Jobs · Education · Virginia

Principal, Pursuit Strategy & Intelligence

HDR · Arlington, VA · 2 wk ago
On-siteEducation$148k–$211k/yrFull-time

About the role

The Principal, Pursuit Strategy & Intelligence role at HDR drives strategic growth by embedding data-informed decision-making, early engagement, and disciplined capture planning across the pursuit lifecycle. This role serves as a central connector and intelligence hub, enabling stronger opportunity selection, sharper positioning, and improved win rates.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and manage a multidisciplinary team of pursuit strategists, specialists, and designers across sectors.

  • Recruit, hire, onboard, and train new team members to strengthen capacity and capability.

  • Foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture that supports innovation, engagement, and growth.

  • Represent AMS in internal initiatives, training opportunities, technology adoption, and operational improvements.

  • Lead development and implementation of a firmwide pursuit strategy framework that standardizes early engagement and decision-making.

  • Establish and scale capture planning and premarketing practices across all sectors.

  • Provide strategic guidance on opportunity positioning, teaming, and differentiation.

  • Enable pursuit teams to bring strong, strategy-led insights into go/no-go discussions.

  • Build and manage pursuit dashboards and reporting systems to track performance and inform decisions.

  • Deliver actionable insights on clients, markets, and opportunities to improve selectivity and targeting.

  • Lead win/loss analysis, debriefs, and continuous improvement efforts.

  • Drive adoption of CRM tools (e.g., Redwood) and integration of intelligence into workflows.

  • Lead innovation in pursuit strategy, including AI-enabled tools, analytics, and frameworks.

  • Support and lead GNG readiness processes through data and technology.

  • Develop scalable tools and standardized approaches for firmwide use.

  • Engage across sectors to identify market trends, client drivers, and growth opportunities.

  • Communicate firm capabilities and competitive differentiators to internal and external stakeholders.

  • Promote a culture of strategic thinking and informed decision-making.

  • Mentor and train pursuit professionals on strategy development, capture planning, and opportunity analysis.

  • Lead onboarding and capability-building for technical and marketing staff related to strategy.

  • Increase awareness and engagement of AMS in business development efforts across cost centers.

Qualifications

  • A minimum of 15 years relevant industry experience.

  • Demonstrated "self-starter" with a history of completing projects with limited oversight.

  • Deep knowledge of the A/E/C industry's standard approach to procurement of professional services.

  • Demonstrated ability to motivate and inspire others.

  • Maintain a professional or engineering registration or certificate or have related technical experience.

  • Experience in sales and developing effective win strategies.

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

  • Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

  • Ability and desire to travel and engage with others in-person.

  • Demonstrated experience in writing compelling content based on information from technical staff.

  • Strong financial acumen and negotiation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Demonstrated experience in winning high-value contracts in the A/E/C industry.

  • Work on pursuit deadlines up to 25%.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits package that promotes employee ownership, employee health, performance, and success, which includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, life insurance, an employee assistance program, paid time away, parental leave, paid holidays, a retirement savings plan with employer match, employee referral bonus and tuition reimbursement.

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