Vacancies at Rainforest Alliance

POSITION SUMMARY:

At the Rainforest Alliance we are looking for a highly motivated, results-driven Relationship Manager Strategic Portfolio, to help to ensure the Rainforest Alliance is the strategic long-term partner of choice for companies to invest in net-positive impact in their supply chains.  This role will take a consultative selling approach at executive level to engage companies in innovative value creation, addressing both supply and demand levers.

This position will be part of a group of Strategic CE&P Relationship Managers, to develop and implement sales strategy to specific, existing major accounts and high potential prospects were growing relationships and identifying opportunities are critical. This will require full knowledge of the Rainforest Alliance’s value proposition and its applications, along with a strong understanding of the client's objectives and challenges. This team supports the Regional CE&P Leads and Relationship Managers to deepen and broaden the engagement with corporate partners, to elevate them into strategic partnerships through RA’s integrated value proposition.

Rainforest Alliance has recently set its ambitious 2023-2030 strategy to further strengthen our organizational impact. We want to activate market push/pull, producer impact, investment mobilization and citizen activation to create value with speed and scale and accelerate our mission. The Strategic Corporate Engagement and Partnership Lead will play a pivotal role in making our strategy a reality by strengthening our position as a trusted and highly valued partner for our strategic and key accounts to work with us on a comprehensive sustainability agenda.

The Relationship Manager Strategic Portfolio is a new position within the Corporate Engagement & Partnerships team, reporting into the Strategic Corporate Engagement and Partnership Lead.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING:

• Support the Strategic CE&P Lead in 3 key cross-cutting areas within the Corporate Engagement & Partnerships team:
  •  Strategic account portfolio management and development
  •  Corporate consortiums & alliances management
  •  Corporate global project management
• Responsible for a high value portfolio of strategic accounts, including development of strategic account plans deploying RA’s integrated value proposition;
• Support Regional Leads and CE&P Relationship Managers to develop strategic account plans that outline strategy and tactics to build key relationships with relevant decision makers and influencers and grow our impact;
• Manage long-term strategic partnership (>3 years) development process and deployment for high value partners;
• Shape our unified value proposition and storytelling to sell a (complex) product and services solution in the account context;
• Negotiate contractual terms and close deals that meet the customer's mid-to long-term needs, working closely with legal and compliance;
• Ensure quality service and organizational growth of these strategic accounts;
• Manage and build multi-stakeholder strategic engagement and initiatives that require involvement with 2 or more corporates under the CE&P global portfolio;
• Support the prospecting, co-design and incubation process for corporate project development in close collaboration with relationship managers, ensuring quality of the process and an integrated design in line with the value proposition.
• Liaises with support and admin functions (finance, GIC, legal, etc.) for smooth proposal development and approval process for corporate projects, ensuring effective handover to internal teams for execution.
• Works collaboratively with other departments (e.g. global programs, products, technology, finance, legal, marketing & comms) and leadership management to best serve accounts, corporate consortiums and projects;
• Responsible for tracking implementation of offering at customer to ensure needs are met and use feedback from customers, offerings and internal processes to continuously improve our account management program and internal processes;
• Establish performance metrics and regularly measure progress against them. Use feedback from customers and internal processes to continuously improve our account management program;
• Work with Revenue Operations to (give input for) prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual reports and forecasts for the account portfolio;
• Support other relationship managers on project development with corporates;
• Follow policies and procedures, e.g. customer relationship system;
• Adapt to changing market conditions, customer needs, and competitive threats;
• Other duties as assigned.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: 

• Master’s degree in business administration, economy, or another relevant international development discipline;
• At least 7 years of experience with complex sales in B2B environment at senior level, relationship building, corporate affairs or marketing;
• Consistent track record in developing and leading go-to-market strategies that generate revenue and profitability, external engagement, high-level stakeholder management and representing an organization in a multi-stakeholder environment;
• Experience in project management and proposal development;
• Strong interpersonal skills with track record of achieving results through influencing without authority;
• Extensive knowledge of the corporate ESG investment space;
• Knowledge and understanding of voluntary certification programs;
• Deep knowledge in at least one key crop (Coffee, Cocoa, Tea, Bananas). Proven track record of authority in the subject matter (published articles; speaking at events etc.)
• Key competencies: strategy, consultative selling, business acumen, negotiation, persuasion, adaptability, critical and reflective thinking, public speaking, resourcefulness, collaborative, problem solving, relationship builder based on trust, empathy and openness, and strong organizational skills to lead multiple priorities in a time critical manner;
• Experience with CRM software and account management systems;
• Excellent writing, editing and verbal communication skills, written and verbal proficiency in English is required;
• Ability to travel.

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WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING:

• Work on Corporate Advisory partnerships (relationship management, project management, preparation of proposals, reports and presentation writing, risk assessment, data analysis, policy writing, capacity building, etc…); In the case of simple SOW, the senior associate will lead independently the partnership with light support from the manager. In the case of more complex SOW, the manager will be in the lead and the senior associate will play a supporting role and lead sub-activities.
• Lead the market intelligence for Corporate Advisory services (planning, delivery of workstreams). As part of this workstream, gather market needs and identify opportunities to expand and strengthen our services to better support companies and deliver more impact.
• Lead the internal communication for Corporate Advisory services (Monthly newsletters)
• Work on the prospection strategy, supporting the manager and director on campaigns to capture new companies.
• Collaborate closely with the CE&P team and support Key Account Managers in the understanding of Corporate Advisory Services and pitching to companies.
• Support the team and director in financials tracking (revenue, invoicing etc…)

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: 

• Bachelor’s degree in forestry, agriculture, international development, natural resources management, supply chain management or a related field;
• At least 3 years of progressive increase in responsibilities in the agriculture and/or forestry sector with good knowledge of key sustainability topics, market and policy trends, commodity supply chains;
• Knowledge of the Accountability Framework is a plus;
• Proven experience in project management, stakeholder management and complex problem solving;
• Ability to work independently as well as in a team environment, lead a project and client relationship in full autonomy, assess priorities and multi-task with strong attention to detail;
• Excellent writing, editing and verbal communication including preparing technical reports and presentations;
• Good executive presence and presentation skills;
• Advanced skills in MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel. Understanding of additional tools such as Power BI, Tableau and GIS skills are a plus;