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Position: Senior Associate / Assistant Manager – Business Development
Function: Central Business Development (CBD)
Location: India / Remote
Position Type: Full Time
Start Date: 1st September 2025 (earlier preferred)

About Athena Infonomics

Athena Infonomics is an impact solutions group that applies social science research, data analytics, and technology to advance global development. Athena works with governments, multilaterals, bilateral agencies, foundations, nonprofits, impact investors, and private-sector partners across areas such as governance, technology, analytics, public health, education, WASH, climate, economic development, and digital public infrastructure.

Role Overview

Athena Infonomics is seeking a Senior Associate / Assistant Manager – Business Development to join its Central Business Development (CBD) team. The role will primarily support lead business development for Athena’s AI, API/DPI, technology, data, and digital transformation practice areas, while also contributing to broader BD analytics, opportunity intelligence, market research, and proposal development support.
The selected candidate will work under the CBD team leadership and in close coordination with the concerned technical practices to identify relevant opportunities, conduct donor and market intelligence, support proposal development, strengthen partner and competitor mapping, and help translate Athena’s technology and AI-related capabilities into strong BD and proposal positioning.
This role is suited for someone who is structured, analytical, proactive, and comfortable working across business development, technology-enabled development, research, and data-driven decision-making. The candidate should be able to manage multiple workstreams, work with senior stakeholders, and use digital and GenAI tools responsibly to improve BD efficiency and quality.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead Business Development Support for AI, API, Technology and Digital Practice Areas
  • Support lead business development efforts for Athena’s AI, API, data, technology, digital transformation, ICT, digital public infrastructure, and data governance-related opportunities.
  • Track and assess opportunities from multilaterals, bilaterals, foundations, government agencies, DFIs, research institutions, and private-sector clients relevant to AI and technology-enabled development.
  • Conduct early-stage opportunity assessment, including client fit, technical alignment, eligibility, competitive landscape, likely partners, positioning strategy, and bid/no-bid inputs.
  • Support the development of opportunity briefs, donor/client notes, partner mapping documents, and competitive intelligence summaries.
  • Help build and maintain a focused pipeline for AI, API, digital governance, data systems, ICT, digital transformation, and technology-enabled development opportunities.
  • Work closely with technical teams to understand Athena’s capabilities and translate them into BD-ready positioning notes, capability statements, concept notes, and proposal inputs.
  • Support outreach preparation, including background research on clients, donors, competitors, partners, and relevant decision-makers.
  • Identify emerging market themes and funding trends in AI for development, digital public infrastructure, GovTech, data governance, responsible AI, digital transformation, digital economy, and technology-enabled service delivery.

Proposal Development Lifecycle Support
  • Serve as a Central BD point of contact for assigned Athena practices, with a strong focus on technology, AI, data, analytics, and digital transformation-related workstreams.
  • Support the end-to-end proposal development lifecycle, with a focus on coordination, documentation, compliance, formatting, research inputs, proposal packaging, and submission readiness.
  • Work closely with technical practices, finance, HR, operations, leadership, and external partners to coordinate proposal inputs and timelines.
  • Track proposal requirements, deadlines, eligibility criteria, evaluation criteria, submission formats, annexures, and compliance checklists.
  • Support the preparation of expressions of interest, concept notes, capability statements, technical proposals, organizational profiles, CV matrices, past performance references, partner documentation, and submission annexures.
  • Provide proposal research and content support for opportunities in AI, data governance, ICT, digital public infrastructure, API ecosystems, and other technology-enabled development areas.
  • Support proposal positioning by identifying relevant Athena experience, comparable assignments, team credentials, partner strengths, and client priorities.
  • Facilitate information flow between practices and the Central BD team to ensure timely decision-making and coordinated pursuit of opportunities.
  • Maintain quality and consistency across proposal documents, ensuring alignment with donor/client requirements and Athena’s strategic positioning.
  • Help practices translate technical strengths, project experience, emerging ideas, and reusable knowledge into BD-ready materials.
  • Support post-submission documentation, proposal archiving, learning notes, and internal debriefs.
  • Maintain updated repositories of practice credentials, sector experience, project references, CVs, case studies, capability statements, and reusable proposal content.

