Director, Business Development and Partnerships

TFO Canada is an Ottawa-based non-profit organization founded in 1980 with a distinct and vital mission: to confront global poverty by fostering sustainable and inclusive economic development. Unlike traditional agencies focused on expanding domestic exports, TFO Canada drives international growth by acting as a critical bridge that helps small and medium-sized enterprises in developing nations access global marketplaces, particularly Canada. By providing comprehensive trade information, expert advice, and vital commercial contacts, the organization elevates smaller exporters while enabling Canadian consumers to benefit from a more diversified and robust marketplace.

Operating under the guiding principle of creating development impact through mutually beneficial trade, TFO Canada aligns its activities with global priorities, including a rigorous commitment to gender equality, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. The organization has built an exceptional track record of success working across South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

As global markets become increasingly volatile, TFO Canada’s role in promoting trade diversification has never been more relevant. By helping Canadian retail buyers and importers discover alternative supply sources in emerging economies, the organization plays a proactive role in mitigating supply chain risks. This strategic positioning ensures that international aid is delivered not as a short-term remedy, but as a sustainable commercial solution that lifts communities out of poverty while enriching the choice and resilience of the Canadian market.

At its core, TFO Canada’s strength is its international team, which represents at least 15 countries and speaks over eight languages. This diverse workplace brings together new immigrants and seasoned professionals in an open, collaborative environment to deliver high-impact global programming. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, TFO Canada leverages funding from public entities like Global Affairs Canada and is now focused on building new partnerships to diversify into multi-year funding streams.

Summary of the Role The Director of Business Development and Partnerships is a key leadership position within TFO Canada’s Senior Management Team. Reporting directly to the Executive Director, you will be accountable for planning and driving all business development and funding diversification strategies. This role balances high-level relationship building with hands-on execution, from writing multi-year proposals to managing the business development and partnership pipeline.

A central mandate of the position is to diversify TFO Canada's funding streams away from a historic reliance on government funding. To do this, you will leverage your existing network and build new relationships to secure commitments from Canadian and global private sector entities and international development (including philanthropic) funding. Working alongside the internal programming and finance teams, you will contribute to the team’s collaborative evaluation process to ensure new opportunities align with the organization’s strategic vision and operational capabilities. You will manage the pipeline with the judgment needed to convert prospective leads into high-value opportunities that advance the mission and achieve organizational sustainability goals.

You will also lead TFO Canada's internal Board Business Development Committee, acting as the governance representative for your department. In this role, you will collaborate closely with senior leadership and board members to align with the strategic plan, translate pipeline metrics into clear executive updates, and advise on funding sustainability risks.

As the department head, you will build out your team by recruiting, onboarding, and mentoring a dedicated Marketing Manager within your first six months. At the same time, you will optimize the use of the centralized CRM to track donor and partner engagement, championing its adoption across the leadership team. By bringing disciplined, data-backed planning to the pipeline and coordinating with internal stakeholders, you will improve how the organization evaluates and secures internal trade and development project agreements.

Is This For You? To be successful in this position, you are a business development professional with at least 10 years of experience securing multi-year funding agreements from major foundations, corporate partners and diverse donors. You bring a structured, data-driven approach to proposal design, with a track record of writing technical submissions and navigating executive-level governance. You possess a strong understanding of trade capacity building and the commercial realities facing developing country exporters, trade support institutions, and international importers. Being bilingual or trilingual in English, French, or Spanish is considered a strong asset for communicating with global partners.

Because you will operate as a sole contributor initially, you must balance strategic planning with daily execution. This role requires an organized and detail-oriented professional who is comfortable driving pipeline growth with a lean team, managing competing assignments independently and building trust directly with senior leadership and a formal board of directors.

You bring a genuine passion for trade based resilient, sustainable and inclusive economic growth and international development, ensuring your personal goals align with TFO Canada’s mission of confronting global poverty through inclusive trade. Your communication style is collaborative and adaptive, allowing you to establish credibility across internal programming teams, government representatives, and private sector executives alike. Given the organization’s global footprint and diverse team, you work effectively across different cultural backgrounds, demonstrate active listening, and show a genuine appreciation for diverse workplace practices.

What Success Looks like at the End of Your First Year By the end of your first year, you will have successfully integrated into TFO Canada's senior management team and earned credibility across the organization by aligning your strategic growth goals with the operational realities of our program delivery teams. Your integration into the office culture will be strong, built on collaborative peer relationships and a shared commitment to organizational excellence.

On an operational level, your first year will be marked by modernizing tracking systems and team growth. You will have successfully recruited and onboarded a high-performing Marketing Manager, increasing your department's capacity to monitor donor publications, track website leads and run proactive campaigns. Moving data off manual spreadsheets, you will have established consistent use of the centralized CRM to provide dependable pipeline forecasting and clear dashboards for senior leadership.

Most importantly, you will have made measurable progress on the organization's funding diversification strategy. You will have established a clear framework for identifying new business areas and stabilized the near-term proposal pipeline. Your efforts will have successfully advanced several multi-year corporate and foundation opportunities outside of direct Canadian government funding, positioning TFO Canada to confidently meet its long-term strategic milestones.

*Compensation package includes a Management Incentive

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