Director, Business Development

Empower AI is AI for government. Empower AI gives federal agency leaders the tools to elevate the potential of their workforce with a direct path for meaningful transformation. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Empower AI leverages three decades of experience solving complex challenges in Health, Defense, and Civilian missions. Our proven Empower AI Platform® provides a practical, sustainable path for clients to achieve transformation that is true to who they are, what they do, how they work, with the resources they have. The result is a government workforce that is exponentially more creative and productive. For more information, visit www.Empower.ai.

Empower AI is proud to be recognized as a 2024 Military Friendly Employer by Viqtory, the publisher of G.I. Jobs. This designation reflects the company’s commitment to hiring and supporting active-duty and veteran employees.

Director, Business Development — DoS/DHS/Federal Civilian

The Director of Business Development for the Federal Civilian Business Unit will be responsible for driving new business growth across the Department of State, DHS, GSA, HHS, and other priority federal civilian accounts. This is a quota-carrying business development role requiring demonstrated success as the primary account and pursuit business development lead for large-scale federal civilian opportunities.

The ideal candidate will bring established customer relationships, proven account ownership, disciplined pipeline development, and a documented record of shaping and winning new business opportunities valued at $50M or greater. This role requires both strategic vision and tactical execution, including customer engagement, opportunity identification and qualification, account planning, teaming strategy, capture coordination, executive briefings, and accurate pipeline forecasting.

The successful candidate must be able to operate as a senior growth leader, not simply as a program delivery, operations, or proposal-support resource. GSA AAS or comparable assisted-acquisition experience is required.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary business development and account lead for assigned Department of State, DHS, GSA, HHS and other federal civilian accounts.
• Build, maintain, and expand trusted relationships with senior government leaders, contracting officers, program offices, and industry partners.
• Develop and execute account plans, customer engagement strategies, and long-term growth campaigns aligned to corporate priorities.
• Identify, qualify, shape, and advance new business opportunities valued at $50M+, with clear alignment to company capabilities in IT modernization, cybersecurity, AI/ML, data, and mission support.
• Lead early opportunity shaping, customer call planning, competitive positioning, teaming strategy, and internal qualification activities.
• Partner closely with capture managers, solution architects, pricing, finance, contracts, delivery, and proposal teams to develop compelling and differentiated pursuit strategies.
• Build and sustain strategic teaming relationships with large primes, small businesses, and technology partners to improve win probability.
• Maintain accurate and current opportunity records in the corporate CRM, including customer intelligence, next steps, opportunity milestones, forecast data, and pWin rationale.
• Provide disciplined pipeline management, forecasting, and reporting to growth and executive leadership.
• Monitor customer priorities, acquisition trends, contract vehicles, competitor activity, and budget drivers across DoS, DHS, USCIS, and related civilian agencies.
• Represent the company at DoS, DHS, GSA, HHS, and federal civilian industry events, conferences, and customer forums.
• Lead or contribute to strategic growth campaigns for Department of State, DHS, GSA, HHS, and other high-priority civilian accounts.
• Support gate reviews and opportunity qualification decisions with clear evidence of customer intimacy, competitive position, solution fit, and realistic win probability.
• Think creatively and apply innovative approaches to overcome competitive challenges, shape opportunities, and position the company for success.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of federal business development experience, with a primary focus on federal civilian markets.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Information Technology, Public Policy, or a related field required.
• Minimum of 5 years of direct account ownership or senior business development responsibility within Department of State, DHS, GSA, HHS or highly comparable federal civilian agencies.
• Demonstrated record of leading, shaping, and winning large-scale federal opportunities valued at $50M or greater.
• Proven experience serving as the primary business development lead or account lead for qualified pipeline development, customer engagement, teaming strategy, and pursuit advancement.
• Demonstrated ability to build and sustain senior-level relationships with government customers, contracting officials, program leaders, and industry partners.
• Strong understanding of the federal acquisition lifecycle, including opportunity identification, qualification, shaping, capture, proposal development, source selection, and award.
• Working knowledge of contract vehicles and procurement approaches commonly used by DoS, DHS, GSA, HHS, and federal civilian agencies.
• Experience managing a robust qualified pipeline and providing accurate, evidence-based forecasts against growth targets.
• Proficiency with CRM and pipeline management tools, with demonstrated discipline in maintaining accurate opportunity data.
• Ability to brief executive leadership on account strategy, pipeline health, customer intelligence, competitive position, pWin, and investment recommendations.
• Strong communication, executive presence, influencing skills, and reputation for integrity and trust-building.
• Ability to work effectively across capture, proposal, solution, technical, pricing, finance, contracts, and delivery teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Strategic thinker with creative problem-solving skills and a track record of developing differentiated pursuit strategies.
• Position is located in Reston, VA – mandatory in office requirements on Tuesday/Wednesday or as needed for Proposals.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct Department of State business development experience.
• GSA AAS or comparable assisted-acquisition experience.
• Existing relationships across DoS, DHS, GSA, HHS and the federal civilian industry ecosystem.
• Demonstrated success developing and executing account plans that produced measurable qualified pipeline and new contract awards.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Public Policy, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to do the following:

• Communicate verbally and respond to verbal communications in person and over the phone
• Communicate clearly and succinctly in writing, primarily utilizing a keyboard
• Engage in intermittent physical activity, including bending, reaching, lifting, filing, and prolonged periods of sitting
• Travel minimally, via car or plane, which requires ability to manage luggage, laptop, and briefing materials (up to 25 pounds

All hiring and promotion decisions at Empower AI are based on merit to bring the best talent available to contribute to our firm’s overall success. It is the policy of Empower AI not to discriminate against any applicant for employment, or employee because of age, color, sex, disability, national origin, race, religion, or veteran status. Empower AI is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.