Business Development Specialist, Research

Role Overview

• Support outbound business development activities by researching prospective funders, identifying key contacts, and preparing tailored outreach lists.
• Assist in drafting outreach messages, briefing notes, and follow‑up communications to engage prospective partners and funders.
• Coordinate meetings with prospective funders, including scheduling, preparing agendas and background packages, and capturing follow‑up actions.
• Maintain accurate and up‑to‑date records of interactions, activities, and opportunities in the CRM to support pipeline visibility across Knowledge Areas.
• Support cross‑functional collaboration with Knowledge Areas by gathering information, organizing communication flows, and coordinating internal alignment on opportunities.
• Assist in preparing introductory materials, and other business development collateral.
• Coordinate the proposal development process, ensuring timelines, inputs, and approvals are clearly tracked and met.
• Review RFPs to extract requirements, eligibility criteria, timelines, and deliverable expectations.
• Support the preparation, formatting, and submission of proposals, pitch decks, letters of intent, and other application materials.
• Prepare proposal calendars, draft proposal sections, and ensure all components meet submission guidelines.
• Assist in quality‑checking submissions for completeness, accuracy, and consistency.
• Maintain organized proposal files, template libraries, bios, project references, and supporting documentation.
• Track active and upcoming RFPs and funding calls; prepare summaries and notify relevant Knowledge Areas.
• Coordinate internal meetings related to proposal development and gather contributions from research staff, subject matter experts, and leadership.
• Update CRM with proposal activities, status changes, deadlines, and outcomes.

Requirements

• Three years’ of experience in proposal coordination and business development support, sales support, or fundraising coordination.
• Post‑secondary education in business administration, communications, marketing, public policy, social sciences, or a related field.
• Experience supporting proposal and RFP processes, including reviewing requirements, coordinating inputs, organizing timelines, preparing submission packages, and ensuring compliance.
• Strong business development support experience, such as assisting with outreach, researching prospects, preparing briefing materials, and coordinating meetings or follow‑ups.
• Excellent organizational and project coordination abilities, with a demonstrated ability to manage multiple tasks, deadlines, and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Strong written communication skills, including proofreading, formatting proposals, drafting basic sections, and preparing summaries or outreach materials.
• Proactive research skills, able to gather funder information, identify key contacts, scan for relevant funding opportunities, and compile background notes.
• Comfortable using CRM systems to log activity, track pipelines, update opportunity stages, and maintain accurate records (Microsoft Dynamics experience is an asset).
• Detail‑oriented, with the ability to ensure proposals, documents, and data entries are complete, accurate, and aligned with guidelines.
• Professional communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to support business relations with funders, partners, and internal contributors.
• Collaborative and adaptable, able to work with multiple Knowledge Areas and quickly absorb new information across policy and research domains.
• Bilingualism in English and French is an asset.
• Ability to travel within Canada.

Benefits

• Virtual First – work from home anywhere across Canada with a budget to set up your home office.
• A workplace where your hard work is not just valued, but actively celebrated.
• Healthcare benefits from Day One to support your physical and mental wellbeing, including a $2,500 benefit for Psychologist, Social Worker or Psychotherapist services
• Work/Life Balance: In addition to 20 days annual vacation, we close between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, observe 13 holidays per year and offer Friday afternoon closures.
• A modern, defined benefit (DB) pension plan: We care about your future and offer a pension plan with a 5% match from Day One
• Employee Family Assistance Program (EFAP): We understand that life can be unpredictable and challenging and EFAP supports you and your family during difficult times.
• Maternity and parental leave top-up plan