Client Development Specialist - US State & Local

Job ID: 111193Type of role: Full-timeInterest: Serve Clients / ConsultingSkill group: CSS AssociateRegion: North AmericaLocations: Atlanta (United States) | Austin (United States) | Boston (United States) | Charlotte (United States) | Chicago (United States) | Cleveland (United States) | Columbus (United States) | Connecticut - Darien (United States) | Dallas (United States) | Houston (United States) | New Jersey (United States) | New York (United States) | Philadelphia (United States) | Pittsburgh (United States) | Raleigh (United States) | San Francisco (United States) | Seattle (United States) | Silicon Valley (United States) | Southern California (United States) | St. Louis (United States) | Washington DC (United States)Compensation Range: $192,000 - $192,000Created: 2026-08-11Apply: you'll work withDriving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward. In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to become a stronger leader faster than you ever thought possible. Your colleagues—at all levels—will invest deeply in your development, just as much as they invest in delivering exceptional results for clients. Every day, you'll receive apprenticeship, coaching, and exposure that will accelerate your growth in ways you won’t find anywhere else. When you join us, you will have: Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions, all while upholding our unwavering commitment to ethics and integrity. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions for our clients. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.World-class benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.What you'll doYou will work closely with client team leaders and consultants serving US State & Local governments to expand the firm’s impact within these markets by playing a key role in generating new engagements. You will be a core member of the passionate, energized North America Social, Healthcare & Public Entity (SHaPE) client development team. You will participate in the client development lifecycle in three phases: business development, which includes all activities that occur before a client organization has decided internally to move ahead with a consulting engagement on a given topic; capture management, which begins once an opportunity has been qualified and ends with the formal award decision; and proposal delivery, which typically starts with the request for proposal (RFP) or equivalent procurement release and ends upon proposal submission. Your work is multi-faceted and supports client development efforts across the lifecycle but primarily focuses on new and emerging white space client ecosystems in the US State & Local market. You will inform growth decisions by translating complex market dynamics into actionable insights that drive client development, account planning, opportunity qualification, and capture strategy. The business development phase will comprise a significant portion of your effort, and examples of what you’ll do in this phase include: conducting white- and grey-space client ecosystem analyses, identifying potential opportunities, performing budget and legislative tear-downs, market sensing, competitive and market intelligence gathering, and providing recommendations to strengthen positioning and shape opportunities. You will conduct extensive research to collect data on competitors, industry trends, and the broader consulting landscape. Using your deep industry knowledge and analytical expertise, you will deliver strategic recommendations that drive impact, including constructing and managing go-to-market campaigns that amplify McKinsey’s insights and capabilities that align with emerging client needs. This will involve working closely with McKinsey’s service lines to identify client priorities, utilizing business intelligence tools and software for data collection, analysis, and visualization, as well as translating complex data into clear, actionable insights and strategic guidance. You will construct comprehensive client account plans and manage the client opportunity pipeline. Other responsibilities include establishing relationships with other consultancies and contractors with whom McKinsey might partner in service to the government; supporting client teams in the development of written materials for client development discussions; attending conferences and industry days where public sector contracting opportunities might be discussed; gathering intelligence about upcoming procurements for which McKinsey might be well suited to compete; making recommendations to client team leaders about how they could more effectively develop business with clients. In the capture management phase, examples of what you’ll do include providing market research input in advance of procurement to assist the government in understanding their needs and clarifying their requirements such that they are able to procure the type of assistance they require. You’ll also make recommendations to practice leaders and consultants about how they can gather useful information about emerging procurements, identify partners with whom McKinsey could team for emerging procurements, finalize teaming agreements, and develop opportunity-specific competitive intelligence - including relative strengths and weaknesses of competitors. During the proposal delivery phase, examples of what you'll do include understanding the objectives and requirements of the RFP and formulating a view about what it will take to win the procurement, collaborating with team members to ensure key aspects of client intimacy resonate through the proposal, and creating workplans and aligning resources to generate high-quality proposals on time. You will work closely with SHaPE Practice leaders, client team leaders and consultants serving US State & Local government clients. You will also work collaboratively with other client development advisors, contracting specialists and proposal managers.Your backgroundUndergraduate degree; Graduate education is preferred but not required3+ years of professional experience in go-to-market and business development in the US State & Local market; strong preference for experience with large professional service firmsIndustry knowledge of the US State & Local government sector Proven strategic and analytical thinking skills to identify new opportunities and resolve challenges throughout the client development processExperienced in business development by identifying, assessing, and prioritizing opportunities aligned to growth objectivesSkilled in translating market intelligence into actionable growth strategies that support account development and client engagementAdept at developing comprehensive assessments of agency missions, funding priorities, acquisition strategies, and market trends to inform growth strategy and investment decisions Strengths in analysis of the competitive landscape to strengthen positioning and pursuit strategyStrong collaborator with an ability to forge effective relationships across various constituents in a distributed and non-hierarchical organizationThis role requires occasional travel (up to 20%) to client sites and McKinsey locations