Business Development Director

M&C Saatchi World Services US is seeking a hands-on Director of Business Development to help grow our work across the DoD. This role will focus on identifying, qualifying, shaping, and advancing new business opportunities across DoD components, including military departments, defense agencies, combatant commands, and other DoD organizations.

This is an individual contributor role for an entrepreneurial business developer who knows the DoD market and can operate with discipline in a small, growing team. The successful candidate will bring strong industry relationships, sound qualification judgment, and the ability to build partner-driven growth strategies across prime and subcontracting opportunities.

This is a hybrid role; however, the ideal candidate will live in the greater District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region. The role will require regular attendance at industry events, partner meetings, customer engagements, and other market-facing activities. Travel is expected to be approximately 10%.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

As Director of Business Development, you will help expand WSUS’s presence beyond our current customer set and build a qualified pipeline of opportunities aligned to M&C Saatchi World Services’ capabilities in strategic communications, behavior change, marketing, research, creative, digital, analytics, and public-sector advisory services.

You will be responsible for developing market insight, building and maintaining trusted partner relationships, identifying and qualifying opportunities, and helping position WSUS to win work as both a prime and subcontractor. Much of our current growth strategy is partner-led, so this role requires someone who understands how to build credibility with primes, small businesses, specialist firms, and government buyers and influencers.

This is not a siloed big-company business development role. You will work closely with WSUS leadership, capture, proposals, delivery leads, M&C Saatchi Group capability owners, and external partners. On smaller opportunities and subcontracting pursuits, you may lead much of the business development and capture process yourself. On larger or more complex opportunities, you will be expected to qualify rigorously, shape intelligently, and transition the opportunity to capture while continuing to contribute customer, partner, and competitive insight.

The role is accountable for building a healthy, qualified pipeline and contributing to annual bookings goals in the $10M–$15M range, with typical target opportunities in the $10M–$50M range.

What you'll do

• Build and manage a qualified DoD pipeline aligned to WSUS growth priorities, with a focus on professional services, strategic communications, behavior change, marketing, research, creative, digital, analytics, and advisory opportunities.
• Identify, qualify, and advance opportunities across the Department of Defense, including military departments, defense agencies, combatant commands, and other DoD components, excluding health-focused DoD markets.
• Develop account and partner strategies that expand WSUS beyond its current customer set and position the organization for near-term and long-term growth.
• Build and maintain relationships with government buyers, influencers, industry partners, primes, small businesses, and specialist firms that can help WSUS access, shape, and win priority opportunities.
• Support both prime and subcontracting strategies, with particular emphasis on building strong partner relationships and identifying roles where WSUS can add differentiated value.
• Lead business development activities for smaller opportunities and subcontracting pursuits, including opportunity qualification, partner coordination, early capture planning, response strategy, and data-call management where appropriate.
• For larger and more complex pursuits, conduct strong front-end qualification, contribute to shaping and win strategy, and transition opportunities to capture with clear customer insight, partner context, competitive intelligence, and pursuit rationale.
• Support responses to RFIs, sources sought notices, market research requests, white papers, capability briefings, and industry day follow-up materials.
• Participate in proposal strategy, color team reviews, win-theme discussions, and proposal reviews in partnership with the Proposal Manager, Capture Manager, delivery teams, pricing, contracts, and external partners.
• Track opportunities, customer interactions, partner activity, and next steps with disciplined CRM and pipeline hygiene.
• Use market intelligence to understand customer priorities, budgets, procurement trends, acquisition pathways, incumbent positioning, partner dynamics, and competitive activity.
• Bring a clear point of view to go/no-go discussions, including opportunity fit, customer access, partner strength, competitive position, contract path, resource requirements, and likelihood of win.
• Help translate WSUS and broader M&C Saatchi Group capabilities into mission-relevant language for DoD customers and partners.
• Maintain high ethical standards and sound judgment in all customer, partner, and pursuit activities.
• Handle sensitive procurement, business development, and proposal information appropriately, including Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) where applicable.

