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Business Development & Strategic Partnerships Manager

Job Summary: OPSPro is seeking a Business Development & Strategic Partnerships Manager to help build and strengthen our business development engine in the DMV government contracting community. This role is responsible for developing relationships, creating qualified opportunities, nurturing referral sources, representing OPSPro in the marketplace, and ensuring disciplined follow-up with prospects, partners, and referral sources.

This is not a traditional high-pressure sales role. OPSPro is a relationship-first, fit-first organization. We believe all business is not good business, and we are looking for someone who understands how to build trust, identify the right opportunities, and represent OPSPro with professionalism, warmth, and good judgment.

The ideal candidate is energized by networking, conferences, business breakfasts, partner meetings, golf outings, industry events, and relationship-building activities common in the GovCon community. This person must already have established relationships in the government contracting ecosystem, especially in the DMV.

This role is designed to complement OPSPro's internal leadership. The Business Development & Strategic Partnerships Manager brings relationship development, market access, follow-up discipline, and opportunity generation.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.

Position Type and Structure

OPSPro is open to structuring this role as a part-time employee or fractional engagement for the right candidate. The expected commitment is approximately 20 to 29 hours per week, with flexibility based on event schedules, conferences, networking activity, and agreed-upon goals.

This role requires local market presence in the DMV. Work hours may vary based on networking events, conferences, prospect meetings, partner meetings, golf outings, and internal coordination needs.

Compensation will be based on experience, existing GovCon relationships, demonstrated business development success, and the candidate's proposed hourly or fractional rate. Candidates should include compensation requirements when applying. This role may be eligible for a capped Growth Incentive Plan tied to approved qualified leads that become paying clients.

Primary Responsibilities:

Business Development and Relationship Building

• Build and maintain relationships within the DMV government contracting ecosystem.
• Develop relationships with prospective clients, referral partners, strategic partners, industry contacts, and community connectors.
• Attend networking events, business breakfasts, golf outings, conferences, partner meetings, and other business development activities where OPSPro should have a presence.
• Identify qualified opportunities aligned with OPSPro's services, client profile, and culture.
• Conduct initial outreach and follow-up with prospects and referral sources.
• Nurture relationships in a way that is timely, professional, helpful, and not high-pressure.
• Represent OPSPro as a trusted, relationship-based provider, not a transactional sales organization.

GovCon Market Presence

• Maintain active visibility in the DMV GovCon community.
• Identify relevant associations, events, conferences, partner groups, and relationship channels where OPSPro should participate.
• Help OPSPro stay connected to market needs, referral trends, and client pain points.
• Surface opportunities for strategic introductions, sponsorships, speaking opportunities, and partnership development.
• Support OPSPro's long-term growth strategy by helping build a repeatable regional relationship model.

Opportunity Identification and Handoff

• Conduct initial relationship-based conversations with prospects and referral sources.
• Listen for operational pain points across OPSPro service areas, including IT, accounting, payroll, cybersecurity, HR, and contracts.
• Identify whether an opportunity may warrant deeper functional discovery.
• Coordinate with Director of Operations as the primary functional handoff point for opportunity qualification and delivery credibility.
• Support Directos, or other subject matter experts only when appropriate.
• Escalate significant strategic opportunities to CEO when executive involvement is appropriate.
• Help move qualified opportunities from initial contact through discovery and proposal coordination, without owning technical solution design or delivery decisions.

CRM, Follow-Up, and Process Discipline

• Enter new contacts, referral sources, leads, and opportunities into CRM in a timely and accurate manner.
• Document opportunity source, relationship owner, next steps, fit notes, and follow-up activity.
• Maintain follow-up discipline for contacts generated by networking, referrals, conferences, CEO introductions, and assigned relationships.
• Help ensure opportunities do not stall because of missed follow-up.
• Participate in regular pipeline review meetings.
• Provide activity, pipeline, and market updates to leadership.

Internal Coordination

• Work closely with Department of Operations to determine when a prospect is ready for deeper functional discovery.
• Work with client success and coordination role to support proposal coordination, contract coordination, and administrative follow-through.
• Coordinate with marketing as needed by sharing field insight, market trends, prospect questions, and content opportunities.
• Support alignment between business development activity, proposal follow-up, and client onboarding readiness.

