the region.

J-PAL Southeast Asia (J-PAL SEA) seeks a qualified applicant for the position of Senior Manager (Partnership) to lead the growth of J-PAL SEA's strategic organizational partnerships. The Senior Manager (Partnerships) will be supervised by the Executive Director and work closely with the Scientific Directors, Associate Directors, and the other verticals at J-PAL Southeast Asia, Research, Policy, Communications and Training, and Finance and Operations, as well as with the development and partnerships teams at J-PAL Global at MIT to manage the broad range of partnership, speaking, advisory and collaboration requests directed to J-PAL SEA: triaging incoming opportunities, filtering those that are not strategically aligned, and routing the most promising ones to the appropriate team members in J-PAL SEA and the J-PAL network more broadly. Senior Manager level: the post holder is a member of J-PAL SEA's Management Team, contributing to office-level goals including initiative development, partnership-building, and fundraising.

Roles and Responsibilities including, but not limited to:

• Fundraising and Business Development
  • Identify partnership opportunities and build the funding pipeline across international philanthropy, bilateral and multilateral agencies, national and subnational government, the private sector, and Indonesian social finance, partnership landscape from philanthropic, governmental, and multilateral sources,
  • Engage philanthropic organizations, foundations, and development partners interested in supporting initiatives at J-PAL SEA, and maintain and strengthen relationships with current and prospective funders,
  • Lead or contribute to the preparation of concept notes, grant proposals, and other fundraising materials together with other verticals and/or PIs
  • Lead pursuit teams on priority opportunities, assembling the right combination of Principal Investigators and research, policy, and operations staff, setting the win strategy, and making the go/no-go decision within delegated authority.
• General Management and Support
  • Actively manage and mentor 1-2 team members (associate to manager level) in their personal and professional development, supporting them in troubleshooting issues in their tasks, and helping to advocate for better work-life balance, to ensure that their roles are both streamlined and sustainable. This also includes training to improve their technical and managerial skills as applicable. Complete all performance appraisals for these managers and associates.
  • Oversee and support troubleshooting issues on ongoing partnerships along with Principal Investigators, Managers, the Admin & Finance team, and Associate Directors as needed.
  • Provide advice to the research/policy team as well as PIs in suggesting potential partners and collaborations, including but not limited to stakeholder development plans in proposal development, as well as identifying potential donors for research projects/office initiatives
  • Support Research/PCT activities as needed this could be in the form of overseeing high-stakes partnership projects, supporting negotiations, and accompanying discussions with donors and event attendance, among others
  • Assist in negotiating and signing Memoranda of Understanding (PKS), Data Use Agreements, and other agreements with implementation partners
  • Inform the Executive Director and Associate Directors on the progress and development of their current activities, and flag things with implications to each vertical and/or the whole office.
• Organizational and Strategic Partnerships
  • Support position J-PAL SEA as a leading voice on evidence-based approaches in policy-making in Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly
  • Work with the Executive Director, Associate Directors, and other Senior Managers on strategy and direction of partnership goals, including but not limited to approach for different donor types, engaging with different types of partners from government to private sector, and optimizing current relationships. This may include creating and managing institutional knowledge, providing additional support to streamline systems and processes, overseeing working groups, etc.
  • Serve as the principal point of contact for partnership, speaking, advisory and collaboration requests addressed to J-PAL SEA
  • Develop and maintain relationships with senior representatives of governments, foundations, multilateral organizations and development agencies, as well as support long term strategic partnerships with the Government of Indonesia and relevant institutions/government across Southeast Asia to promote evidence-based policymaking
  • Represent J-PAL SEAand, where appropriate, the founders in external meetings, conferences and high-level stakeholder engagements
  • Any other work as required by the Executive Director and Associate Director.

Qualifications:

• Education: The position is for candidates with a Master's degree in economics, public policy/administration, and other related disciplines. Strong coursework in economics, management, and administration is highly preferable
• Experience: This position requires at least eight years of relevant and substantial professional experience. Strong track record of building and managing senior partnerships with governments, foundations, multilateral institutions or development agencies. Demonstrated experience in fundraising, including writing successful proposals and stewarding donor relationships. Confident, accomplished writer and communicator for senior audiences.
• Communication: Detail-oriented and have advanced communication skills both verbal and written in English and Bahasa Indonesia. Understand how to communicate policy lessons from technical academic research in ways that policymakers, funders, and practitioners understand. Precise, clear, and creative. Adept at managing relationships across countries and time zones.
• Management: Strategic thinker. Proven ability to handle several different tasks at one time, successfully complete tasks assigned, and meet deadlines while doing quality work independently.Prior experience managing teams including a variety of different personnel, including other Managers, is desirable.
• Understanding Randomized Evaluations: Familiar with randomized evaluations and evidence-informed policymaking and comfortable engaging with researchers and technical findings. Able to communicate research insights accurately and credibly to senior partners.
• Travel: Travel to different parts of Indonesia and overseas to meet stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of the funder ecosystem relevant to Southeast Asia, spanning bilateral and multilateral agencies, international and domestic philanthropy, government budget processes, and, where relevant, Indonesian social finance instruments.

We are looking for a minimum commitment period of two years for this position, with a strong possibility of a longer term position for exceptional candidates.