Higher Education Business Development Leader

DLR Group; Orlando (FL); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

DLR Group in Orlando seeks a strategic Higher Education Business Development Leader to grow our Higher Education practice. You will shape and execute a growth strategy, partnering with Southeast leaders, studios, and design teams to advance institutions’ missions.

You will identify target institutions, build relationships with colleges and universities, lead pursuit strategies, and mentor teammates while staying current on regional higher education trends.

Qualifications

• Six or more years of business development or related experience.
• Knowledge of the Southeast higher education market.
• Ability to develop growth strategies and cultivate senior-level relationships.
• Experience supporting proposals, presentations, interviews, or pursuit activities with client-focused messaging.
• Strong collaboration, communication, presentation, and organizational skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities across offices and disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Partner with regional and local Higher Education leaders to develop and execute a business development strategy for the Southeast.
• Work with studio and design leaders to identify target institutions, establish market priorities, and develop relationship and pursuit plans.
• Build DLR Group’s presence with public and private colleges, universities, and community colleges throughout the region.
• Cultivate relationships with institutional leaders, facilities and planning teams, academic stakeholders, foundations, and industry partners.
• Identify opportunities across campus planning, academic and research facilities, student life, and other areas of DLR Group’s Higher Education practice.
• Collaborate with designers, architects, engineers, planners, and marketing professionals on pursuit strategies, proposals, interviews, and presentations.
• Lead business development meetings that establish priorities, responsibilities, and next steps.
• Mentor team members in relationship development, client engagement, and pursuit strategy.
• Stay informed about regional higher education trends, institutional capital plans, funding priorities, procurement processes, and professional associations.
• Represent DLR Group at industry events and in conversations with prospective clients and partners.

Skills

Business development

Relationship building

Strategic planning

Proposal support

Communication

Organizational skills

Cross-office collaboration

Market knowledge Southeast higher ed

Job description

Higher Education Business Development Leader

DLR Group is an integrated design firm with a promise to elevate the human experience through design. This fuels the work we do around the world and inspires our mission to improve the lives of our clients, our communities, and our planet. If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place.

We are seeking a strategic and entrepreneurial Higher Education Business Development Leader based in Orlando to grow DLR Group’s Higher Education practice. This individualwill shape and execute a growth strategy, partnering with Southeast leaders, local studios, and integrated design teams. You will build relationships with colleges and universities, identify opportunities, and position DLR Group to help institutions advance their academic missions.

About Higher Education at DLR Group

DLR Group’s Higher Education practice fully embraces our responsibility to society by designing spaces that emphasize academic learning and social development. We are transforming the educational landscape, working with our clients to set new horizons for learning and living that enrich campus communities, the spaces they strive to provide, and what they can achieve. Our team draws from evidence-based design to work with institutional stakeholders to strengthen student and faculty engagement, ensuring that learning is enhanced through design. We also understand the rapid pace of technological, social, and cultural change; our teams work with colleges and universities to navigate these challenges.

Our work spans campus planning, academic and research environments, student life, libraries, workforce training, arts, and athletics. DLR Group’s Evolution of Campus research also helps institutions plan for changing student needs, including engagement and wellbeing.

What you will do:

• Partner with regional and local Higher Education leaders to develop and execute a business development strategy for the Southeast.
• Work with studio and design leaders to identify target institutions, establish market priorities, and develop relationship and pursuit plans.
• Build DLR Group’s presence with public and private colleges, universities, and community colleges throughout the region.
• Cultivate relationships with institutional leaders, facilities and planning teams, academic stakeholders, foundations, and industry partners.
• Identify opportunities across campus planning, academic and research facilities, student life, and other areas of DLR Group’s Higher Education practice.
• Collaborate with designers, architects, engineers, planners, and marketing professionals on pursuit strategies, proposals, interviews, and presentations.
• Lead business development meetings that establish priorities, responsibilities, and next steps.
• Mentor team members in relationship development, client engagement, and pursuit strategy.
• Stay informed about regional higher education trends, institutional capital plans, funding priorities, procurement processes, and professional associations.
• Represent DLR Group at industry events and in conversations with prospective clients and partners.

Required Qualifications:

• Six or more years of business development, client development, or related experience, preferably in higher education, architecture, engineering, construction, or professional services.
• Knowledge of the Southeast higher education market and the ability to build relationships with institutional decision-makers.
• Demonstrated ability to develop growth strategies, cultivate senior-level relationships, and turn opportunities into competitive pursuits.
• Experience supporting proposals, presentations, interviews, or other pursuit activities with messaging tailored to client needs.
• Strong collaboration, communication, presentation, and organizational skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities while working across offices and disciplines.

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new builds, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects.

We are 100% employee-owned: every employee is literally invested in our clients’ success. At the core of our firm are interdisciplinary teams engaged in every step of project lifecycles. Our teams champion true collaboration, open information sharing, shared risk and reward, value-based decision making, and proficient use of technology to deliver exceptional design. We are pursuing the goals of the 2030 Challenge, the ME2040, and the SE2050, and are an initial signatory of the China Accord and the AIA 2030 Commitment.

Through our values – commitment, creativity, environmental stewardship, fun, integrity, ownership, sharing, teamwork – we elevate the human experience through design, together.
DLR Group follows a four-day in-office work model, with employees having the flexibility to work somewhere other than the office on Fridays.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/M/F/Veteran/Disabled employer.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in DLR Group’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.