Project Manager, Business Development

Ideo; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 83,000 - 96,000; Part time

Job summary

IDEO.org is a nonprofit design studio focused on creating a more just and inclusive world. We are seeking a part-time contractor to support business development across three portfolios for a 6-month engagement, up to 24 hours per week, with flexible hours and a 1099 contract (no benefits).

You will coordinate lead generation, qualification, and proposal development, leveraging templates and AI to move opportunities toward partnerships and contracts, under the guidance of portfolio leaders,

Qualifications

• 4+ years in a client-services environment.
• Strong project management and ability to coordinate multiple projects.
• Strong business development instincts to translate needs into partnerships.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Strong research, synthesis, and strategic thinking.
• Fluency with digital tools and AI-enabled workflows.
• Experience applying DEI considerations to communications and project design.
• Self-awareness and accountability.

Responsibilities

• Keep momentum in the business development process with portfolio leaders.
• Support and steward proposal development using templates and AI.
• Lead transition from verbal agreement to signed contract, coordinating legal review.
• Keep portfolio teams organized across multiple projects and active conversations.
• Enhance project management systems to improve BD operations.

Skills

Client services

Project management

Business development

Written & verbal communication

Research & strategic thinking

Digital tools & systems

DEI considerations

Self-awareness & accountability

Tools

CRM software

AI-enabled workflows

Job description

Description

Employment Type

This is a part-time, 6-month contract, at an hourly rate of $60-70 (depending on experience), for up to 24 hours a week, ideally beginning in late October or November 2026. The employment type will be a 1099 contract, and is not eligible for benefits.

About IDEO.org

IDEO.org is a nonprofit design studio on a mission to design a more just and inclusive world. We partner with organizations and communities to co-create products, services, and programs across health, economic opportunity, and wellbeing. Our team is nimble, collaborative, and deeply creative. We thrive on ambiguity and believe that curiosity, optimism, and human-centered design can uncover new possibilities within even the most complex challenges.

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced, part-time contractor for a 6-month engagement to support business development across our three portfolios. Each portfolio has a clear strategy in place, and our pipeline includes both US and international work. We expect this work to require up to 24 hours a week, with flexible working hours.

Working closely with IDEO.org’s portfolio leaders, finance, operations, and design teams, this person will play a support role in stewarding opportunities through our business development process from start to end: supporting lead generation, qualifying potential opportunities, facilitating conversations and discovery, collaborating on proposals, and getting contracts into place. This role will bring additional capacity, organization, and follow-through to help turn promising opportunities into meaningful work. Portfolio Leads and our CEO actively cultivate relationships and bring in new leads; this role will provide dedicated support to help shape and move those opportunities toward partnerships and projects.

Wondering if this might be a good fit with your skillset? If you’re highly organized, with a strong bias towards action, and comfortable in a variety of project management tools, this might be a great fit. Any given day might include reviewing RFP requirements, jumping into half-baked drafts, proactively managing follow ups, updating trackers in Airtable, or writing compelling proposals - all in service of helping IDEO.org expand our reach.

Scope

Support our team to deliver excellent work (70%)

• Confidently keep us moving along our business development process, working closely with Portfolio Leaders to create a seamless experience for organizations interested in working with IDEO.org, including researching prospective partners and funders, preparing briefing materials ahead of calls, and managing follow-up so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Support and steward proposal development, leveraging our existing templates and tools (including AI) to create first drafts and move them toward a polished submission. Bring strong judgment on where input from team members is needed, oversee final copy edits, and ensure we submit complete, on-time proposals.
• Lead the transition from verbal agreement to signed contract. Coordinate legal review, set up collaboration channels, collect key documents, and schedule kickoff meetings, so the design team can hit the ground running from day one.
• Keep our portfolio teams organized, aligned, and moving. This includes managing timelines, priorities, and next steps across multiple projects and active business development conversations.
• Enhance project management systems to support more effective and efficient business development, including spotting areas of need within our current systems, researching ways to solve them, and implementing improvements.

Support and enable our partners (20%)

• Support a thoughtful and responsive experience for prospective partners and funders, bringing curiosity, responsiveness, and a strong understanding of needs.
• Communicate with partners and other stakeholders, sharing updates on our process, scheduling key meetings, and supporting administrative tasks.

Strengthen our business development practice (10%)

• Develop and document useful tools, templates, and approaches that can strengthen business development operations.
• Bring relevant expertise and outside perspective to help IDEO.org improve how opportunities move from early conversations into active projects.

Requirements

Qualifications

We know strong applicants come from many paths, including community leadership, entrepreneurship, public service, creative practice, organizing, and lived experience. If your background is different from what's listed but you believe you can do this job well, we encourage you to apply.

The right partner for this contract will likely bring:

• 4+ years of experience in a client-services environment, such as a consulting firm, design agency, or similar setting, or in a nonprofit that is service-oriented. We’d love it if you bring an understanding of the nonprofit ecosystem (RFP cycles, conferences, etc), but not required.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to coordinate people, timelines, and deliverables while balancing multiple projects and shifting priorities.
• Strong business development instincts, with the ability to listen for needs and opportunities, synthesize what you’re hearing, and translate ambiguity into compelling partnerships.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, from clear, concise client communications to engaging proposals, presentations, and other business development materials.
• Strong research, synthesis, and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to connect themes across conversations, projects, and contexts and translate into the proposal writing process.
• Fluency with digital tools and systems, including project management and collaboration platforms, CRM or pipeline tools, and AI-enabled workflows—and an eagerness to quickly learn and adopt new ones.
• Experience applying diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations and best practices to communications, meeting design and facilitation, and project design.
• Self-awareness and accountability, including openness to feedback and an ongoing commitment to understanding your own behaviors and impact.

People who have succeeded in this role in the past have brought experience in business development, program management, account management, non-profit support, fundraising, client relationship management, or grant-writing.

Work Schedule

We can be generally flexible on your working schedule. Some weeks may require greater coordination to accommodate deadlines, which we’ll ensure everyone can agree to in advance. Much of the work can be done asynchronously (with collaborators across EST and PST), but there are a handful of relevant weekly meetings that we will ask this person to attend. Our preference would be for someone who can join us onsite 2 days/wk either in our San Francisco studio in the Mission or our New York City studio in Hudson Square. But for the right candidate, we’re open to considering a remote setup.