Business Development Analytics
  • Be part of the BD Analytics function and support daily, weekly, and monthly analytics requirements.
  • Maintain and update BD dashboards, trackers, pipeline databases, opportunity logs, CRM entries, and reporting templates.
  • Support analysis of opportunity pipelines, proposal conversion rates, donor/client trends, sector priorities, win-loss patterns, proposal timelines, and practice-level BD performance.
  • Prepare periodic reports and summaries for leadership, practice teams, and internal BD reviews.
  • Ensure accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of BD data across internal systems and reporting formats.
  • Identify insights from BD data that can inform prioritization, resource allocation, pipeline planning, and strategic decision-making.
  • Support analytics around AI, technology, and digital opportunities, including donor trends, opportunity volume, win/loss patterns, and competitive positioning.

Market, Donor, Partner and Competitor Intelligence
  • Conduct structured market research on donors, clients, funders, competitors, primes, consortium partners, and emerging opportunity areas.
  • Track procurement trends across multilaterals, bilaterals, foundations, government agencies, development finance institutions, and technology-focused development programmes.
  • Prepare market intelligence notes on AI, digital transformation, data governance, GovTech, API ecosystems, digital public infrastructure, and responsible AI.
  • Support partner mapping for specific bids and broader strategic positioning, including identifying potential primes, subs, technology partners, research partners, and local implementation partners.
  • Track competitor activity, awarded contracts, framework participation, relevant past performance, and positioning in Athena’s priority markets.
  • Contribute to internal intelligence trackers and summaries that support bid/no-bid decisions, capture planning, and strategic outreach.

GenAI-Enabled BD Process Improvement
  • Use GenAI tools responsibly to support proposal research, summarization, content structuring, compliance review, market research, knowledge management, and first-draft development.
  • Help identify use cases where GenAI can improve efficiency and quality in BD workflows.
  • Support the development of reusable prompts, templates, checklists, opportunity assessment formats, and guidance notes for BD and proposal teams.
  • Apply good judgment in reviewing GenAI-supported outputs for accuracy, confidentiality, originality, relevance, and alignment with Athena’s quality standards.
  • Stay curious about new AI-enabled productivity tools and assess how they can support BD analytics, market intelligence, proposal development, and knowledge management.

Knowledge Management and Internal Coordination

  • Maintain organized BD repositories, including proposal documents, capability decks, project references, staff profiles, partner information, market research notes, and reusable content.
  • Support internal meetings, pipeline reviews, proposal kick-offs, follow-ups, and documentation of action points.
  • Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure timely availability of inputs for proposals and BD reporting.
  • Contribute to continuous improvement of BD systems, templates, workflows, dashboards, trackers, and internal communication processes.
  • Help strengthen institutional memory by capturing proposal learnings, client intelligence, partner insights, and reusable BD content.

Qualifications & Experience

Required Qualifications
  • Master’s degree in business, economics, public policy, development studies, management, social sciences, data analytics, communications, technology policy, information systems, or a related field.
Experience
  • For Senior Associate level: 3 to 6 years of relevant experience, including demonstrated exposure to proposal development, donor/client opportunity tracking, market research, and cross-team coordination.
  • For Assistant Manager level: 6 to 8 years of relevant experience, with the ability to independently manage BD workstreams, coordinate with senior stakeholders, support practice-level BD planning, and lead structured market and opportunity research.

