Director of Business Development (Invest in Open Infrastructure)

Role at a glance

• Location: Remote, ideally within +/- 3 hours of the EST timezone; supervisor based in New York
• Position type: Full time with benefits
• Compensation: $139,256 USD annually, with benefits
• Closing date for applications: Monday, October 12th

About the role

Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) seeks a Director of Business Development (BD) to join us in our work to increase the investment in and adoption of open infrastructure to further equitable access to and participation in research.  This crucial role helps IOI to fulfil its commitments to a broad range of stakeholders, including funders, publishers, libraries, research institutions, and administrators, as we encourage, facilitate, and make more visible the support of open infrastructure.

We work to make open systems sustainable and resilient. The Director of BD will enable our efforts through driving the growth and sustainability of IOI. The Director of BD leads our fundraising, business development, and marketing & communications functions, and contributes directly to the delivery of our client engagements.

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director of BD works as part of a strong and knowledgeable distributed team where every member is expected to be highly collaborative, regularly sharing and receiving feedback on our full range of work and offering input on our strategy and implementation.

This is a full-time remote role with benefits.

Responsibilities

Strategic planning

• Contribute to the development and implementation of the organization's strategic plan.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive business development strategy that aligns with IOI's mission, vision, and goals.
• Identify and assess emerging trends and opportunities in the field, and support market research and analysis to identify new opportunities for growth.

Team leadership

• Lead, manage, and mentor a blended team of staff and contractors, currently comprising the Development & Communications Coordinator, and a Horizon Europe Strategist (contract).
• Coordinate and get the best from this mixed team: setting direction, managing deliverables, and providing mentorship and growth support to staff.
• Foster a positive and collaborative work environment.

Business development & fundraising

• Develop and implement strategies to increase and diversify revenue and secure sustainable funding sources.
• Identify and cultivate new funding and earned revenue relationships, including mission-aligned organizations, corporations, and foundations.
• Manage and steward existing donor, client and funder relationships.
• Develop and execute fundraising plans, including proposal writing, grant writing, and new fundraising and revenue models.
• Track funding engagements and pipeline, and provide analysis and recommendations to the executive team and board of directors.

Marketing & communications

• Jointly, with the Executive Director, coordinate and oversee IOI's marketing and communications strategy, ensuring it supports our fundraising, business development, and programmatic goals.
• Oversee the execution of marketing and communications work across the team, including managing contractor and staff capacity dedicated to comms.
• Guide IOI's brand, positioning, and messaging, including around flagship outputs and campaigns.
• Review and, where needed, contribute hands-on to content production.

Client delivery

• Serve as a member of project teams delivering IOI's client engagements, providing expertise in business development strategy, fundraising strategy, product–market fit, and sustainability strategy.
• Contribute to scoping, proposals, and costing for client engagements, in collaboration with the Director of Finance & Operations.

Partnership development

• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders, including donors, clients, partners, and other organizations.
• Collaborate on joint initiatives and partnerships to expand the organization's reach and impact.

Necessary skills and experience

• Minimum eight years of experience creating and implementing successful long-term fundraising and partnership strategies with a diverse set of partners, whether from the funder side (e.g. managing a portfolio at a philanthropy or public-sector funder) or the practitioner side (e.g. building earned revenue at a mission-driven organization).
• Leadership experience in a small, cross-functional, collaborative team, including experience managing a team of 2–5.
• Broad-based knowledge of various development and partnership activities including membership/subscription-based models, fee-for-service opportunities, grants and philanthropic support.
• Experience building relationships with and through mission-supporting ventures.
• Experience costing out proposals and conducting market research and business analysis to map addressable markets and provide insights.
• A demonstrable track record as an exceptional communicator, in writing and verbally; adept at preparing proposals, client and donor correspondence, slide decks, and background research to support business development conversations.
• Experience preparing and delivering effective presentations to diverse groups, large and small.
• Ability to build and maintain strong internal relationships and balance the needs of multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of donor information and a finely-tuned sense of discretion.
• Ability to work with a high degree of autonomy and accountability.
• Desire to work in a dynamic and mission-driven organization; comfort in a technology-driven environment.

Nice to have

• Data analysis.
• CRM software proficiency.
• Experience developing marketing and communications strategy and overseeing its execution.
• Familiarity with the open research / open infrastructure landscape.
• Experience delivering advisory or consulting work to clients, or comparable hands-on strategy work.
• Knowledge of fundraising best practices.

Work location & environment

We strive at IOI to ensure our work balances being trustworthy and evidence-based with a design that makes the topics we care about actionable, approachable, reusable, memorable, and understandable.

We are committed to openness and transparency, and aim to share our process, findings, and work in formats that enable participation and reuse. Transparency and access are two critical components of the healthy, inclusive ecosystem we are building towards, and we aim to reflect that in our work.

We believe in iterative development, and are committed to soliciting and incorporating feedback into our work products and process.

We aim to foster a healthier, more equitable and inclusive research ecosystem. This underlies all of our work as a team, with the community, and in how we approach this work.

We're a highly collaborative, fully remote team with staff spread across three continents that believes in empowering others, learning together, and (respectfully) challenging our own assumptions to better serve the communities we care about. We value honest and transparent communications in our work together and actively cultivate a team culture of learning and iteration.

A stipend of up to $3,000 USD is provided to support equipment costs and home office needs for employees. IOI staff work across a variety of time zones, with leadership based in New York, USA.

Additional details

• Code for Science & Society (CS&S) is the fiscal sponsor and organizational home of IOI. CS&S offers employee benefits through TriNet for US-based employees, including health insurance and retirement.
• US-based candidates will be employed through CS&S. UK-based candidates may be employed through IOI's UK entity. Candidates elsewhere will be considered for a contract position.
• Candidates should already be able to work legally where they are based; we cannot offer visa support for this position at this time.
• IOI is a fully remote organization, with project leadership based in US Eastern time. Candidates should be available 3+ hours per day with project leadership.

Application process

IOI is being supported in this search and appointment process by SCHC Advisors.

To learn more about the role and to submit an application, please contact Sophia Copeman at [email protected].

The closing date for applications is Monday, October 12th.

Your application should comprise a single PDF document containing:

• an up-to-date CV;
• a cover letter of no more than two pages summarising your motivation and relevant experience for this role.

About IOI

Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) works to make the open infrastructure that research and scholarship rely on more sustainable and resilient. We partner with funders, research institutions, libraries, publishers, and infrastructure providers to help them make better decisions about what to fund, adopt, govern, and sustain. Our work combines strategic consulting — spanning business and sustainability strategy, fundraising design, governance, and landscape analysis — with coordinated funding programmes that pool investment behind high-impact infrastructure, and field-level research such as our annual State of Open Infrastructure report.

IOI is fiscally sponsored by Code for Science & Society (CS&S). CS&S is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization, thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our clientele, our employees and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our colleagues and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one's employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination.