Pursuit Strategist

Summary

Join CannonDesign as a Pursuit Strategist and become a key player in shaping our firm's most significant projects. You will lead strategy development, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and translate complex information into compelling narratives. This role demands strong writing, presentation, and strategic thinking skills, along with experience in proposal management within a professional services firm. Based anywhere in the US, this position offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for professional growth within a supportive and collaborative environment. You will work closely with firm leaders, business developers, and marketing teams to drive success. Success requires transforming raw data into meaningful stories that inform decisions and inspire action.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, communications or a related field required
• Minimum of 8 years of related work experience required
• Related experience working in a proposal management role influencing strategy and content for a professional services firm required
• Strong proficiency with InDesign, Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy development for our firm’s most significant and complex project pursuits
• During early phases of the Strategic Pursuit Process, you’ll develop an overall action plan that includes profiles of decision-makers and influencers, a competitor analysis, a SWOT analysis and comprehensive market research, all of which you’ll use to develop insights that inform our strategy
• Partner closely with the Opportunity Leader to develop a project-specific win plan (client issues, features, benefits and proof statements), strategic teaming plan and spearhead the preliminary go/no go and strategy review
• Lead the effective facilitation of strategy sessions/workshops to develop a pursuit strategy targeted to the client’s needs. Drive an established agenda, guide the creative brainstorming process, challenge and tests ideas, develop action items and assignments, and synthesize the intelligence, outcomes and next steps of these sessions
• Ensure the greatest possibility of success by supporting compliance, readability and messaging of pursuit-related materials
• Collaborate with opportunity leaders and marketing leads to organize and determine the objectives of strategy sessions/workshops according to our strategic pursuit process. Identify and engage local, regional and firm resources to support the win-planning process
• Partner with pursuit teams to develop and implement differentiators, value propositions, key messages, project approaches and successful interview presentations
• Partner with the proposal content team, subject matter experts and our BMBD team to ensure messaging is translated into a compelling narrative with graphics that provide visual storytelling that reinforces and amplifies our pursuit theme throughout the proposal
• Serve as a presentation rehearsal coach and facilitator to organize and prepare teams for client presentations and interviews
• Participate in win/loss debriefs and identify and leverage lessons learned to inform future pursuits
• Coach and mentor Marketing Specialists and Senior Marketing Specialists across the region in proposal strategy and strategic storytelling
• Develop strong, in-depth knowledge of the firm’s portfolio and personnel and brand (how we express ourselves visually and verbally) to connect with clients and differentiate ourselves in the marketplace
• Develop subject matter expertise (across markets, typologies, services, technology or other) that adds value to our marketing initiatives and pursuit activities
• Work with our National Marketing Pursuits Leader and Regional Marketing Team Leaders to train and develop our Senior/Marketing Specialists
• Provide peer review and oversight for accuracy and quality of content
• Self-review all work for accuracy and quality of content
• Up to 25% travel expected
• May participate in external marketing activities

Preferred Qualifications

• Related experience working in the Architecture, Engineering and/or Construction industry preferred
• Familiarity with Deltek CRM Vision, Salesforce and Miro is a plus
• Strategic thinker able to translate ideas into plans, goals and role assignments with measures to ensure implementation
• Enthusiasm for working as part of a driven and disciplined team, with a motivation to overcome hurdles and obstacles to find solutions
• Ability to command a room, gain consensus and navigate team and organizational dynamics effectively
• Strong time and project management skills, along with the ability to manage up as you work with large teams in a deadline-driven environment
• Solid skills and confidence in driving a process
• Able to inspire and collaborate with a creative team to bring ideas to life
• Effective communicator — able to share ideas with confidence and clarity, and shape creative and compelling narratives

Benefits

• The salary range for this position is $90,00 to $107,100 annually
• Employees may be eligible for discretionary bonuses
• We offer a full benefit package including medical, dental and vision coverage and flexible spending account options and voluntary insurances
• We have paid time off, flex-time schedules, remote work options and a 401k plan and employee perk programs