Senior Pursuits Manager

Timmons Group•Richmond, VA

4d•$140,000 - $160,000•Onsite

About The Position

Timmons Group is seeking an experienced Senior Pursuits Manager to join its Marketing Team in Richmond, Virginia. Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), this role provides strategic and operational leadership for the firmwide pursuit and proposal management function, leading Pursuits Managers who oversee Pursuits Coordinators. The Senior Pursuits Manager strengthens competitive positioning and improves win rates by advancing pursuit strategy, proposal effectiveness, team capabilities, and performance. The role shifts pursuit work from reactive proposal production toward proactive, strategic, consultative partnership. It works closely with principals, technical leaders, and business development to support early positioning, compelling differentiation, innovative strategies, and a high-performing team. The position also leads improvements to firmwide pursuit practices, monitors performance, develops team capabilities, and provides hands-on strategic leadership for selected high-priority pursuits.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related field, and/or equivalent work experience.
Minimum 12–15 years of progressive pursuit and proposal management experience in the AEC industry.
Proven success developing winning pursuit strategies and differentiated proposals across public and private markets, including federal, state, local, and design-build procurement.
Demonstrated success leading managers and developing multi-level pursuit teams through coaching, performance management, and a commitment to elevating individual and team capabilities.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite.
Exceptional strategic thinking, writing, editing, storytelling, and creative problem-solving skills, including the ability to translate technical information into persuasive messaging.
Strong consultative, communication, and organizational skills; exceptional attention to detail; ability to influence leaders and manage competing deadlines.
Demonstrated ability to lead proposal QA/QC processes and uphold rigorous quality and compliance standards.
Proactive, solutions-oriented leadership with sound judgment and ownership.
Understanding of CIP research, market intelligence, proactive opportunity identification, and strategic capture planning.
High energy, creativity, flexibility, patience, and self-starting ability in a dynamic work environment.
Commitment to Timmons Group’s Vision, Mission, and Shared Values.

Nice To Haves

Engineering-sector experience.
Experience with Deltek Vantagepoint.
Experience with AI-enabled proposal management and proofreading tools, such as Kantiv.

Responsibilities

Lead and elevate the firmwide pursuit process, including go/no-go decisions, capture planning, proposals, and shortlist interviews.
Drive proactive opportunity identification and early positioning using CIP research, market intelligence, client insights, and engagement with technical and business development leaders.
Coach pursuit teams to develop client-focused proposals with compelling win themes, persuasive messaging, clear value propositions, and meaningful differentiation.
Introduce creative storytelling, innovative strategies, and best practices to improve proposal impact and effectiveness.
Establish, lead, and continuously improve firmwide proposal QA/QC processes, review protocols, and tools to ensure RFP compliance, accuracy, consistency, and quality.
Lead shortlist interview strategy and preparation.
Tailor pursuit strategies to AEC procurement requirements, including federal, state, and local RFPs, private-sector pursuits, and design-build RFQs.
Monitor pursuit metrics, including win rates, proposal effectiveness and quality, workload, and resource utilization.
Provide reporting, insights, and recommendations to the CMO and firm leadership to inform pursuit decisions and growth strategies.
Champion continuous improvement through debriefs, lessons learned, CRM, automation, and AI tools for proposal development, management, and proofreading, including Kantiv.
Lead, mentor, and coach Pursuits Managers, building leadership capabilities and strengthening strategic thinking, writing, storytelling, and consultative skills across the function.
Set expectations and coach Pursuits Managers to improve proposal quality, review practices, compliance expertise, and attention to detail while fostering accountability and continuous improvement.
Oversee staffing, resource planning, workload management, and priorities across teams; provide feedback, performance guidance, and execution support.
Partner with the CMO and business development leadership to align pursuit priorities with firmwide growth strategy and build consultative relationships with technical leaders.
Provide hands-on strategic leadership for selected high-priority pursuits, from early positioning and capture planning through proposals and interviews.
Partner with principals, client managers, and business development to translate CIP research and client and competitive intelligence into early positioning, client engagement, and capture strategies.
Facilitate strategic discussions to sharpen positioning, identify differentiators, strengthen win themes, and improve the firm’s ability to win.