Business Development Specialist, Asia Pacific

What We Can Achieve Together:

The Business Development Specialist, Asia Pacific plays a central role in advancing The Nature Conservancy’s public funding and external engagement priorities across the region. Reporting to the Director of External Affairs, Asia Pacific, and working closely with the Proposal Development Manager, this role contributes to the development, management, and delivery of the public funding pipeline, from opportunity identification through to proposal submission. Working closely with regional and global teams, the Specialist drives the design and preparation of competitive public funding proposals, ensuring alignment with conservation priorities, donor requirements, and organisational strategies. The role engages across Business Units, thematic teams, and enabling functions to identify, design, track and translate public funding opportunities into high-quality submissions. This position contributes to strengthening Asia Pacific’s public funding capability and supports delivery of the One Conservancy Public Funding Strategy and TNC’s 2030 Goals. 

This role is a two‑year fixed‑term position with the possibility of extension, subject to work performance, business needs, and funding availability.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

The Business Development Specialist plays a foundational role in enabling the success of public funding efforts across Asia Pacific. The role is responsible for leading key aspects of the public funding lifecycle including opportunity identification, concept development, and proposal development. The role coordinates multi-disciplinary teams, establishes timelines and workplans, and ensures proposal components are developed to a high standard and within required deadlines. The Specialist develops and refines proposal content, including drafting and editing technical narratives, logical frameworks, theories of change, and supporting materials. They ensure proposals are clear, compelling, and responsive to donor expectations, while maintaining consistency with TNC’s priorities. The role requires strong analytical capabilities, sound judgement, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment. It also involves contributing to the continuous improvement of processes, tools, and approaches that support public funding success across the region.

Public Funding Pipeline & Opportunity Support

• Lead the early identification, screening, and tracking of Calls for Proposals (CFPs) relevant to Asia Pacific priorities.
• Drive the filtering and prioritization of funding opportunities, aligned with regional strategies and conservation priorities.
• Develops early-stage write-ups of priority conservation projects for opportunity search, positioning, and internal evaluation.
• Maintains visibility of funding opportunities, timelines, and pipeline progression across the region.
• Participate on internal selection panels, leading the prioritisation of selected proposals

Proposal Development & Grant Writing Support

• Develops public funding proposals, including drafting, editing, and integrating contributions from multiple stakeholders
• Oversee assembly of proposal components (background materials, annexes, donor templates, supporting documentation and compliance elements).
• Prepares concept notes, expressions of interest, and full proposals.
• Ensures that proposals are consistent, high quality, and aligned with donor requirements.

Capacity Building & Internal Support

• Contributes to strengthening public funding capability across Asia Pacific through guidance, tools, and training
• Promotes consistent approaches, templates, and quality standards for proposal development
• Shares insights and lessons learned to improve effectiveness and outcomes

Reporting & Operational Support

• Support regional public funding reporting, including pipeline and performance, progress, reporting and status.
• Maintain and update entries in BBCRM for the AP public Funding pipeline
• Support preparation of internal updates, summaries, and briefings for regional and global stakeholders.
• Assist in monitoring and updating team tools, templates, and reporting systems

Team & Cross-functional Coordination

• Supports effective collaboration across country, regional, and global teams involved in public funding proposal development.
• Assist in facilitating information flow between Business Units, thematic teams, and enabling functions (finance, grants, legal, communications) to develop proposals.
• Facilitates alignment between conservation priorities and funding opportunities.

RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE

• Contributes to multiple concurrent proposal development processes and early-stage project development activities.
• Works under guidance of senior staff but demonstrates initiative and strong organizational skills.
• Applies judgement in managing priorities, timelines, and stakeholder engagement across proposals
• Works closely with Business Unit leaders, thematic and conservation strategy leads, and cross-functional teams such as finance, grants, legal and communication teams across the Asia Pacific.
• Contributes to strengthening public funding pipeline quality, visibility, and coordination across the region.
• Ensures accuracy, timeliness, and consistency in systems, reporting, and documentation.
• Provides proposal writing training to staff as needed.
• Undertake international travel within Asia Pacific and globally, as required.
• May supervise administrative staff and/or volunteers, interns, or temporary staff.
• Serve as a team leader for assigned projects and coordinate the work of others.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree and 4 years related experience or equivalent combination.
• Fluency in English. 
• Experience presenting to and/or communicating with business, government or legislative staff and/or program leadership.
• Experience in designing, implementing and directing multiple complex projects and ensuring program accountability.
• Communications experience including preparing and presenting project proposals and developing written communications.
• Experience working with corporate or NGO partners, and government agencies. 

Desired Qualifications:

• Familiarity with public funding mechanisms and funder processes (e.g. bilateral/multilateral funders)
• Experience in supporting project design, concept development and proposal packaging including experience in developing theories of transformational change, result chains and related methodologies.
• Understanding of conservation, climate or sustainable development issues in Asia Pacific.
• Multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience preferred.
• Experience writing successful public funding proposals.
• Experience coordinating with people in difference locations and cultures.
• Ability to work effectively in informal or horizontal teams and collaborate cross function and countries in a global organization.
• Knowledge and application of current and evolving trends in public funding.
• Experience researching information from divergent sources and compiling it into a cohesive reporting structure.

Who We Are:

The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to protect the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science-based organization, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that we can create a world in which people and nature thrive. We’re rooted in our mission and guided by our values, which include respect for all people, communities, and cultures. Whether it’s career development, flexible schedules, or a rewarding mission, there’s many reasons to love life inside TNC. Want a better insight to TNC? Check out our TNC Talent playlist on YouTube   to hear stories from staff or visit  Glassdoor.

One goal is to cultivate an inclusive work environment so that all our colleagues around the globe feel a sense of belonging and that their unique contributions to our mission are valued. In addition to the requirements in our job postings, we recognize that people come with talent and experiences outside of a job and consider each applicant’s unique experience. Please apply – we’d love to hear from you. To quote a popular saying at TNC, “you’ll join for the mission, and stay for the people.”

What We Bring:

Since 1951, TNC has been doing work you can believe in. Through grassroots action, we have grown from a small non-profit into one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world. Thanks to more than 1 million members, over 400 scientists, and the dedicated efforts of our diverse staff and partners, we impact conservation around the world! 

TNC offers competitive and comprehensive benefits packages tailored to the individual countries where we work. These may include health care benefits, retirement benefits, parental leave, paid time off, life insurance, and disability coverage as well as an employee assistance program and other life and well-being benefits. Learn more about our Benefits and Perks here.

We’re proud to offer a flexible work environment that supports the health and well-being of the people we employ.

Our recruiting process includes a rolling interview process to ensure we engage applicants in a timely manner. This means we may review applications in the order in which they are received. Once a strong candidate pool is identified, the role will be unposted. The timeline may vary depending on the expressed interest in the role, so we highly encourage candidates to apply as soon as possible.

Employees must submit their application by logging into Workday and applying via the Jobs Hub.

The Nature Conservancy is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our commitment to equal employment opportunity includes the recognition that our conservation mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and culture. Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization is a priority, and we encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military, protected veteran status or other status protected by law.

The successful applicant must meet the requirements of The Nature Conservancy's background screening process.

TNC is committed to offering accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please send a note to [email protected]  with Request for Accommodation in the subject line.