Strategic Pursuit Director (EU Institutions)

Position description

ICF’s Europe & Asia (E&A) business team is making a pivotal strategic hire and seeks a dynamic and highly effective Strategic Pursuit Leader. This critical role will advance our firm’s market position with key solutions in areas such as Energy, Climate, Environmental Security, Employment, Education, Research and Innovation, Health, Justice and Home Affairs, and Gender Equality.

As a key member of the Business Development team, you will be responsible for the identification, strategic positioning, and bidding of opportunities in E&A growth areas. Key target Clients will include the European Commission (EC) and its Agencies. You will be helping ICF expand upon an already successful ICF portfolio of established and growing customer programmes across the European Union.

This role requires high business acumen, hands-on capture experience, resourcefulness, and an internal/external customer relations-oriented individual. The successful candidate must have a proven record of winning new business of significant size (>5M EUR) and leading large BD/capture opportunities.

This position can be based in Belgium, Spain, or the UK with a hybrid home/office work schedule. We can consider candidates from other European countries who have the necessary right to work and are able to relocate to either Belgium or Spain.

This is an outstanding and highly visible senior-level opportunity to work with talented and passionate ICF leaders and experts across a range of critical markets. The position reports to the Vice President of Business Development Operations.

Why ICF?

ICF is a global consulting services company with over 9,000 employees, but we are not your typical consultants. Working at ICF means applying a passion for meaningful work with intellectual rigour to help solve the leading issues of our day. We believe in collaboration, mutual respect, open communication, and opportunity for growth.

Primary Responsibilities

Strategic Guidance and BD/Capture Implementation:

• Demonstrated success leading the capture of large business development programmes – as a prime contractor on net new or takeaway programmes. Market focus on one or more key solutions: Energy, Climate, Environmental Security, Employment, Education, Research and Innovation, Health, Justice and Home Affairs, and Gender Equality. Client focus: European Commission (EU) and EU Agencies;
• Prioritise service contracts and single award and cascade Frameworks. On average, be responsible for 3-5 opportunities at any point in time;
• Partner with market researchers, external stakeholders as well as client-facing teams to identify/assess which opportunities should progress/be pursued;
• Present opportunities to the leadership team and determine if they align optimally with the E&A growth strategy. Qualify tenders with senior staff to determine an informed bid/no bid decision;
• Provide strategic direction and guidance to ICF teams through all phases of the capture and bid lifecycle including refining win strategy, business case, and value proposition; identifying critical path items to advance ICF’s win rate; elevating risks and implementing mitigation strategies; devising creative scenarios to identify/implement winning technical, management, staffing and pricing solutions.

Serve as the Technical Lead for key pursuits:

• Provide hands-on leadership for specific pursuits as needed, including all aspects of capture strategy and implementation;
• Develop the content plan with senior contributors from different parts of the business. Draft or provide key contributions to sections of the technical proposal and/or lead the pricing;
• Work with all levels of internal staff, including executive-level leadership, technical experts, client-facing staff, corporate resource teams, external stakeholders and partner organizations;
• Ensure the proposal is internally coherent, reflects our winning strategy and adheres to ICF’s quality standards.

Capture/Bid Process Management and Continuous Improvement:

• Follow and enhance E&A’s BD and Capture processes and train others to ensure a rigorous repeatable process. Conduct training on BD and EC bid processes, best practices, and lessons learned as necessary and/or requested by leadership;
• Prepare high-quality materials and talking points for executive audiences that convey key updates, decisions required, or resources needed.

Collaboration and Resource Management:

• Meet weekly/monthly with the VP, BD Operations and the other Strategic Pursuit Leaders to discuss active/upcoming efforts; Strategize as needed to advance activities. Report on progress and identify resource needs on active efforts; Work with business leaders and internal partner functions to meet resource needs;
• Leverage strategic partner input and synthesize input and direction into winning tactics and actions. Partner with marketing to develop marketing materials to support ICF’s positioning and visibility in key areas;
• Develop and enhance EC Client awareness of ICF’s capabilities and profile in conjunction with SMEs and Executive Leadership through meetings, conferences, publications etc.

Qualifications

• At least 10+ years of experience in Business Development related activities. Demonstrated success leading the capture of large business development programmes (as a prime contractor on net new or takeaway programmes), Managing proposals and leading them efficiently in a dynamic, multi-task, fast-paced environment;
• Demonstrable ability to understand EU institutions’ unique mission, technologies needed, and pain points. Significant experience with all aspects of EC business development activities: opportunity identification, solution development, proposal preparation, and submission. Thorough understanding of how EC bids are evaluated, and a proven track record of leading the development of successful, winning proposals for EU institutions (e.g., significant, sustained contract win rates of 90%+ success on re-competes; 40+% on new bids or takeaways);
• Excellent communications skills demonstrated through written and oral presentations, and development of technical papers, volumes, or similar products. Demonstrated expertise in creating compelling content in proposals that speak to a range of audiences. Strong proficiency in the Microsoft Office Suite;
• Excellent negotiation skills, highly developed persuasiveness skills, and a positive, collaborative attitude, even when under pressure: ability to appropriately challenge the status quo and “hold one’s own” in internal BD discussions to ensure the best solution is developed in response to client requirements and the agreed bid strategy;
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent;
• Fluency in written and spoken English; fluency in French would be a bonus, but not essential.

Working at ICF

ICF is a global advisory and technology services provider, but we’re not your typical consultants. We combine unmatched expertise with cutting-edge technology to help clients solve their most complex challenges, navigate change, and shape the future.

Candidate AI Usage Policy

At ICF, we are committed to ensuring a fair and equitable interview process for all candidates based on their own skills and knowledge. As part of this commitment, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate or assist with responses during interviews (whether in-person or virtual) is not permitted. This policy is in place to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the interview process.

 

Application instructions

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