NOTE: This is a remote position; CRS will only consider candidates who are based in countries where we have existing offices.
Job Summary
The Senior Technical Advisor (STA), Development Bank Partnerships serves as technical leader on Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) engagement and development-finance partnerships including but not limited to CAF, the World Bank, GEF, BCIE, and Inter-American Development Bank. The STA leads the identification, design, and advancement of financing opportunities with MDBs and other development-finance partners to support CRS programming, while prioritizing implementation across Central America particularly in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Working closely with regional and country program teams, CRS's global innovative finance team, and external financing institutions, the STA strengthens organizational capacity to access and leverage development-finance resources, develops and shares partnership approaches and technical guidance, and contributes to CRS's broader innovative finance agenda.
Roles and Key Responsibilities
- Lead CRS’s strategy, engagement, relationship management, and resource mobilization efforts with MDBs and other development-finance institutions, prioritizing opportunities that support programming in Central America while contributing knowledge and partnership approaches that can inform CRS programming more broadly.
- Serve as CRS technical lead on MDB financing structures and partnership models, including sovereign and non-sovereign loans, co-financing arrangements, climate finance, blended finance, and other development-finance mechanisms. Develop and share guidance, tools, and lessons learned to strengthen organizational capacity in these areas
- Lead the identification, design, structuring, and advancement of development-finance opportunities with MDBs and other financing partners, working closely with regional and country teams as well as global stakeholders throughout the opportunity lifecycle.
- Collaborate with regional and country team to align development-finance opportunities with CRS technical priorities, program strategies, and organizational objectives, while promoting cross-regional learning and knowledge exchange,
- Provide technical leadership in proposal development and project design, and partnership development related to development finance and MDB-funded initiatives, to ensure programming consistency with CRS standards, donor requirements, and emerging industry practices
- Represent CRS at MDB forums, engaging with high-level donor and government stakeholders to influence future funding mechanisms.
- Support organizational readiness for development-finance engagement by strengthening staff capacity, disseminating practices, and helping establish approaches that increase CRS’s ability to access and manage complex financing opportunities.
- Contribute to CRS's knowledge management and learning agenda for development finance by documenting successful partnership models, financing structures, lessons learned, and market trends, and sharing insights across CRS regions and teams.
- Monitor advancements and opportunities on climate finance, and multilateral lending, CRS leadership, regional teams, and country programs on emerging opportunities, risks, mitigation, and strategic considerations.
- Maintain a matrix of the strategic priorities and plans of the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), and CAF to identify opportunities for CRS programming and co-financing in priority areas.
- Represent CRS at global and regional development-finance, climate-finance, and MDB forums, strengthening CRS’s visibility, partnerships, and influence in the development-finance community.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Extensive knowledge of finance structures and mechanisms used in development programming particularly in climate finance
- Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
- Excellent strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including research publications.
- Excellent presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
- Proactive, resourceful and results oriented.
Required Languages: Fluency in written and spoken English and Spanish required.
Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 35%Supervisory Responsibilities: None
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