Pursuit Leader, Sports & Culture Performing Arts

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 have an opening for a Pursuit Leader, Sports and Culture Performing Arts. This role could be based in the following cities:

• Cleveland

• Omaha

• Phoenix

• Other locations may be considered

About Marketing Sector at DLR Group

At DLR Group, the Marketing team provides strategic support in pursuit of new opportunities and the development of marketing materials. By leveraging a deep understanding of market trends and client needs, the team highlights the firm’s expertise and resonate with prospective clients.

Position Summary

The Pursuit Leader evaluates and ensures quality deliverables for project pursuits in our Sports and Culture Performing Arts sectors, from the receipt of an RFP to interview completion. They mentor and grow a high-performing team that is instrumental in achieving sector(s) annual new fee and ROI goals. Daily, the Pursuit Leader will assign work and guide Pursuit Managers and Proposal Specialists in producing deliverables to capture new work. The Pursuit Leader will partner with Global Sector Leaders, Business Development Leaders, Regional Sector Leaders, and Client Leaders to evaluate opportunities, finalize Go/No Go decisions, and develop win strategies executed in RFI/RFQ, RFP responses, and interviews.

What you will do:

• Manage and mentor a team in assigned sectors, inspiring a creative growth mindset, cultivating a strong conversion strategy, and maintaining effective and efficient workflows.

• Manage the pursuit pipeline across assigned sectors, including reviewing and assigning all new incoming opportunities.

• On critical pursuits, lead the pursuit process with on-time, brand standard compliant deliverables (statement of qualification, request for proposal response, and interviews) from nose-to-tail with no supervision. This includes leading multi-disciplinary critical pursuit team(s) (designers, project managers, client leaders, and creative services) to leverage business development intelligence, develop persuasive win themes, and deliver content in support of the client’s needs.

• Establish and uphold standard processes, workflows, and communication patterns to support efficient and effective teamwork and deliverable production across your team.

• Develop and maintain on-brand sector(s) pursuit asset libraries including resumes, project plates, and boilerplate information, populated by proactive content capture following submittal.

• Support DLR Group’s ROI, shortlist, and win rate goals with strong conversion strategy and execution.

• Target using your robust knowledge base—including industry research, business development intelligence, firm capabilities, and market sector expertise—to add value and increase the likelihood of winning.

• Champion DLR Group as a best-in-class brand by developing and enforcing systems for comprehensive quality control.

Required Qualifications:

• Degree in Marketing, Communications, English, or similar

• 10+ years of experience with progressive pursuit management responsibilities in a professional services environment, preferably the AEC industry

• Experience hiring, leading, mentoring, and managing high-performance teams

• Proven ability to thrive under multiple concurrent deadlines with agility and ease, expert in prioritization to maintain focus on established strategic direction

• Demonstrated systems thinking and ability to recognize patterns and affect organizational improvements, especially within a pursuit / proposal ecosystem.

• Attention to detail and an ability to craft deliverables that comply with RFP requirements while creatively expressing the DLR Group brand and differentiators

• Critical thinker who can quickly evaluate needs and recommend responsive solutions

• Strong project and people management skills with a high degree of sophistication in navigating internal stakeholders and competing deadlines; ability to quickly build consensus, and positively 'manage up' to get senior-level individuals to support established processes with input and insight in a timely manner

• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, especially InDesign; proficiency in Microsoft Suite, including PowerPoint and Teams

Preferred Experience And Skills:

• Knowledge in RFP response for public sector audiences including sports franchises / arenas, entertainment and performing arts, and cultural institutions

• familiarity with information gathering from a database, Deltek Vantagepoint preferred

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.