Director of Pursuit & Proposals

Position responsibilities

• Lead Pursuits, Pitches, and Proposals: Lead and support the development of high-impact proposals and pitch materials, ensuring teams respond with clear, compelling, and well-structured content for the firm's highest priority opportunities.
• Shape Win Strategy: Define the win themes, positioning, and messaging that differentiate the firm in the market, bringing greater rigor to how opportunities are shaped before any materials are developed.
• Align Strategy to Client Context: Support pursuit teams in aligning their overall strategy to specific client needs and context, ensuring the firm’s value proposition is directly relevant to the target audience.
• Coach Strategic Pursuits: Provide hands-on coaching to partners and teams on pursuit approach, pitch flow, and presentation readiness, elevating the quality of delivery through rigorous preparation and feedback.
• Direct High-Importance Opportunities: Provide direct leadership and support for the firm’s largest or most significant pursuits, ensuring they receive the strategic attention required for success.
• Structure Complex Opportunities: Lead the project management of large or cross-functional pursuits, coordinating timelines, workstreams, and inputs to keep key opportunities moving forward and teams aligned.
• Build Repeatable Ways of Working: Standardize core pursuit and proposal processes to move the function from reactive support to a scalable model, developing the tools, templates, and playbooks that improve efficiency.
• Scale Through Technology: Evaluate and implement technology solutions that help scale repeatable processes, ensuring the team can handle increased volume without sacrificing quality.
• Drive Process Consistency: Establish and reinforce a more consistent approach to how the firm manages pursuits, ensuring that standard best practices are applied across all practices and regions.
• People Leader: Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports, providing day-to-day supervision, ensuring compliance with assigned work hours, and monitoring for compliance with all firm and department policies.
• Support Business Professional Development: Collaborate with immediate supervisor and central HR to participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination, and other employee lifecycle events.

Skills and experience

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications.
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required.
• Ability to travel, as required.
• 10+ years of directly relevant exempt-level experience (e.g., marketing or business development, preferably with an emphasis working in a pursuits and proposals function), with 5+ years of management experience in relevant roles.
• Demonstrated experience writing and editing proposals.
• Strong working knowledge of pursuit technologies (e.g., Templify and Foundation).
• Proven track record of effective leadership, including experience to modernize a pursuit function and pursuit coaching.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred, but not required.

Competencies

• Entrepreneurial by nature.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Approaches tasks through a lens of quality and consistency.
• Approaches tasks through a digital first lens.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with ability to facilitate and solve problems.
• Organizes, prioritizes, and coordinates multiple activities often under tight timelines.
• Takes a consultative approach to set goals, drive projects, and achieve outcomes.
• Proven ability to lead through influence and develop talent.
• Proactive, analytical mindset.
• Effective presentation skills.

Pay and Benefits

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full-time schedule is $260,000 - $320,000. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate.

We offer a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package, including:

• A full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long-term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits.
• 25 days of Paid Time Off (“PTO”) and 10 paid holidays each year.
• Generous parental leave and fertility benefits.

New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.