Business & Strategy (2)

Job Description

The role

Clifford Chance has an ambitious global strategy which puts clients at the very heart of everything the Firm does. The Business Development ("BD") function is pivotal in making the Firm strategy a reality. BD teams collaborate strategically with partners, lawyers and other business professional functions to drive sustainable growth. The BD function supports conversion of key client and market opportunities through the development and delivery of targeted business development and marketing plans.

Business Development Operations is comprised of global teams of capabilities supporting core business development activities across a range of disciplines, one of which is Bids & Pursuits. Its focus is to provide the enabling proposals capability to drive up win rates through the delivery of high-quality responses for clients, leading to greater revenue.

Bids & Pursuits plays an important part in the business development approach of the Firm. This role forms part of a global specialist capability supporting the development of pitches and proposals across regions and practices, including hub-based delivery and practice aligned support to meet demand and drive consistency.

Job purpose

To lead and scale a world-class Global Proposals capability, combining high-quality proposal delivery with a strong operational backbone. The Associate Director will:

Build and embed an operating model that expands the remit of the Global Proposals Team, balancing a strong central capability with practice aligned support and hub delivery.
Own intake, prioritisation and work allocation governance with practice/product BD leadership, ensuring capacity is directed to the opportunities that drive the greatest value.
Drive proposals process and technology transformation, including adoption of AI-enabled ways of working to improve quality, efficiency and insight.
Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders (partners, practice leaders, BD leadership and other business professional teams), influencing behaviours that improve planning, quality and outcomes.

Key responsibilities

Global capability build and operating model

Define and implement the end-to-end operating model for Global Proposals, aligning central standards with practice aligned delivery, and ensuring effective collaboration across regions and hubs.
Build a scalable service model that supports both panel RFPs and prioritised matter RFPs, with clear role definition, handoffs and quality controls across the lifecycle.
Establish and maintain consistent ways of working across locations, including playbooks, templates, QA checkpoints and shared knowledge assets to enable repeatable excellence.
Create a clear “front door” for Global Proposals engagement, with transparent routing and escalation paths (including defined service levels where appropriate).

Proposal delivery leadership (panels and complex multi-jurisdictional RFPs)

Lead, oversee and (where required) directly support the delivery of global panel pitches and complex, high-value, multi-jurisdictional proposals, ensuring outputs are client-focused, compliant and compelling.
Act as an escalation point for material risks, issues and stakeholder challenges across the proposal lifecycle, providing pragmatic direction, challenge and coaching at all levels.
Ensure pitch strategies and written outputs reflect the firm’s value proposition, differentiate effectively, and are tailored to client drivers and evaluation criteria.
Oversee post-submission activity, including win/loss debriefs and capture of actionable learning to improve future performance.

Process, technology and AI transformation

Own the proposals transformation roadmap, identifying where process simplification, standardisation, automation and AI can improve speed, quality, reuse and insight.
Drive adoption of enabling tools and platforms into standard ways of working, ensuring they are practical for BD colleagues and fee earners and supported by training and guidance.
Develop an approach to structured reuse of content, including standard pitch responses, credentials, CVs and experience statements, with clear document ownership, governance and update cadence.
Partner with relevant stakeholders (data/insights, knowledge, brand, risk and technology teams) to ensure proposal processes are compliant, measurable and continuously improving.
Keep ahead of best practice in proposals technology, including Generative AI, and translate emerging capability into controlled, value-driven changes in the proposal process.

People leadership, global team build and capability uplift

Lead, develop and motivate a high-performing global proposals team across multiple locations, setting clear expectations and a culture of quality, pace, continuous improvement and collaboration.
Build organisational capability through training and coaching programmes for proposals specialists, BD colleagues and fee earners, going beyond written proposals to strengthen end-to-end pitch effectiveness.
Create a strong talent pipeline and succession approach, including recruitment input, onboarding, skill development and performance management aligned to the standards required for a world-class proposals function.

Performance analysis, insight and reporting

Monitor and analyse proposal outcomes and performance drivers, identifying trends, root causes and opportunities to improve win rates and return on proposal investment.
Implement practical feedback loops and reporting that strengthen decision-making on which opportunities to pursue, how to resource them, and what interventions improve success.

Qualifications

Key requirements

You will have:

Extensive experience leading competitive proposals and pitches, ideally within the legal or wider professional services market, including complex, multi-stakeholder and multi-jurisdictional responses.
Demonstrable experience building, scaling and managing high-performing teams across geographies, including hub-based delivery and practice aligned structures.
Strong operational leadership experience, including governance, workload prioritisation, resource planning and implementation of standard ways of working.
Proven ability to work credibly with senior stakeholders in a partnership environment, influencing decisions and behaviours under time pressure.
Experience driving process and technology change, with a track record of practical adoption (including using automation and AI where appropriate) to improve quality and efficiency.
Strong project management capability and the ability to manage multiple workstreams concurrently while maintaining quality and stakeholder confidence.
Strong IT literacy and confidence working with Microsoft 365 and proposal tooling / web portals used for RFP processes.

In addition, you will possess:

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex inputs into clear, client-ready messaging and structured proposal narratives.
Sound commercial judgement and analytical thinking, including comfort with performance data, pipeline insight and continuous improvement approaches.
High levels of professionalism and discretion, with strong risk awareness and attention to detail.
A collaborative working style, able to connect people and content across practices, regions and functions to deliver best-in-class outputs.
Willingness to travel as required to support global initiatives and stakeholder engagement.

Additional Information

Hybrid working

This role follows our 'balanced' hybrid working approach and as long as business needs allow, you will be supported to work in a hybrid way with the expectation of working from the office for a minimum of 50% of your time.

What we offer including our broad range of benefits and working environment

When you join Clifford Chance, you will have access to a broad range of benefits to support you across many aspects of your personal and professional life including financial, wellbeing, lifestyle, and family friendly benefits. For more information on what we offer specifically in the UK, please visit our What We Offer page on our career site.

Equal opportunities

At Clifford Chance, we understand that our true asset is our people. Inclusion is good for our team and their families, our firm and society.

We are committed to treating all employees and applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender, gender identity and expression, marital or civil partnership status, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, social or economic background, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age. This applies to recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, transfer and every other aspect of employment.

We have a variety of flourishing employee networks. These networks are a place for colleagues to share experiences and advocate for change wherever they see an opportunity for improvement.

Our goal is to deliver an equality of opportunity, an equality of aspiration and an equality of experience to everyone who works in our firm.

Find out more about our inclusive culture here.

Global Proposals Associate Director

Clifford Chance

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