Preferred Experience
  1. Experience working in consulting, international development, social impact, research advisory, public policy, digital transformation, data/technology-enabled development, or technology consulting organizations.
  2. Familiarity with proposal processes for donors, multilaterals, bilaterals, foundations, government agencies, DFIs, and development-sector clients.
  3. Prior experience supporting proposal development or BD research in AI, data governance, ICT, digital public infrastructure, API platforms, GovTech, digital transformation, digital economy, responsible AI, or related technology-enabled development domains.
  4. Experience conducting market research, donor intelligence, competitor mapping, partner mapping, awarded contract research, and opportunity analysis.
  5. Experience maintaining dashboards, trackers, MIS reports, CRM systems, or business development analytics tools.
  6. Exposure to tools such as MS Teams, MS Office, SharePoint, Power BI, Tableau, Salesforce, or similar platforms will be an advantage.
  7. Practical experience using GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, or other productivity and research tools.

Skills and Competencies
  1. Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  2. Excellent coordination and stakeholder management abilities.
  3. Strong attention to detail, especially in proposal compliance, documentation, and submission readiness.
  4. Ability to manage multiple deadlines and workstreams simultaneously.
  5. Analytical mindset with comfort working with trackers, dashboards, structured data, and BD performance metrics.
  6. Strong research, synthesis, and sense-making skills.
  7. Ability to conduct market research and translate findings into actionable BD intelligence.
  8. Ability to work with technical teams on AI, API, data governance, ICT, digital public infrastructure, and technology-enabled development themes.
  9. Ability to convert technical inputs into clear BD-ready content, proposal language, capability notes, and opportunity briefs.
  10. High degree of ownership, responsiveness, follow-through, and comfort working in a fast-paced BD environment.
  11. Proficiency in MS Office and SharePoint Workspace, especially Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Docs, Slides, and Sheets.
  12. Curiosity and comfort in adopting digital and GenAI tools to improve productivity, research quality, and proposal workflows.
  13. Ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise judgment while handling internal strategy, proposal, and client information.

What Success Looks Like
  • AI, API, technology, data, and digital transformation opportunities are tracked systematically and assessed with clear fit, positioning, and partner intelligence.
  • Proposal processes are better coordinated, compliant, and delivered on time.
  • Proposals in AI, data governance, ICT, API platforms, digital public infrastructure, and related areas are supported with strong coordination, compliance, and sector-relevant inputs.
  • Assigned practices receive consistent, proactive, and high-quality BD support.
  • BD dashboards and reports are accurate, timely, and useful for decision-making.
  • Market intelligence, donor research, competitor mapping, and partner insights are captured systematically and shared with the right stakeholders.
  • Reusable BD content, templates, trackers, and repositories are well maintained.
  • GenAI tools are used responsibly to improve speed, structure, and quality of BD outputs.
  • The candidate becomes a reliable execution and intelligence support resource for BD leadership and technology-focused growth priorities.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a structured, proactive, and analytical business development professional who enjoys working at the intersection of proposals, market intelligence, analytics, and technology-enabled development. They should be comfortable supporting senior BD leadership, engaging with technical teams, handling multiple moving pieces, working with data and dashboards, and using digital and GenAI tools to improve productivity.
The candidate should have a strong interest in social impact, development consulting, public policy, AI, data governance, API ecosystems, ICT, digital public infrastructure, and digital transformation. They should be able to move between detail-oriented proposal coordination and higher-level business development research, helping Athena identify the right opportunities, position effectively, and strengthen its AI and technology-led growth agenda.

Additional Requirements
  • This position requires successful completion of a reference check and employment verification.
  • The successful candidate must not be subject to employment restrictions from a former employer (such as a non-compete) that would prevent the candidate from performing the job responsibilities as described.
  • Only candidates who have India work authorization will be considered.
Athena’s Work Culture
At Athena, we function in an outcomes-based work environment with flexible hours and a high level of autonomy. Professional development and thought leadership are key elements of our business model: we support our team members' professional growth through on-the-job training, and we encourage the cultivation of our colleagues’ personal brands through participation in panels, events, publications, and other thought-leadership opportunities. We embrace a transparent, open work environment with meaningful leadership pathways for those with inventive ideas and initiatives

Athena Infonomics is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Athena Infonomics is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.


AI Proficiency and Responsible Use
Proficiency in the responsible and sophisticated use of AI is a mandatory requirement for all roles, across all levels and functions at Athena Infonomics



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