You'll bring

• 10+ years of experience working in or around the Department of Defense market, including military service, civilian DoD experience, DoD contracting, federal consulting, or adjacent national security work.
• 5+ years of direct DoD business development and/or capture experience.
• Existing knowledge of the DoD market, including customer missions, buying patterns, acquisition pathways, partner ecosystems, and competitive dynamics.
• Demonstrated ability to identify, qualify, advance and win federal opportunities, preferably in the $10M–$50M range.
• Experience supporting both prime and subcontracting strategies, with an understanding of how to position a differentiated small or mid-sized partner within larger pursuit teams.
• Strong relationships with industry partners and a working network of government buyers, influencers, and stakeholders across the DoD ecosystem.
• Familiarity with federal acquisition and procurement processes, including FAR, DFARS, IDIQs, GWACs, OTAs, SBIR/STTR pathways, GSA vehicles, task orders, BPAs, and related contracting mechanisms.
• Experience supporting RFIs, sources sought responses, white papers, capability briefings, call plans, partner briefings, and proposal inputs.
• Familiarity with formal capture methodology and an understanding of capture plans, win themes, competitive assessments, teaming strategies, price-to-win inputs, gate reviews, and color team reviews.
• Strong qualification judgment and the ability to distinguish between interesting activity and realistic, winnable business.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief leadership, engage partners, contribute to proposals, and communicate clearly with internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong organizational discipline, follow-through, and CRM/pipeline hygiene.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with enough structure and process discipline to show measurable progress.
• Ability to operate effectively in a small, fast-moving, collaborative team where business development, capture, proposals, delivery, and leadership roles often overlap.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
• U.S. citizenship is required, and the successful candidate must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.

Bonus Points if you have

• Prior military, civilian DoD, or senior DoD contractor experience.
• Experience selling or shaping strategic communications, behavior change, marketing, research, creative, digital, analytics, public affairs, training, or advisory services for DoD customers.
• Established relationships across multiple DoD components, industry partners, primes, small businesses, or specialized defense firms.
• Experience with partner-led growth strategies, including prime/subcontractor positioning, teaming agreements, small business partnerships, mentor-protégé arrangements, or joint venture structures.
• Experience supporting or leading capture for smaller federal opportunities.
• Experience with APMP, Shipley, or another recognized business development, capture, or proposal frameworks.
• Understanding of information operations, influence, public affairs, or mission-focused communications in a defense context.
• Experience working in an entrepreneurial or growth-stage federal practice.

WHAT YOU GET

We offer a competitive salary ($160,000-$180,000) and a benefits package designed to support your health, family life, financial wellbeing, and growth.

• 12 weeks’ of full pay for primary caregivers and 6 weeks for secondary caregivers.
• Choice of three medical plans (HSA at $0 cost; EPO 75% employer funded; PPO 65% employer funded)
• 70% employer-funded dental and vision coverage
• Generous paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, including an office closure between Christmas & New Year's
• 401(k) with 5% employer match
• Gym membership reimbursement and/or Wellhub subscription
• Mental health support through EAP and Self Space services
• Work from anywhere for up to 2 weeks per year (subject to approval)
• Social events, happy hours, professional development trainings, etc.

ABOUT M&C SAATCHI WORLD SERVICES

M&C Saatchi World Services is a specialist division of M&C Saatchi Group, the world’s largest independent communications network. Our specialists work in office hubs across six continents, grounding our global expertise in local nuance.

We offer award-winning commercial communications capabilities, which are utilized by global organizations to address the world’s most complex problems across defense, development, diplomacy, homeland and national security, law and order, health, education, and the environment.

We work with clients that want to help the hardest-to-reach, hardest-to-influence audiences. This includes a range of Western Government departments, such as DOS and USAID; partner governments, including the U.K. and Australia; and prominent IGOs/NGOs such as the U.N.

We are a comms agency that works on behavior change projects typically focused on issues related to Security, Defense and Stabilization. Whether it’s producing critically acclaimed feature films in Africa, to TV shows in the Middle East, to pop music videos in Asia, we have a record of leveraging creativity to access communities anywhere in the world.