Role purpose

Reporting to the Director, External Relations, the External Relations Manager will support MBZFH’s engagement, partnership, and stakeholder management activities, helping to strengthen the Foundation’s visibility, credibility, and influence across the global health, philanthropy, development, and UAE ecosystem. The role will coordinate external engagement planning, prepare high-quality communications and briefing materials, maintain stakeholder intelligence, and support the delivery of convenings, missions, forums, and leadership engagements.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Partnerships & Relationship Development

• Drive the development and advancement of MBZFH’s strategic partnerships, working across governments, philanthropic foundations, multilaterals, international organisations, funders, NGOs and implementing partners.
• Maintain and deepen relationships with existing partners, ensuring MBZFH remains responsive to evolving partner priorities and identifying opportunities to strengthen or expand collaboration.
• Proactively identify and develop a pipeline of prospective partners and strategic opportunities aligned with MBZFH’s organisational priorities, programmes and long-term objectives.
• Research and develop a nuanced understanding of prospective partners, including their priorities, strategies, areas of expertise, funding interests and potential alignment with MBZFH.
• Identify and help shape tangible opportunities for collaboration, including opportunities to integrate partners into existing programmes, develop new initiatives, strengthen advocacy efforts or advance shared strategic objectives.
• Support partnership development from initial opportunity identification through engagement, relationship development, internal alignment and progression towards formal collaboration.

Strategic Intelligence & Opportunity Development

• Monitor and analyse the global health, development, philanthropy and international cooperation landscape to identify emerging trends, partner priorities, strategic opportunities and developments relevant to MBZFH.
• Conduct stakeholder and ecosystem mapping to identify influential organisations, potential partners and areas where MBZFH can build or strengthen strategic relationships.
• Gather and synthesise strategic intelligence from external engagements, research and partner interactions to develop actionable insights for the Foundation.
• Translate insights about the external ecosystem and partner priorities into clear implications and opportunities for MBZFH’s organisational strategy, programmes and future partnerships.
• Work closely with Strategy, Programmes and other internal teams to understand strategic priorities and open questions, ensuring external intelligence gathering and partnership development activities are targeted and relevant.
• Develop and maintain a structured partnership pipeline and intelligence system to track prospective partners, opportunities, engagement progress, key insights, commitments and follow-up actions.

Senior Stakeholder Engagement & Executive Support

• Build and manage relationships with senior external stakeholders across MBZFH’s partnership ecosystem, exercising sound judgement, political awareness, cultural sensitivity and discretion.
• Prepare high-quality partnership briefs, stakeholder profiles, meeting notes, talking points and background materials to support senior leadership engagement with priority partners.
• Support senior leadership in preparing for and following up on strategic external engagements, ensuring meetings and interactions are informed by a clear understanding of stakeholder priorities, opportunities and desired outcomes.
• Represent and position MBZFH appropriately in selected external engagements and support the cultivation of relationships that advance the Foundation’s strategic objectives.

Cross-Functional Partnership Coordination

• Work collaboratively across Programmes, Strategy, Communications, Operations, Legal and the Executive Office to ensure partnership opportunities are strategically aligned and effectively advanced.
• Connect external partnership opportunities with internal organisational priorities, helping to identify where programmes, strategy and partner interests can be brought together to create meaningful collaboration.
• Coordinate internal input required to assess, develop and advance partnership opportunities, ensuring appropriate alignment, ownership and follow-through.
• Facilitate effective information sharing across teams so that relevant insights from partners and the external ecosystem inform organisational decision-making and planning.

Knowledge Management & Follow-Through

• Maintain clear and accessible records of partner intelligence, strategic insights, relationship developments, opportunities, commitments and agreed actions.
• Produce concise synthesis briefs and updates that translate external intelligence and partnership developments into actionable insights for leadership and relevant internal teams.
• Ensure consistent follow-through on priority relationships and partnership opportunities, tracking actions, commitments and next steps across multiple stakeholders and internal teams.
• Contribute to the continuous development of effective systems and processes for partnership intelligence, opportunity tracking and relationship management.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Experience and Expertise

• 7–10 years of relevant professional experience, ideally in strategic partnerships, partnership development, philanthropy, international development, multilateral engagement, international cooperation, resource mobilisation, strategy, consulting or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience developing and advancing strategic partnerships, including identifying opportunities, understanding partner priorities, cultivating relationships and translating opportunities into tangible collaborations.
• Experience working across a broad international or multi-country ecosystem, with exposure to a range of stakeholders such as governments, multilaterals, philanthropic foundations, funders, international organisations, NGOs and implementing partners.
• Strong strategic thinking and analytical capability, with the ability to map stakeholder ecosystems, gather and synthesise intelligence, understand institutional priorities and identify opportunities relevant to organisational strategy.
• Demonstrated ability to connect external insights and partnership opportunities with internal organisational strategy and programmes, moving beyond relationship management to identify meaningful opportunities for collaboration.
• Excellent relationship-building and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence and judgement to engage senior external stakeholders across diverse institutional, political and cultural contexts.
• Experience managing complex partnership portfolios and multiple external relationships, with the ability to balance long-term relationship development with proactive opportunity identification.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, particularly the ability to distil complex information into concise, high-quality partnership briefs, stakeholder profiles, talking points, meeting materials and strategic updates for senior audiences.
• Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage a pipeline of partnership opportunities, multiple engagements, commitments, deadlines and follow-up actions in a fast-paced environment.
• Collaborative working style, with the ability to work effectively across Programmes, Strategy, Communications, Operations, Legal and senior leadership to advance shared priorities.
• Highly proactive, hands-on and solutions-oriented, with the ability to work independently, anticipate opportunities, navigate ambiguity and take ownership for moving initiatives forward.
• Experience within global health, international development, philanthropy, humanitarian action or international cooperation is desirable, but candidates are not required to be technical subject-matter experts.
• Familiarity with the UAE or Gulf ecosystem and Arabic language capability are advantageous but not essential. A broad global network and international partnership experience are of greater importance.

Personal Attributes

• Strategic and intellectually curious, with a strong interest in understanding the external environment and connecting disparate insights.
• Relationship-oriented while remaining outcome-focused.
• Comfortable operating independently and taking a hands-on approach to developing opportunities.
• Strong judgement, discretion and political awareness.
• Able to move between big-picture strategic thinking and detailed execution.
• Comfortable working across organisational boundaries and bringing different teams together around shared opportunities.

Languages

• Fluency in English is essential. Arabic language capability would be an asset.

Terms of Appointment

This is a two-year renewable contract.

Role Location

The role is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with some travel.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please ensure you complete the Application Form provided below by 14 September 2026 (23:59 hrs, GMT +4). It is essential that you submit your CV in English, specifically in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx), not exceeding 10MB.

Applications in other languages or formats will not be considered.

Rest assured, all information will be handled with the utmost confidentiality.

SRI Executive is exclusively retained by the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity to undertake this assignment.