Senior Programme Development Manager, Institutional Funding & Partnerships

Fauna & Flora International; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme

Life insurance

Generous annual leave

Job summary

Fauna & Flora International in Cambridge is seeking a resourceful Senior Programme Development Manager to bolster institutional funding, manage bids, and build durable donor relationships across multiple funders.

Reporting to the Head of Institutional Funding & Partnerships, you will shape the project cycle before contracting, work across teams in the UK and beyond, and translate complex outcomes into compelling written outputs.

Qualifications

• Significant experience securing funding from institutional funders (Defra, FCDO, EU, etc.) and planning pre-positioning activities.
• Proven bid management experience and ability to lead donor proposals.
• Strong ability to analyse complex information and translate technical details into compelling outputs.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication with cross-cultural collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Support and strengthen Fauna & Flora’s institutional funding approach across geographies.
• Manage donor relationships and pipeline from inception to contract.
• Coordinate with Head of Institutional Funding & Partnerships and other teams during the proposal process.
• Provide advisory support on assigned donors and grant management.

Skills

Fundraising

Donor engagement

Proposal management

Stakeholder management

Relationship building

Analytical writing

Strategic initiative

Job description

• Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Contract period: Permanent
• Start date: As soon as possible

Fauna & Flora is seeking a resourceful individual who has significant experience of securing funding from institutional donors (such as Defra, FCDO, EU, AFD, climate and environment multilateral funds, and multi-donor pooled funds), including through planned and opportunistic pre-positioning activities as well as high quality bid management. The Senior Programme Development Manager will bring their insights and expertise to bolster a small team focused on supporting Fauna & Flora to succeed in the fast-evolving external context and ensure a robust pipeline of institutional funding. Other organisations may call this role Senior Programme Funding Manager, Senior Business Development Manager, Senior Institutional Funding Manager and/or Senior Institutional Partnerships Manager.

Reporting to the Head of Institutional Funding & Partnerships, the role will provide support and advice on a number of assigned donors, as well as working flexibly across the team’s portfolio to support the strengthening of Fauna & Flora’s approach to institutional funding and grant management. (Note: Fundraising from trusts/foundations, major donors and our supporters is handled by other teams. The Institutional Funding team is responsible for institutional donor relationships overall. Its main focus is on the period prior to contract signature. After this, during the implementation phase of the project cycle, another team is responsible for day-to-day donor communication and reporting.)

Excellent relationship building skills will be needed both externally and internally, where you will be operating across different geographies and cultures and responding to changing organisational and team needs. It will be essential to be able to work both independently and collaboratively and have strategic initiative and sound judgment. You will have proven experience of securing funding from a range of institutional funders, giving you a good understanding of institutional donor processes and requirements, as well as the project management skills to support proposal processes. You will also have outstanding communication skills and ability to analyse complex information and translate technical information into compelling written outputs.

In return, the role offers the opportunity to work within a ground-breaking and entrepreneurial organisation, at the forefront of global conservation delivering over 80 projects in more than 40 countries. In addition, Fauna & Flora offers a generous pension contribution, attractive annual leave allowance and life insurance. Our offices are located in The David Attenborough Building in central Cambridge, just a few minutes’ walk from glorious historic buildings and museums, the picturesque River Cam, the central market and shopping centre, and a host of cafés and restaurants. Our current hybrid working policy offers partial remote working within the UK, the current minimum expectation for this role is one day per week in the office.

The closing date for applications is Monday 9 November, 2026.