Specialist, Request for Proposals

EAB Career Center; Richmond (VA); On-site; USD 38,000 - 58,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

20+ days of PTO annually

401(k) retirement savings plan

Wellness programs

Life and disability insurance

Job summary

EAB is seeking a Specialist, Request for Proposals to drive commercial success by shaping high-impact RFP responses. You will translate customer needs into persuasive narratives and own multiple RFPs from strategy to delivery.

You will work closely with sales, product, and marketing, influencing outcomes with strong judgment and problem-solving, while building trusted cross-team relationships across the organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent required.
• 1–2+ years in a writing, marketing, or sales enablement role.
• Strong writing skills and comfort in a writing-intensive role.
• Strong communicator with excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong project management skills.
• Proficiency with MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Familiarity with cloud-based content management platforms (Box, Dropbox, etc.).

Responsibilities

• Analyze RFPs, customer insights, and inputs to define proposal strategy.
• Create clear, persuasive RFP responses that differentiate EAB.
• Manage a portfolio of RFPs with competing deadlines and ad hoc requests.
• Develop, refine, and standardize RFP content reflecting product updates and market trends.
• Maintain RFP content library with accuracy and consistency.
• Identify process improvements to boost RFP quality and efficiency.
• Collaborate with sales, product, and marketing on RFP requirements.
• Build deep knowledge of EAB's products, customers, markets, and competitors.
• Capture insights and share market intelligence with internal teams.
• Advise on RFP best practices and proposal strategy.
• Provide support to the RFP and strategy teams as needed.

Skills

Strong writing skills

Strong communicator

Strong project management

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Box/Dropbox or similar cloud platforms

Job description

About EAB

At EAB, our mission is to make education smarter and our communities stronger. We work with more than 2,800 institutions to drive transformative change through data-driven insights and best-in-class capabilities. From kindergarten to college to career, EAB partners with leaders and practitioners to accelerate progress and drive results across enrollment, student success, institutional strategy, data analytics, and advancement. We work with each partner differently, tailoring our portfolio of research, technology, and marketing and enrollment solutions to meet the unique needs of every leadership team, as well as the students and employees they serve.

At EAB, we serve not only our partner institutions but each other—that's why we are always working to make sure our employees love their jobs and are invested in their communities. See how we've been recognized for this dedication to our employees by checking out our recent awards.

For more information, visit our Careers page.

The Role in Brief:

Specialist, Request for Proposals

The Specialist, Request for Proposals plays a key role in driving EAB’s commercial success by supporting high-impact RFP responses. As part of a multi-million-dollar sales enablement function, this role carries significant ownership over proposal strategy and messaging for high-value opportunities.

Working closely with sales, product, marketing, and subject matter experts, the Specialist translates complex customer needs and RFP requirements into clear, persuasive narratives that demonstrate EAB’s value as a long-term partner. The role requires strong judgment, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to influence outcomes without direct authority.

This is a highly visible role for a self-starter who is motivated by impact, accountability, and continuous growth. The position offers exposure to firm-wide strategy, a defined career path, and the opportunity to build trusted relationships across EAB’s commercial, product, and delivery teams.

This role may be based in Washington, DC or Richmond, VA.

This position is also posted at the Senior Specialist level; candidates are being considered at both levels for the current opening.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Analyze RFPs, customer insights, and strategic inputs to identify customer priorities and define proposal strategy.
• Use creativity and problem solving to develop clear, persuasive RFP responses that meet requirements, differentiate EAB’s offerings, position EAB as a long-term partner, and uphold EAB’s RFP standards of excellence.
• Own and manage a portfolio of RFPs simultaneously, balancing competing deadlines and ad hoc requests while maintaining high quality standards.
• Create, refine, and standardize RFP content to reflect product updates, market trends, and competitive positioning.
• Maintain EAB’s RFP content library, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and alignment with current product and competitive messaging.
• Identify and lead process improvements that increase RFP quality, efficiency, or team productivity, including experimentation with AI-enabled tools and data-driven workflows.
• Partner with sales, product, and marketing teams to address RFP requirements and product‑specific questions.
• Build and maintain deep knowledge of EAB’s products, customers, markets, and competitors through ongoing learning and research.
• Capture insights from RFP activity and share competitive and market intelligence with relevant internal teams.
• Advise commercial and account management teams on RFP best practices and proposal strategy.
• Provide other support to the RFP team and the broader strategy and operations team as necessary.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent required
• 1-2+ years in a writing, marketing, or sales enablement role
• Strong writing skills and comfort in a writing‑intensive role
• Strong communicator with excellent interpersonal skills
• Strong project management skills
• Expertise in MS Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Familiarity with cloud‑based content management platforms (Box, Dropbox, etc.).

Ideal Qualifications:

• Curiosity: possesses a strong desire to learn and constantly deepen knowledge related to the role.
• Initiative: identifies problems, develops solutions, and delivers improvements without external prompting.
• Independence: operates effectively with little oversight, while also seeking support when needed.
• Growth mindset: aware of the limits of your own knowledge and abilities and unafraid to ask for help or feedback for continuous improvement.
• Organization: deftly manages large volumes of information, deadlines, and resources.
• Speed: effectively prioritizes and delivers results without sacrificing quality.
• Resourceful: finds and creates solutions to overcome obstacles in the relentless pursuit of right answer.
• Adaptability: solves complex problems and successfully manages ambiguity and unexpected change.
• Collaboration: strives for personal achievement while also supporting team members and overall team success.
• Commitment to embracing a continual learning environment and contributing to a dynamic and welcoming culture of fairness, authenticity, and belonging in support of EAB’s mission, values, and aspiration.

Compensation:

The anticipated starting salary range for this role is$38,000 - $57,500per year. Actual salary varies due tofactors that may include but not be limited to relevantexperience, skills, and location.At EAB, it is not typicalfor an individual to be hired at or near the top of thestarting salary range for their role.

This hire will additionally be eligible for discretionarybonus or incentive compensation. Variablecompensation may depend on various factors,such as individual andorganizational performance.

Benefits:

Consistent with our belief that our employees are our most valuable resource, EAB offers a competitive and inclusive benefits package. Our benefits currently include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans; dependents and domestic partners eligible
• 20+ days of PTO annually, in addition to paid firm and floating holidays
• Daytime leave policy for community service and flextime for fitness activities (up to 10 hours per month each)
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with annual discretionary company matching contribution
• Health savings account, healthcare and dependent care flexible spending account, and pre‑tax commuter plans
• Employee assistance program with counseling services and resources available to all employees and immediate family
• Wellness programs including gym discounts, incentives to promote healthy living, and family access to the leading app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation
• Fertility treatment coverage and adoption or surrogacy assistance
• Paid parental leave with phase back to work program for birthing and non‑birthing parents
• Access to milk shipping service to support nursing employees during business travel
• Discounted pet health insurance coverage for dog and cat family members
• Company‑provided life, AD&D, and disability insurance
• Financial wellness resources and membership in a robust employee discount program
• Access to employee resource groups, merit‑based advancement, and dynamic professional growth opportunities

Benefits kick in day one; learn more at eab.com/careers/benefits.

This opening is not eligible for visa sponsorship at this time; EAB will thus consider candidates who possess U.S. work authorization that does not require employment‑based visa sponsorship now or in the future.

At EAB, we believe that to fulfill our mission to “make education smarter and our communities stronger” we need team members who bring a diversity of perspectives to the table and are committed to fostering a workplace where each team member is valued, respected and heard.

To that end, EAB is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we make employment decisions on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, non‑disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law.