About Water.org

1 in 10 people around the world lack access to safe water and 1 in 4 people don’t have access to a toilet. We are working every day to change this. We are Water.org. We’re here to bring water and sanitation to the world. We want to make it safe, accessible and cost-effective because we believe that water is the way to empower a bright future that we can all share, worldwide. We are an international nonprofit organization based in Kansas City, Missouri that has positively transformed millions of lives around the world through access to safe water and sanitation. Founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, we pioneer market-driven financial solutions to the global water crisis. For more than 25 years, we’ve been providing women hope, children health and families a future.

Summary

The Portfolio Lead, in the Global Impact Department, is responsible for managing a complex portfolio and acts as a strategic stakeholder to assess and prioritize demand against our goals for expansion and growth within the South Asia region’s business line, focusing on opportunities for shared value with public and private sector enterprises and associations, designed to improve the financial and operational capacity of these institutions and facilitate financial linkages that mobilize additional capital to extend and improve WSS services among those living in poverty.

Reporting to the Executive Director, South Asia, this position will work closely with the regional leadership and other key stakeholders to establish expectations for the delivery of business outcomes. This individual will monitor and bring transparency to overall portfolio health, provide input into planning and reporting processes, and serve as the first line of escalation to clear impediments for delivery.

This position will support a team of experienced partnership account managers and technical/business specialists (as applicable) to reach their peak potential and set account strategies that will ensure each partner is poised for success. This individual will bring a strong, proven track record of building and scaling high-performing account management, up-selling and cross-selling, and delivery functions to deliver Water.org’s unique value to partnerships and networks.

Key Responsibilities

Regional Business Line Strategy Support (30%)

Implements key initiatives to support near- and long-term growth strategies and scale models and market readiness for successful engagement and expansion opportunities for partnership with infrastructure partners, including but not limited to:

• Assess public and private utilities, state government, development agencies and other stakeholders for investible water and sanitation infrastructure projects with good impact and return potential in India and Bangladesh.
• Identify long term opportunities within utilities, which can act as lighthouse projects for future private investments.
• Assess and analyze market data, technology, and industry trends to prioritize opportunities.
• Assess the suite of technical services offerings that Water.org could provide to unlock financing to infrastructure projects.
• Liaise with regional and other Water.org teams to identify and prepare a strategic roadmap for infrastructure projects for the next three years.
• Defines prioritization of funding strategies and new opportunity pipeline for the business line in collaboration with regional award management team to maximize revenue growth and success rate.

Business Development and Execution (40%)

Oversees engagement with partners’ key decision makers in the region to deliver sustained year-over-year growth of new and existing accounts. Identifies potential financial institutions and SMEs interested in improving readiness for, building and/or expanding WSS finance portfolios and products, including but not limited:

• Contribute towards identifying pipeline of investible water and sanitation infrastructure opportunities in India and Bangladesh
• Assess and analyze market data, technology, and industry trends to prioritize opportunities.
• Build active partnerships with various public utilities and local/state municipal commissioners, district and urban administration and other stakeholders on agreed WASH financing topics.
• Initiate discussion to provide technical assistance including pilot projects with public utilities.
• Contribute to identifying investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector and build a pipeline of future investors.
• Develop and deploy technical assistance services to investible infrastructure opportunities.
• Support global exploration and development of climate and water resilience opportunities within the infrastructure financing arena in partnership with the enterprise’s global leadership.
• Defines prioritization of funding strategies and new opportunity pipeline for the business line in collaboration with regional award management team to maximize revenue growth and success rate.

Strategic Account Planning and Operations (20%)

Oversees portfolio planning and management, leading delivery on performance objectives, financial targets, and critical milestones for portfolio. Serves as the lead strategic account manager and business advisor for the portfolio, ensuring execution of partner-facing service delivery and related projects to maximize successful performance, including but not limited to:

• Leads account planning for portfolio, including development and implementation of partner work plans and delivery of approved services to partners directly or via third parties.
• Pull together the end-to-end delivery scoping required to drive the expected outcomes and value through understanding business demand, strategic alignments, budgetary and delivery constraints, and local contexts and how they might impact delivery. Create transparency into portfolio-level interdependencies and ensure appropriate planning is performed.
• Oversees and governs partner account management cycle for assigned portfolio, ensuring utilization of global frameworks, tools and methods for partnership design, solution design and field monitoring, and performance reporting by account management teams; Foster agility, innovation and enable rapid decision-making to drive portfolio-level priorities and objectives.
• Bring an external perspective and thought leadership to portfolio growth, leveraging a network of industry contacts to inform our strategy and ensure teams rigorously assess and test evaluation of demand and prioritization and ensures supporting hypotheses are tested in a data-driven way.
• Facilitate cross fertilization of knowledge across the portfolio, embedding a continuous improvement and customer-focused mindset and approach.
• Provides timely and accurate reporting and analysis of account performance and related business metrics for portfolio, including execution progress and forecast for impact plans and funding utilization to relevant business partners, such as Finance, Insights, and Award Management. Accountable for accuracy of all data provided to leadership.
• Assesses and drives recommendations for addressing account, legal and/or compliance risks. Help the team identify and document escalation issues while bringing appropriate attention for key issues to regional and global (as applicable) leadership.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable enterprise policies and procedures as well as local regulations and laws.

