BUsiness development MANAGER
Position Overview
The Business Development Manager is responsible for identifying, pursuing, and securing new project opportunities for the firm. This role focuses on building strategic relationships, elevating the firm’s visibility, and strengthening connections with clients, developers, consultants, community leaders, and industry partners. The ideal candidate understands the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) environment and can translate market insights into actionable opportunities. GRLA has expertise in Architecture, Interior Design and Building Envelope Services across a wide range of project types. It is anticipated that this is an in office position with extensive outreach and out of office meetings.
Key Responsibilities
1. Relationship Building & Networking
Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with past, current, and prospective clients.
Develop connections with developers, contractors, municipal officials, community organizations, and allied professionals.
Attend industry events, networking gatherings, conferences, and community meetings on behalf of the firm.
Represent the firm with professionalism and enthusiasm to increase visibility and trust.Opportunity Identification
2. Opportunity Identification
Monitor local and regional markets for upcoming projects, RFPs/RFQs, development activity, and emerging trends.
Track potential leads through GRLA CRM system.
Identify partnership opportunities with engineering firms, contractors, and other architects.
3. Strategic Outreach & Positioning
Assist leadership in developing targeted pursuit strategies for key clients and project types.
Coordinate and participate in client outreach meetings.
Collaborate with the marketing team and internal staff to update capability statements, resumes, and project sheets to align with targets.
4. Proposal & Pursuit Support
Help gather client insights and background information to support proposal development.
Provide input into go/no-go decisions.
Assist in the preparation of proposals as needed by the marketing team.
Support interview preparation by identifying client preferences and competitive positioning and assist with dry runs and presentation refinement.
5. Market Research & Intelligence
Maintain awareness of economic trends, development plans, capital improvement programs, and relevant zoning or policy changes.
Research of potential new markets GRLA should pursue and rationale behind it.
Develop updated BD plans as appropriate to respond to viable trends.
Provide regular updates to firm leadership about market shifts and new opportunities.
6. Internal Collaboration
Work closely with the principals, marketing department and project managers to align BD activities with the firm’s strengths, capacity, and strategic goals.
Facilitate debriefs after pursuits to capture lessons learned and continuously improve.
7. Reporting & Tracking
Maintain a pipeline report of leads, pursuits, contacts, and outcomes.
Track networking activity, upcoming opportunities, and follow-up steps.
Provide detailed monthly summary reports to leadership.
Works closely with management, marketing team and entire firm to understand capabilities and team building.
Attends and reports weekly at BD meeting with team.
Qualifications
5-10 years’ experience in business development, client relations, or sales within the AEC industry.
Understanding of design and construction terminology.
Strong communication, networking, and interpersonal skills.
Self-motivated, organized, and comfortable working independently.
Ability to represent the firm professionally in diverse settings.
CRM or database experience preferred (Deltek Vantagepoint experience is ideal)
Personal Traits
Relationship-oriented and naturally curious.
Comfortable initiating conversations and maintaining long-term rapport.
Strategic thinker who can connect dots between market needs and firm capabilities.
Energetic, proactive, persistent and professional in relationship building.
Success Measures
Growth in meaningful client relationships.
Increased invitations to pursue work.
Improved visibility of the firm in key markets.
A healthy, qualified pipeline of future opportunities across the preferred markets that GRLA excels in.
Increased hit rate of pursued projects over time
If interested, please send cover letter and résumé to: Scott Richardson – srichardson[at]grlarchitects.com or Marc DiPilato – mdipilato[at]grlarchitects.com
Serious inquiries only. No agencies please.