Grants and Partnerships Lead

About the role

The Grants and Partnerships Lead will own Burn’s end‑to‑end grants function, from identifying opportunities to proposal development and funder stewardship. Reporting directly to the Director, the role positions Burn compellingly with bilateral donors, multilateral institutions, foundations and climate‑focused grant programmes.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and maintain a structured grant pipeline, conducting horizon‑scanning to align new opportunities with Burn’s strategic priorities.
• Lead the writing, structuring and quality assurance of proposals, concept notes, logframes, theories of change and budgets in collaboration with technical and finance teams.
• Build and nurture relationships with programme officers and key contacts at priority funders, representing Burn at donor engagements and sector convenings.
• Contribute to internal grants capability by creating templates, documentation and process tools as the function scales.

Required profile

• 7+ years of institutional funding experience with a track record of securing $5M+ grants from bilateral, multilateral or major foundations.
• Experience across the full funding cycle, including opportunity identification, proposal development, award negotiation and contracting.
• Familiarity with the funder landscape for energy access, clean cooking, climate adaptation and gender in Sub‑Saharan Africa.
• Strategic thinker who can distinguish high‑value opportunities and build a coherent portfolio thesis.

Required skills

• AI tools for opportunity scanning and proposal drafting
• Grant writing and fund management
• Budgeting and financial planning
• Accounting, compliance and reporting