Manager Partnerships (Temporary Contract)

Welcome to Expo City Dubai, where innovation and sustainability meet to create a city of endless possibilities. We are a dynamic business hub, host a vibrant cultural scene, and deliver through innovative educational initiatives—we are the city of the future.

We are more than just a destination - we are an ecosystem of opportunity, offering a unique chance to be part of something extraordinary. Together, we are building a sustainable, tech-enabled and human-centric city that will inspire future generations. Here, you will support us in creating the future and experience a world of innovation, growth and prosperity for people and planet.

To act as the operational centre of Terra Impact, taking on contract mobilisation, delivery governance and capacity planning across the portfolio, while supporting the business-development and partnership function — developing proposals, managing client and funder relationships, and positioning Terra’s advisory offer with governments, development institutions and other key target audiences.

The role releases specialist capacity by removing administrative and commercial friction from around them, without replacing them as client-facing experts.

The main responsibilities for this role include:

• Lead proposal development end-to-end: structure, write and coordinate competitive technical and financial proposals for opportunities across the Terra Impact portfolio. 
• Manage client and funder interaction — acting as a consistent point of contact and building trusted relationships with partners (e.g. government authorities, international donors, multi-lateral development banks).
  
• Position the portfolio’s offer: translate technical capability into clear, funder-appropriate value propositions and capability statements.
• Maintain the opportunity pipeline and CRM discipline; RfP’s, grant calls, donors, track deadlines, requirements and submission logistics —
  ensuring every opportunity has a clearly named relationship owner and technical owner.
• Coordinate partnerships and consortium arrangements with universities, firms and implementation partners for bids.
• Support positioning at events, pitches and partner meetings with prepared materials.
• Lead contract mobilisation for new awards: project plans, timelines, risk registers and delivery governance.
• Monitor budgets, procurement and subcontractor coordination across live contracts.
• Maintain a rolling three-month capacity and delivery outlook across the portfolio, working with Sheena to flag emerging overload risks.
• Own client progress reporting and invoicing milestones.
• Maintain standard scopes, budgets, templates, project records and lessons learned across the portfolio.
• Work closely with the wider Terra Impact team — identifying cross-platform opportunities, supporting joint or integrated proposals, and sharing partner intelligence — so business development strengthens the whole portfolio. 

Knowledge, Qualifications and Skills Required

Essential: 

6+ Years of relevant experience as well as: 

• Proven proposal / bid development and project management in a development, government-advisory or consulting context (essential).
• Strong writing and the ability to structure a persuasive, compliant technical-financial proposal.
  
• Strong understanding of the environment, water and climate sector priorities, articulate priorities, issues and identify gaps, passionate about impact-oriented development projects.
• Comfort with client relationships in government, institutional, corporate and NGO settings alike
• Environmental, biodiversity, nature-based solutions, capacity building, fungi, pollinators and/or geospatial knowledge to adequately represent the portfolio
• Organised, deadline-driven, able to manage several delivery workstreams and bids in parallel.
• Comfortable with contract mobilisation and delivery governance: budgets, procurement, subcontractor coordination and risk registers, alongside proposal and pipeline work.