Marketing Pursuit Director

About the role

Benesch is seeking a Marketing Pursuit Director to lead our strategic approach to priority pursuits across markets and service lines. This is a high-impact leadership role focused on helping Benesch position for, pursue, and win our most important opportunities. The Director will partner closely with firm leaders, seller/doers, project leaders, and technical teams to develop differentiated pursuit strategies, strengthen client positioning, and turn market, client, and competitive intelligence into winning strategies.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic pursuit planning for priority opportunities across Benesch’s markets and service lines.
• Facilitate pursuit strategy workshops, kickoff meetings, and strategic reviews to align teams around client priorities and pursuit objectives.
• Develop and direct messaging strategies for major proposals, qualifications, interviews, and other client-facing opportunities.
• Guide capture planning and pre-positioning activities in collaboration with project leaders, seller/doers, and technical teams.
• Help pursuit teams identify client priorities, win themes, differentiators, competitive positioning, and value propositions.
• Gather, analyze, and synthesize client, competitor, market, and procurement intelligence to inform pursuit strategies and decisions.
• Translate client and competitive intelligence into actionable strategies throughout the pursuit lifecycle.
• Partner with leadership and business development teams to align pursuit strategies with client needs, market trends, and Benesch’s growth objectives.
• Coach technical staff, project leaders, and marketing teams on persuasive communication, storytelling, presentation strategy, and client-focused messaging.
• Partner with proposal managers and coordinators across the company to elevate strategic content, proposal quality, and overall pursuit effectiveness.
• Lead interview strategy development and presentation coaching for shortlisted pursuits.
• Establish and advance best practices for pursuit planning, messaging development, strategic reviews, and pursuit execution.
• Lead Benesch’s Good, Better, Best proposal quality program and conduct proposal quality audits to ensure high-quality, differentiated deliverables.
• Ensure proposal narratives clearly communicate client understanding, value, qualifications, differentiators, and why Benesch is the right partner.
• Analyze pursuit outcomes, including wins and losses, to identify trends, lessons learned, and opportunities to improve future pursuits.
• Lead and develop market research and grant writing capabilities, identifying opportunities to strengthen these functions across the firm.
• Conduct marketing and pursuit strategy workshops and training for technical staff, project leaders, and marketing professionals.
• Share institutional knowledge, market intelligence, and pursuit insights across the firm to strengthen overall pursuit readiness.
• Collaborate with leadership to improve strategic targeting, opportunity evaluation, and pursuit selection.
• Mentor and develop marketing professionals, helping build strategic thinking, pursuit leadership, and client-focused communication skills.
• Contribute to broader marketing and business development planning initiatives that support Benesch’s growth and market position.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field required.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in professional services marketing, pursuit management, business development, proposal strategy, or a related field, preferably within the AEC industry.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, high-value pursuits from strategy and pre-positioning through proposal development and interview.
• Strong understanding of capture planning, pursuit strategy, proposal development, client positioning, and competitive intelligence.
• Proven ability to develop differentiated win strategies, messaging, and interview strategies that respond directly to client priorities.
• Exceptional facilitation and strategic communication skills, with the ability to influence multidisciplinary teams in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments.
• Strong understanding of AEC markets,