Partnership Management Consultant

CIMMYT is a cutting edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow's problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers, while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries.

About this Roster Position

This vacancy is intended to identify and assess qualified internal and external candidates for CIMMYT’s Talent Roster. Successful candidates may be considered for future opportunities matching their experience, job family, level and location.

Inclusion in the roster does not constitute an offer or guarantee of employment. Opportunities arise according to project requirements, organizational priorities and the availability of donor funding. When a suitable position becomes available, CIMMYT will reconfirm the candidate’s interest and availability and may conduct a brief role-fit assessment before appointment.

Consultancies in this roster are based within CIMMYT’s Office of the Chief Transformation Officer and support the design and strengthening of institutional partnership management across CIMMYT’s research programs and Chapters. The focus is on how CIMMYT selects, contracts, monitors and manages its implementing partners and collaborators throughout the partnership lifecycle. This roster does not cover donor relations or resource mobilization.

Engagements are typically home-based and part-time (approximately half-time), with short missions to CIMMYT headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. Consultants work with a high degree of independence, producing institutional-quality frameworks, procedures and tools that are handed over to CIMMYT staff for implementation.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct diagnostics of existing partnership management systems, processes and practices across programs, including stakeholder interviews, process mapping and systems landscape reviews.
• Translate diagnostic findings and risk assessments into prioritized design requirements and recommendations.
• Develop institutional partnership management frameworks covering value proposition, strategic priorities, partner segmentation, governance, decision rights, and roles and responsibilities.
• Draft operational procedures across the partnership lifecycle: partner selection, risk-based due diligence, contract management, financial and performance monitoring, technical quality assurance, relationship management and close-out.
• Design practical tools for staff, such as financial monitoring templates, due diligence risk-tiering and organizational capacity assessment tools, partner risk registers, tracking tools and close-out checklists.
• Define functional and data requirements for embedding procedures into ERP and contract management systems, and for portfolio-level oversight dashboards.
• Prepare implementation and change management roadmaps, including phased rollout, piloting, training needs and interim workarounds.
• Coordinate with Finance, Grants, Legal, Donor Relations, program leadership and IT/ERP teams, and provide regular written progress updates to senior management.
• Prepare handover packages and support knowledge transfer to the CIMMYT staff responsible for implementation.

Requirements

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum 10 years of experience in partnership, grants or program management within international organizations, research institutions or NGOs, including donor-funded, multi-program environments.
• Demonstrated experience designing or strengthening financial controls, due diligence frameworks, or partnership/grant management systems, including in response to audit findings or risk assessments.
• Proven track record of independently producing institutional-quality policies, frameworks and procedures under tight timelines.
• Strong financial acumen: ability to interpret partner budgets, financial reports and funding structures and translate them into practical controls and monitoring tools.
• Working knowledge of grant and contract management systems (e.g., ERP platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, contract management platforms such as Icertis) and of dashboard tools for portfolio oversight.
• Experience conducting organizational diagnostics, including stakeholder interviews and process mapping across dispersed, multi-country teams.
• Excellent written English and document design skills, with the ability to produce board- and donor-ready material.
• Experience with CGIAR, agricultural research or Global South–focused development organizations is an advantage.

Benefits

This is an individual consultancy. CIMMYT offers a competitive fee commensurate with experience and the scope of each assignment, and covers travel costs for missions to headquarters in accordance with CIMMYT policy. As a consultancy, this engagement does not include staff benefits. It offers the opportunity to shape how a leading international agricultural research organization works with its partners across the Global South.