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About the Role

The Development Lead – Prospect Research and New Business Development leads funder research, prospect development, active pipeline management, and research operations across fundraising verticals. This experienced individual contributor role aims to mature the prospect development function by improving prospect identification, prioritization, tracking, and data management, including the responsible use of AI and automation to support fundraising decisions.

Responsibilities

Lead and evolve RMI's prospect research and prospect development work across the revenue portfolio, maintaining centralized prospect lists and pipelines.
Identify, evaluate, and recommend U.S. and global prospects across revenue streams, with emphasis on action-ready opportunities.
Apply Apra-informed best practices in capacity, inclination, affinity, and readiness analysis; relationship mapping; ethical research; due diligence; reputational judgment; and privacy-conscious documentation.
Own cross-vertical new business development workstreams, including research delivery, reporting, meeting facilitation, accountability tracking, process improvements, and prospect briefings.
Actively manage program-specific and cross-program prospect pipelines, tracking opportunity status, prospect movement, owner accountability, next steps, and action follow-up.
Conduct pipeline analysis, reporting, and financial pipeline reviews to identify funding gaps and high-potential opportunities.
Partner with Relationship Managers and program colleagues to prioritize prospects, identify engagement gaps, support follow-up, and elevate barriers to Development leadership.
Translate prospect and pipeline data into clear recommendations for where RMI should focus relationship-building time and senior leadership attention.
Serve as a steward of high-quality prospect and pipeline data in Salesforce, including relationship data, ratings, attribute coding, opportunities, tasks, moves management, prospect status, and next steps.
Partner with Development Operations and data/technology colleagues to strengthen the prospect research data model in Salesforce or related data warehouse/reporting environments.
Develop standardized rating practices; evaluate research resources, datasets, AI applications, automation tools, data enrichment services, and vendor relationships.
Use AI and automation responsibly to reduce duplicative manual work, improve prospect discovery, increase reporting speed, and support prioritization.
Identify, streamline, document, and improve internal processes across research requests, qualification, outreach handoffs, data flow, reporting, and knowledge management.
Promote knowledge-sharing and consistent adoption of prospect research and new business development processes across collaborators.
Train Development, Strategic Engagement, and Program colleagues on prospect research tools, data practices, and effective partnership with Development.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
5 years of dedicated experience in prospect research, prospect development, fundraising operations, donor services, advancement services, or a related nonprofit development function.
Familiarity with the Apra Body of Knowledge, Apra-informed ethical research standards, and current prospect development practices.
Experience identifying and qualifying prospects across fundraising verticals, including individuals/HNWIs, family offices, family foundations, donor-advised fund holders, institutional foundations, corporate philanthropy or fee-for-service partners, and public-sector funders.
Experience with prospect research tools and methods, including DonorSearch, WealthX, Foundation Directory/Foundation Center, Relationship Science, Salesforce, screenings, relationship mapping, public records, due diligence, and moves-management support.
Strong data fluency, including Salesforce reports/dashboards, segmentation, data mining, database overlays, data hygiene, pipeline reporting, and comfort partnering on Salesforce or data warehouse improvements.
Experience using or evaluating AI-enabled research tools, workflow automation, data enrichment tools, or vendor systems.
Demonstrated analytical, project management, writing, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills.
Sound judgment with sensitive information; disciplined prioritization; due diligence and judgment; and ability to build shared ownership of next steps across a matrixed team.
Must have current, independent authorization to work in the U.S. without present or future sponsorship from RMI.

Skills

Prospect research
Prospect development
Pipeline management
Fundraising operations
Data analysis
Salesforce
AI and automation tools
Apra-informed best practices
Relationship mapping
Ethical research
Due diligence
Reputational judgment
Privacy-conscious documentation
Analytical skills
Project management
Writing skills
Collaboration skills
Stakeholder management

Location

Remote (Continental United States)

Work Type

Remote
Hybrid

Experience Level

Lead
Senior individual contributor
5 years of experience

Education Level

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Salary/Compensations

$76,030-$93,707
5% annual bonus target

Benefits

Medical, dental, vision insurance
403b retirement match with immediate vesting
Group life, AD&D, and short- and long-term disability
Optional voluntary life, AD&D and accident plans
Health savings or flexible spending accounts
Fertility and hormonal health support
Mental health and wellness support
Comprehensive leaves of absence (including generous parental leave)
Generous paid time off and sick leave
Paid sabbatical leave
Regional holidays with at least one extended break in each geography
Work from home and home technology allowances
Learning & development opportunities (LinkedIn Learning and an annual individual professional development budget)
Potential for bonuses and merit increases
Discount marketplace (gym memberships, pet insurance, etc.)
Team retreats and geographic meetups
Rewards and recognition programs

About the Company

RMI is a global team of experts dedicated to building a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future.
We are a remote-ready company with team members around the globe.
Our U.S. offices are in New York City; Washington DC; Oakland, California; Boulder, Colorado, and Basalt, Colorado.

Equal Opportunity

RMI is dedicated to the principles of equal employment opportunity as outlined in U.S. federal law.
We prohibit discrimination against applicants, interns, and employees on the basis of any legally recognized basis, including but not limited to: age (40 and over), race, color, sex, pregnancy (including lactation, childbirth, or related medical conditions), religion, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information (including testing and characteristics), sexual orientation, gender expression/identity, uniformed service member status, veteran status, citizenship status, or any other applicable status protected by applicable law.
RMI is an equal opportunity employer.
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.