Talent Management (15%)

• Challenges and maximizes the strength of the team by aligning their efforts to meet strategic regional growth objectives and deliver results.
• Fosters productive collaboration across teams and functions, utilizing multiple talent practices to ensure cohesive effort and delivery of business outcomes.
• Establishes regular cadence of individual and team performance review and feedback.
• Provides technical support and/or coaching on effective account management, including execution and analysis of pipelines, roadmap structures, work plan development, forecasting and milestone tracking.

Management Responsibility:

• Support work of others. Responsible for hiring, discipline, and pay administration of subordinates.
• Positions supervised include Partnership Account Manager(s) and potentially other business/technical specialists over time.

This description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of scope, stakeholders and linkages for every project, duty or responsibility but is intended to highlight internal or external processes, functions and jobs/roles that are expected to regularly interact with this position to deliver work. Scope may change or be assigned at any time with or without notice.

Scope Data:

Accountable for individually assigned metrics and goals related to portfolio such as impact and spending. Contributes to organizational and regional metrics and projects, as applicable.

• Influence and drive recommendations to Regional Director, Regional Business Lead, and related stakeholders about portfolio prioritization, team capacity, and escalated risks and mitigation strategies.
• Uses independent judgement in addressing project performance variation, prioritization of tasks/assignments and/or risks within scope of job responsibilities.
• Leads transactions and solutions of moderate complexity and sensitivity.
• Proactively identifies and recommends improvements to existing processes, workflows and/or assigned tasks.
• Accountable for accuracy of all data provided to leadership.
• These individuals or groups may be impacted by and or are important and influential to the success of this role’s primary functions: Regional Director, Regional Business Lead, Regional Insights Lead, Regional Operations Lead, Global Business Leads, Sr Regional Grants Specialists

Skills and Competencies

• Values Differences – Recognizes the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization.
• Strategic Mindset – Sees ahead to future possibilities and translates them into breakthrough strategies.
• Ensures Accountability – Holds self and others accountable to meet commitments.
• Builds Effective Teams – Builds strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals.
• Instills Trust – Gains the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and/or equivalent related work experience
• 10 or more years of progressive experience with water and sanitation providers and/or infrastructure financing focusing on partnership development and business development, and/or product development.
• Passionate about people management and/or mentorship with at least 1 year of experience leading a team, with a style that influences and motivates those under and outside of his/her/their remit to develop and deliver business outcomes – effectively doing so even when resources and timeframe constraints exist.
• Language(s): Proficient (written and verbal) in English

Preferred:

• Proven track record of business development, expanding accounts and business contracts, preferably in finance and/or WASH.
• Working knowledge of infrastructure financing and/or water and sanitation providers in the target markets of the region.
• Extensive knowledge of portfolio and programmatic planning and proven experience effectively managing risks and issues that affect the portfolio.
• Self-driven & proactive problem-solver to drive strong alignment of plans and priorities across the portfolio in line with strategic outcomes. Ability to blend technical, operational, and commercial considerations into decision-making.
• Very strong communication and negotiation skills, high degree of commercial awareness and business acumen. Demonstrable track record of success in developing and fostering key relationships at the C-suite or above.

Travel Requirement

Up to 30% of domestic and regional travel. In some cases, international travel to locations outside of the region may be required to support strategic and organizational requirements and events.

Being authorized to work in the country posted is a precondition of employment.

Salary and Benefits

This position offers country-specific benefits and market-based, competitive salary as well as periodic review for merit and incentive pay based on organizational and personal achievement.

Water.org is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing an inclusive environment. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, gender identity, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, pregnancy status, military and veteran status, genetic information, and any other status protected by law. We provide qualified applicants and employees reasonable accommodation, when necessary, to enable individuals to complete the application process and/or perform the essential functions of the job. We believe social change happens when people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and identities come together with a common purpose. We strive to build and maintain a diverse team that will advance our mission and work and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.