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; 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%.

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.

• 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…