Who We Are 

Founded in 2004, Building Markets is an award-winning nonprofit that creates jobs and encourages economic growth in developing countries by finding, building and connecting competitive local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to supply chains and investment. Through this approach, the organization has built a network of more than 23,000 verified SMEs, assisted them in winning over $1.3 billion in contracts, and helped create over 70,000 jobs in some of the world’s poorest economies. Building Markets is headquartered in New York City and currently operates programs in Jordan, Myanmar and Turkey. For more information, please visit www.buildingmarkets.org.

Background 

As a part of its continued response effort to the Syrian crisis, Building Markets has a project in Turkey, together with local partners, to improve socio-economic cohesion and resilience among refugee and host communities through increased access to job, business, and investment opportunities. This includes a survey of Turkey-based enterprises to bring greater visibility to them, business linkages to increase access to new markets, and a targeted training and capacity building program to grow local expertise. 

Job Summary 

The Business Development Assistant (BDA) reports to the Business Development Manager and has a balanced role to manage client relationships through external communication and a systematic follow-up mechanism. The ideal candidate is a results-driven team player with strong sense of urgency and excellent interpersonal, communication skills who can perform in a structured manner. BDA works in close coordination with business verification, communication and mentorship teams to support business development and outreach efforts in order to create linkages between Turkish, Syrian and other refugee-owned businesses, generate new contracts and facilitate tender applications with the ultimate purpose of fostering sustainable growth and job creation.

Responsibilities and Duties

Planning

• Review and analyze existing portfolio of businesses and sectors to identify potential partnership opportunities;
• Provide input to improve the outreach and business development strategy;

Business Development

• Implement business development plans for each viable target sector and institutional buyer;
• Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with the businesses and stakeholders;
• Support the expansion of Building Markets’ business network and matchmaking platform (https://entrepreneurs.buildingmarkets.org);
• Support and participate in organization of networking events to create linkages between Turkish, Syrian and other refugee-owned businesses;
• Research and post tenders found on various portals to Building Markets’ online platform; 
• Identify, encourage, and assist relevant businesses to apply for tenders published on Building Markets’ online platform;
• Log, track, and execute action notes from meetings and events; 
• Work with other team members in conducting outreach.

Tracking and Reporting

• Ensure all systems and relevant M&E (monitoring and evaluation) tools are duly updated to track matchmaking results and impact;
• Provide input to monthly and quarterly reports within set deadlines;
• Ensure results and success stories are catalogued and provided to the communications team in a timely manner.

Required Qualifications  

• Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, related field or substantial equivalent in professional experience;
• Familiarity with Turkish market;
• Ability to work independently in close coordination with team members;    
• Demonstrable experience in a customer facing role; 
• Strong analytical skills;
• Attention to detail;
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills;
• Fluency in Arabic and Turkish;
• Ability to perform multiple tasks and meet critical deadlines, while maintaining accuracy and quality.

Desired Qualifications

• Familiarity with Syrian businesses;
• English language skills;
• Experience working with civil society in Turkey or similar context.

Reporting Lines

Reports to: Business Development Manager

Travel

Possible travel within Turkey 

Duration

Full-time Position, 4-month contract

Compensation 

Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications

Applications

Interested candidates are invited to send a CV/Resume, cover letter, and three professional references by email to the associated email address no later than April 26th, 2018. The subject line must read “Business Development Assistant - Turkey”.