Pursuit Specialist

D.M. Wills Associates; Peterborough; On-site; CAD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

D.M. Wills Associates seeks a skilled Pursuit Specialist in Peterborough, Ontario. The role focuses on shaping pursuit strategies, developing compelling proposals, preparing client presentations, and coordinating cross-functional teams to improve win probability.

The successful candidate will bring market intelligence, client insight, and disciplined pursuit management to strengthen client relationships and growth across municipal, provincial, and private sectors.

Qualifications

• 4-year degree in marketing, communications, business, planning, engineering, technology or related field.
• Minimum 5 years in proposal, pursuit, marketing, communications, or business development in architecture, engineering, environmental, planning or construction consulting.
• Excellent writing, editing, organizing and facilitation skills.
• Ability to understand technical input and convert it into clear client-facing language.
• Experience with proposal schedules, compliance matrices, and content libraries.
• Knowledge of municipal, provincial, and private-sector pursuits is an asset.
• Significant experience with Microsoft Office Suite, project management software and Adobe.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate pursuit planning and strategy development.
• Develop client-focused value propositions and competitive differentiators.
• Prepare client presentations, executive summaries and proposal materials.
• Manage multiple deadlines and cross-functional teams to ensure timely submissions.
• Collaborate with practice areas to strengthen pursuit messaging and content quality.
• Monitor pursuit performance and drive continuous improvement in processes.

Skills

Proposal writing

Strategic communication

Facilitation

Relationship building

Attention to detail

Education

4-year degree in marketing, communications, business, planning, engineering, technology or related field

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

Adobe

Project management software

Job description

Application Deadline: OPEN

Position Status: Full-Time, Permanent

Position Type: Existing Vacancy

Compensation: $70,000 - $100,000

Hours of Work: Based on 40 hours per week

Work Location: Peterborough, Ontario

Hiring Contact

For questions about this position or the recruitment process, please contact:

Dakotah Herron, Human Resources Business Partner

Email: [e-mail]

Are you a strategic, collaborative, and highly organized professional who enjoys turning client insight and opportunities into winning strategies? The Pursuit Specialist is a high-impact role focused on strengthening how Wills identifies, develops, and pursues opportunities. You will bring together market intelligence, client insight, strategic thinking, persuasive communication, and disciplined pursuit management to position Wills for success and increase our win probability.

Working closely with leaders, Client Managers, Proposal Leads, and technical teams across the organization, you will help shape pursuit strategies, develop compelling proposals, prepare client presentations, and continuously improve how we approach business development. This role is ideal for someone who can see both the big picture and the details, confidently influence without direct authority, and bring people together around a shared strategy. You will have a meaningful opportunity to strengthen client relationships, advance the One Wills approach, and contribute directly to Wills’ sustainable growth.

Key Responsibilities:

Pursuit Planning & Opportunity Strategy

• Lead and facilitate the Triage process, assessing opportunities using client, market, competitor, and organizational insights to support qualification, prioritization, and Go/No-Go decisions.
• Facilitate pursuit planning to develop strategies, win themes, client-focused value propositions, and competitive differentiators.
• Evaluate RFP/RFQs and procurement requirements to identify client priorities, evaluation criteria, risks, compliance requirements, and proposal needs.
• Apply professional services business development expertise across engineering, planning, environmental, construction, or related consulting sectors.
• Demonstrate familiarity with municipal, provincial, and private-sector pursuits and procurement processes.

Marketing

• Conduct market, sector, geographic, and client research to identify prospective clients, emerging needs, procurement trends, and future opportunities.
• Evaluate and prioritize target clients, markets, and service opportunities based on strategic priorities, organizational capabilities, and growth potential.
• Build and apply client and market intelligence to identify decision-makers, understand client needs, competitors, relationships, and barriers to entry.
• Use market insights to inform client and market development strategies and prioritize business development resources ahead of formal procurement.
• Develop client- and opportunity-specific sales and capture strategies aligned with client needs, relationships, competitive positioning, and Wills’ capabilities.
• Build and strengthen client relationships through purposeful engagement that demonstrates value, influences needs, and creates opportunities ahead of formal procurement.
• Assess client priorities, decision-making dynamics, relationship progress, and opportunity risks to inform positioning and next steps.
• Advance qualified opportunities through strategic engagement and influence, sharing relevant client and market intelligence to support Triage, Go/No-Go decisions, and proposal development.

Proposal Planning & Project Coordination

• Lead proposal planning and kickoff activities, establishing outlines, schedules, responsibilities, review timelines, and submission requirements.
• Coordinate pursuit activities across internal teams to maintain alignment, accountability, and timely delivery.
• Manage multiple priorities, contributors, deadlines, and changing RFP/RFQ requirements while maintaining proposal quality and submission readiness.
• Monitor progress and review gates, proactively identifying and addressing schedule, compliance, content, and quality risks.

Proposal Writing & Strategic Communication

• Develop, write, edit, and integrate compelling, client-focused proposal content that is clear, persuasive, compliant, and aligned with Wills’ standards.
• Translate complex technical information into clear, value-driven language that effectively communicates Wills’ approach, expertise, and differentiators.
• Collaborate with technical teams to develop executive summaries, project approaches, team profiles, project experience, cover letters, and other pursuit materials.
• Apply sound judgment and constructive challenge to strengthen messaging, address gaps, and enhance proposal competitiveness.
• Support client presentations and shortlisted interviews through strategic messaging, presentation planning, coaching, and rehearsal.
• Facilitate alignment across presentation teams to ensure clear roles, consistent messaging, and compelling differentiators.
• Strengthen client engagement and pursuit outcomes through concise, focused, and persuasive presentations aligned with client priorities and evaluation criteria.

Knowledge Management & Content Development

• Maintain and enhance proposal content, resources, and reusable pursuit assets to support efficient, high-quality submissions.
• Collaborate with internal teams to ensure proposal content, branding, document quality, and submission materials are consistent and ready for use.
• Promote effective knowledge management by leveraging digital tools and identifying opportunities to standardize, improve, and expand reusable content and best practices.

Performance Measurement & Continuous Improvement

• Monitor pursuit performance, pipeline activity, KPIs, and proposal outcomes to support informed business development decisions.
• Lead win/loss, Triage, and Go/No-Go debriefs to identify lessons learned, trends, and opportunities to strengthen pursuit practices and competitiveness.
• Use data, reporting, and client feedback to drive continuous improvement in pursuit selection, proposal quality, efficiency, and outcomes.

Collaboration, Coaching & Relationship Building

• Build collaborative relationships across Practice Areas, Proposal Leads, Project Leads, Client Managers, technical teams, and support functions to strengthen pursuit execution and advance the One Wills approach.
• Provide coaching, guidance, and expertise to improve proposal quality, consistency, persuasive writing, and pursuit practices.
• Foster collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and continuous improvement while influencing outcomes across diverse teams and competing priorities.

Qualifications and Experience

• 4-year degree in marketing, communications, business, planning, engineering, technology, English or related field or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 5 years of proposal, pursuit, marketing, communications, or business development experience in architecture, engineering, environmental, planning, and construction consulting industry.
• Excellent writing, editing, organizing and facilitation skills.
• Ability to understand technical input and convert it into clear client-facing language.
• Experience working with multiple deadlines, contributors, reviewers and changing RFP/RFQ requirements.
• Experience with proposal schedules, compliance matrices, review gates, pipeline tools, document control and content libraries.
• Advanced judgement, attention to detail and ability to challenge weak assumptions constructively.
• Knowledge of municipal, provincial, and private-sector pursuits is an asset.
• Significant experience with Microsoft suite of tools, project management software and Adobe.