Global Partnerships Strategy Consultant

CIMMYT; Ciudad de México; Remote; MXN 670,000 - 1,004,000; Part time

Job summary

CIMMYT is seeking an experienced consultant to join its roster of experts in partnership management for international collaboration. The role is home-based and part-time, with occasional short missions to CIMMYT headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico.

You will develop frameworks, controls, and procedures for partner engagement, due diligence, and governance, delivering high-quality documents for donor reporting. Engagements are project-driven, focusing on building robust partnership processes, risk

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of experience in partnership, grants or program management within international organizations, research institutions or NGOs.
• Demonstrated experience designing or strengthening financial controls, due diligence frameworks, or partnership/grant management systems.
• Proven track record of independently producing institutional-quality policies, frameworks and procedures under tight timelines.
• Strong financial acumen: ability to interpret partner budgets, financial reports and funding structures.
• Working knowledge of grant and contract management systems (e.g., ERP platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, contract management platforms such as Icertis) and of dashboard tools for portfolio oversight.
• Excellent written English and document design skills, with the ability to produce board- and donor-ready material.
• Experience with CGIAR, agricultural research or Global South–focused development organizations is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Conduct diagnostics of existing partnership management systems, processes and practices across programs.
• Translate diagnostic findings and risk assessments into prioritized design requirements and recommendations.
• Develop institutional partnership management frameworks covering value proposition, strategic priorities, partner segmentation, governance, decision rights, and roles and responsibilities.
• Draft operational procedures across the partnership lifecycle: partner selection, risk-based due diligence, contract management, financial and performance monitoring, technical quality assurance, relationship management and close-out.
• Design practical tools for staff, such as financial monitoring templates, due diligence risk-tiering and organizational capacity assessment tools, partner risk registers, tracking tools and close-out checklists.
• Define functional and data requirements for embedding procedures into ERP and contract management systems, and for portfolio-level oversight dashboards.
• Prepare implementation and change management roadmaps, including phased rollout, piloting, training needs and interim workarounds.
• Coordinate with Finance, Grants, Legal, Donor Relations, program leadership and IT/ERP teams, and provide regular written progress updates to senior management.
• Prepare handover packages and support knowledge transfer to the CIMMYT staff responsible for implementation.

Skills

Partnership management

Grant management

Due diligence design

Financial controls

ERP familiarity

Stakeholder interviews

Policy drafting

Executive communication

Dashboard tools

Tools

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Icertis

Dashboard tools

Job description

CIMMYT is seeking an experienced consultant to join its roster of experts in partnership management for international collaboration. The role is home-based and part-time, with occasional short missions to CIMMYT headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico.

You will develop frameworks, controls, and procedures for partner engagement, due diligence, and governance, delivering high-quality documents for donor reporting. Engagements are project-driven, focusing on building robust partnership processes, risk