Job Title: Partnership Development Associate
Date Posted: 25/06/2026
Job Type: Full Time
Employer: Busara Center
Industry: Project
Management
Salary: Open
Location: Narobi
Country: Kenya
Deadline: 30/06/2026
About the Role
- As a Partnerships Development Associate, you will work closely with
employees of the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Kenya and other
global offices, as well as external clients and partners, to strengthen
and coordinate business development practices and processes.
- A Partnerships Development Associate is expected to be able to
quickly gain an expert understanding of a particular problem and use all
tools at their disposal, both within and outside Busara, to develop a
proposal, strategy or internal process to a high quality. The role holder
is expected to have strong business development, writing and
organizational skills, as well as an understanding of qualitative and
quantitative research methods. The ideal applicant is an excellent
communicator who thrives meeting new people, enjoys making connections,
and bringing innovative ideas into new spaces. A curiosity mindset is
encouraged, and familiarity with funding cycles, development organization
landscapes and research and design organizations is a plus.
- As a Partnerships Development Associate, you will collaborate
closely with our teams, external clients, and partners. You will aim to
enhance and coordinate our business development practices, foster
strategic partnerships, and ensure impactful outcomes.
- This is a growth-oriented position, and under successful
circumstances, the ideal candidate can expect to grow within the
partnerships division and the organization.
Key
Accountabilities/Responsibilities
Pipeline
& Opportunity Management
- Scout and identify new opportunities across funders, implementers,
and research partners, both proactively and through inbound channels.
- Maintain CRM compliance and metrics tracking in Copper, ensuring all
submitted opportunities are logged consistently.
- Support proposal development, drafting sections, accessing approved
technical content, coordinating inputs across teams, and ensuring
submissions are responsive to partner priorities.
- Manage submissions and maintenance of Long-Term Agreements (LTAs)
with partner organizations, including tracking timelines and compliance
requirements, and collecting input from relevant teams.
- Forging strategic partnerships with academic, commercial, public
sector, and third sector organizations, with whom we can design, test, and
scale solutions, with support from Senior Leadership.
- Manage a pipeline of organizations to watch.
Partnership
Support Services
- Maintain the BD calendar, including trainings, conference schedules,
and the cadence of the Director Activation Strategy.
- Plan and coordinate trainings for internal staff, including
scheduling, materials preparation, and follow-up.
- Support facilitation of partner landscape analysis as part of the
Director Activation Strategy, initially in collaboration with senior
leadership.
- Attend external networking meetings alongside senior leadership,
responsible for note-taking, drafting follow-up communications, and
identifying next steps.
- Manage follow-ups from high-level meetings, ensuring commitments are
captured and actioned.
- Update and maintain the Partnership Development landing page,
ensuring content is current, accurate, and aligned with Busara’s
positioning.
- Support the development of partnership tools, templates, and
resources.
- Advocate for knowledge management within Busara’s Partnerships
function.
- Operator of partnership intelligence methodology.
Internal
Coordination & Cross-Team Collaboration
- Serve as internal liaison between the Partnership Development
function and other Busara teams, ensuring delivery teams are connected to
the right technical and operational expertise.
- Facilitate the creation and coordination of inter-portfolio delivery
teams when opportunities cut across thematic areas.
Administrative
support
- Maintain and improve internal Partnerships Team resources (e.g.,
shared team drives) and ensure that content is relevant, appropriate, and
up to date.
- Assist in the planning and execution of weekly Partnerships team
meetings.
- Assist the VP, Partnerships, in the tabulation and reporting of
business development targets and attainments.
- Plan and manage logistics for Busara roadshows, including
scheduling, briefing materials, and follow-up coordination.
Knowledge, Skills, and
Experience
Minimum
Requirements
- A Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Social Sciences, Public Policy, or
other related field
- 1-3 years of previous work experience related to business
development or partnership relationship management.
- Experience in managing large proposal development processes across
multiple teams.
- Fluency and excellent communication and writing skills with a
mastery of English.
- Outgoing personality and enjoys making connections with new people.
- Ability to manage high-level relationships with partner
organizations.
- Understanding of qualitative and quantitative research approaches
and methods.
- Excellent management and organizational skills.
- Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks
efficiently, and a team player
- Interest and experience working in a fast-paced environment.
Desired
Qualifications
- A Master’s degree in Economics, Social Sciences, Public Policy, or
related fields
- Experience in business development with core Busara funders, e.g.,
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation, USAID, DfID,
etc., will be an added advantage.
- Experience in developing country contexts.
- Experience managing or mentoring staff.
- Familiarity with behavioral science.
How to Apply
