Marketing Winning Work Sr. Specialist - Water

Arup; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Arup in San Francisco seeks a Marketing Winning Work Senior Specialist for the Water business to lead and shape work-winning activities across the pursuit lifecycle. You will collaborate with business leaders, bid directors, and bid managers to craft compelling client propositions and coordinate high-quality submissions.

You will align writers, editors, designers, and client managers to strengthen win strategy, messaging, and proposal quality while guiding resourcing, timelines, and go/no-go

Qualifications

• Degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Development or related field.
• Certification with CPSM or APMP is desirable.
• Experience in pursuing and bidding in AEC or similar industries.

Responsibilities

• Lead win strategies and resource planning across the Water business pursuits.
• Coordinate proposal processes, ensuring compliance and high-quality submissions.
• Collaborate with writers, editors, designers, and client managers to strengthen messaging.
• Guide prioritization, risk assessment, and pipeline planning using CRM data.
• Drive go/no-go decisions and improve bid processes for efficiency and quality.

Skills

Analysis & problem-solving

Communication skills

Negotiation

Interpersonal skills

Marketing technologies

Collaboration

Fast-paced work adaptability

Proposal coordination

CRM systems

SharePoint

Bid management tools

Education

Marketing/Communications degree

CPSM or APMP desirable

Tools

CRM systems

SharePoint

Bid management tools

Job description

Marketing Winning Work Sr. Specialist - Water

At Arup we’re dedicated to shaping a better world. Our purpose, shared values and collaborative approach have set us apart for over 80 years. We solve the world's most complex problems and deliver what seems impossible, with curiosity and creativity. We’re a thriving and growing organization which offers you many possibilities to shape a better world, and your future.

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, our Marketing, Communications, and Business Development (MCBD) team enables Arup to build and protect our reputation, deepen client relationships, win quality work, and attract top talent. This role will be key in achieving our strategic market and client ambitions. We are seeking to hire a Marketing Winning Work Sr. Specialist to strengthen our MCBD function.

What the role involves

The Marketing Winning Work Sr. Specialist is accountable for leading and shaping work winning activities for the Water Business within the West and LATAM geography. The role provides strategic and operational leadership across the full pursuit and bid lifecycle, ensuring alignment with business priorities and Arup’s firm strategy.

The Senior Specialist works in close partnership with business leaders, bid directors, and bid managers to define win strategies, lead complex pursuits, and drive high-quality proposal and interview outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Partners withthe Water Business leader, Bid Directors and Bid Managers to bring the best of our global experience to our local clientsthroughout all stages of the pursuits process.
• Advises business leaders on pursuit strategy, resourcing, and bid prioritization, balancing efficiency, effectiveness, and probability of win.
• Lead and manages proposal processes of varying scale and complexity, with full accountability for bid coordination, compliance, and quality to deliver compelling, client-focused submissions.
• Guide development, liaising with technical teams, schedulers, project managers and other contributors for timely receipt of information required to meet internal and external (client) deadlines and priorities.
• Guides and aligns MCBD contributors (writers, editors, graphic designers, client managers, etc.) to strengthen win strategy, messaging, and proposal quality.
• Actively contribute to business development and go/no-go decision-making by providing insight on pipeline priorities, bid risk, and resourcing implications.
• Use appropriateand effectivereviews(such as report team reviews)through bid processesand ensure proposal development processes are scaled to support bid delivery schedule and goals.
• Identify, lead, and implement improvements to bidding processes, tools, and practices to improve efficiency, quality, and win rates across the business.
• Capture project win nuggets to share internally and in collaboration with the broader MCBD team promote new project wins internally and externally, as appropriate.

CRM and Systems

• Is accountable for accurate, timely, and effective use of CRM and bid systems throughout the bid lifecycle, ensuring data integrity and meaningful pipeline reporting.
• Provide insight from CRM data to inform annual business planning and pursuit prioritization.
• Is proficient in data quality and the use of bid sites, SharePoint databases and CRM to support real-time pipeline reporting and growing our ability to extract insight from our pursuits.

Market and Client Focus

• Maintain a strong understanding of the local industry, markets, clients, and competitors, using this insight to shape win strategies and client propositions.
• Guide and facilitates win strategy development for priority pursuits.
• Support client-facing activities including coordinating and providing input on presentations and interview preparation.

Requirements

Qualifications and Accreditations

• Degree, postgraduate qualification in Marketing, Communications, Business Development or other relevant qualification.
• Certification with CPSM or APMP desirable.

Knowledge and Experience

• 7 years’ experience working in pursuits and bids in the AEC industry or similar.
• Demonstrated experience in managing pursuits and bids.
• Experience of prepositioning and bidding lifecycle and bid delivery at a local office geography / region scale.
• Knowledge of current AEC bidding trends and procurement methods.
• Working with the technical staff and marketing team to ensure proposal process is followed, and to ensure quality and consistency in all proposal/qualifications documents.
• Conducting and tracking activities related to project pursuits in CRM pipeline management tools.
• Be a valuable member of the firms’ professional team by maintaining and enhancing the culture and core values of Arup.

Skills and Attributes

• Strong skills in analysis and problem-solving.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency in marketing and communications related technologies.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple priorities.
• Able to maintain strong and highly collaborative working relationships with peers, leaders