Program Officer, Partnerships

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization dedicated to fighting global poverty and providing emergency relief, with a focus on empowering women and girls. This role operates within CARE USA’s global partnership function.

This position serves as the operational core of CARE USA's global partnership efforts within the Program Strategy & Innovation (PSI) division, providing support to both the AVP, Program Strategy & Partnerships and the Director of Partnerships. The officer is responsible for overseeing CARE’s strategic partnership pipeline, coordinating due diligence and agreement processes, maintaining partnership knowledge systems, and ensuring all active partnership tracks advance efficiently and to a high standard. Additionally, the Program Coordinator manages workflow processes and tracking systems for the wider Program Strategy & Partnerships function, including bid pipeline and IPO/PSI trackers. While the primary focus remains on partnerships, broader workflow support is a secondary, ongoing duty. The role involves close collaboration with the Director and AVP to ensure global partner engagements—including corporate foundations, development finance institutions, social impact investors, and private sector alliances—are well-managed, documented, and progress smoothly from identification to signed agreement and active implementation. The ideal candidate is highly organized, proactive, and adept at managing complex multi-stakeholder workflows, producing high-quality written materials, and collaborating effectively across functions and time zones.

1. Own and maintain CARE’s global partnership tracker, ensuring all active tracks are updated on status, outstanding actions, and ownership.
2. Support the AVP and Director of Partnerships by managing workflow processes and tracking systems across the wider Program Strategy & Partnerships function, including bid pipeline and IPO/PSI trackers.
3. Provide weekly pipeline status summaries to the Director and AVP, highlighting risks, blockers, and time-sensitive items.
4. Coordinate follow-up actions, meeting logistics, and documentation for all active partnership and workflow tracks to ensure continuity.
5. Maintain a consolidated portfolio view across partner types, engagement stages, and alignment to PSI signature programs for informed decision-making.
6. Conduct targeted desk research to support partner identification, landscape mapping, and opportunity assessment as directed.
7. Drive the MOU, partnership framework, and agreement tracking process, monitoring status, flagging outstanding legal or signature items, and escalating issues promptly.
8. Coordinate with CARE’s Legal and Compliance teams to support due diligence workflows, compile required documentation, and manage review timelines.
9. Manage review cycles for concept notes and partnership proposals, consolidating inputs from technical leads and ensuring timely finalization.
10. Maintain a coordination log for all active concept notes, proposals, and agreements, documenting decisions, approvals, and next steps.
11. Support budget development and MEL framework processes related to partnerships by tracking inputs, consolidating versions, and managing review and approval workflows.
12. Coordinate the development of partnership-facing materials like pitch decks, one-pagers, briefing notes, and talking points, managing timelines and reviews.
13. Prepare and circulate pre-meeting briefings and post-meeting action logs for all partnership engagements involving the Director or AVP.
14. Support the drafting of partner communications, progress reports, and proposal narratives as directed.
15. Contribute to the development of communication materials, case studies, and success stories highlighting the impact of CARE’s strategic partnerships.
16. Establish and manage a Partnership Learning Hub to organize, document, and share best practices, tools, templates, and lessons learned.
17. Design and maintain partnership tools and templates to strengthen the partnership management capabilities of PSI technical teams.
18. Disseminate key findings and learning from partnership activities via presentations and written summaries at internal CARE forums.
19. Analyze partnership portfolio data to identify patterns, surface insights, and support adaptive management.

1. Bachelor’s degree in International Development, Business, Public Policy, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and work experience.
2. Minimum of 5–7 years of experience in partnership coordination, program management, or external relations within the international development or social impact sector.
3. Demonstrated experience managing complex multi-stakeholder workflows, timelines, and deliverables across multiple concurrent workstreams.
4. Experience coordinating legal or compliance review processes, including MOUs, partnership frameworks, or grant agreements.
5. Strong proficiency in partnership or project tracking systems, document management platforms, and productivity tools (e.g., Salesforce, Asana, SharePoint, or similar).
6. Excellent written communication skills, with a proven ability to produce high-quality materials for external audiences, such as briefings, one-pagers, and proposals.
7. Demonstrated ability to build and manage relationships with diverse actors across the international development sector.
8. Ability to prioritize and manage diverse tasks across multiple projects to meet competing time and resource constraints with minimal supervision.