Responsibilities Not Assigned to This Role

This role is not responsible for:

• Client service delivery.
• Technical solution design.
• Final pricing decisions.
• Contract administration as a solo responsibility.
• Marketing management.
• Proposal administration as a solo responsibility.
• Managing internal service teams.
• Replacing Jenn's functional expertise in business development conversations.

Required Qualifications

• Established relationships in the government contracting ecosystem, especially in the DMV.
• Demonstrated experience in business development, relationship management, strategic partnerships, GovCon support, professional services, or a related field.
• Comfort attending networking events, conferences, business breakfasts, partner meetings, and golf or relationship-based business events.
• Strong follow-up habits and CRM discipline.
• Ability to build trust without aggressive or high-pressure sales tactics.
• Ability to recognize business needs across IT, accounting, payroll, cybersecurity, HR, and contracts at a level sufficient to identify potential opportunities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong professional judgment, discretion, and relationship awareness.
• Ability to work independently while staying aligned with OPSPro leadership, Jenn, Jordan, service teams, and growth priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with or supporting government contractors.
• Existing relationships with GovCon executives, consultants, software providers, attorneys, accountants, payroll providers, HR providers, cybersecurity providers, IT firms, industry associations, or referral partners.
• Experience using CRM systems to manage contacts, opportunities, pipeline, and follow-up.
• Experience supporting professional services, managed services, consulting, or outsourced business operations.
• Familiarity with the DMV business and GovCon networking environment.

Benefits:

• Medical, Dental & Vision
• FSA
• HSA
• Life Insurance
• 401k
• PTO
• Education Reimbursement

Minimum Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

• Problem Solving – Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; gathers and analyzes information skillfully; develops alternative solutions; works well in group problem solving situations; uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics.
• Written Communication – Writes clearly and informatively; edits work for spelling and grammar; varies writing style to meet needs; presents numerical data effectively; able to read and interpret written information.
• Diversity – Demonstrates knowledge of EEO policy; shows respect and sensitivity for cultural differences; promotes a harassment-free environment; builds a diverse workforce.
• Ethics – Treats people with respect; keeps commitments; inspires the trust of others; works with integrity and ethically; upholds organizational values.
• Strategic Thinking – Develops strategies to achieve organizational goals; understands organization's strengths & weaknesses; analyzes market and competition; identifies external threats and opportunities; adapts strategy to changing conditions.
• Planning/Organizing – Prioritizes and plans work activities; uses time efficiently; plans for additional resources; sets goals and objectives; organizes or schedules other people and their tasks; develops realistic action plans.
• Professionalism – Approaches others in a tactful manner; reacts well under pressure; treats others with respect and consideration regardless of their status or position; accepts responsibility for own actions; follows through on commitments.
• Innovation – Displays original thinking and creativity; meets challenges with resourcefulness; generates suggestions for improving work; develops innovative approaches and ideas; presents ideas and information in a manner that gets others' attention.
• Qualifications – To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Language Skills – Ability to read, analyze and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations. Ability to write reports, proposals, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.
• Mathematical Skills – Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
• Reasoning Ability – Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to question activities and issues in all functional areas and make sound business decisions based on that data.
• Physical Demands – The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations 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 sit, talk, type or hear. The employee is frequently required to walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms.
• Work Environment – The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. The employee will normally work in a temperature-controlled office environment, with frequent exposure to electronic office equipment.

Core Values:

• Own Your Stuff
  • Willingness to accept responsibility for one's actions
  • Owning the outcome of one's assigned tasks and projects, ensuring on time and satisfactory client delivery
  • Ensuring deadlines are met
  • Proactive communication
  • Ability to adeptly adapt to changes (e.g., new regulations, new client requirements)
  • Recognition that there are usually multiple ways to achieve a task
  • Willingness to step outside your comfort zone
  • Mutual accountability equates to achieving the balance you want in life
• Team First
  • Working with the team to achieve common goals
  • Willingness to pick up tasks that need to be completed even if not assigned to you
  • Collaborating with internal (OPS) and external (clients and/or vendors) as needed to achieve goal(s)
  • Proactively sharing information and lessons learned
  • Providing support to your teammates
  • Open to the ideas of others and the validity of those ideas
• Trusted Advisor
  • Providing informed advice to clients on a regular basis
  • Recommending (and implementing as appropriate) process improvements
  • Recognizing opportunities to expand the scope of services provided
  • Finding a way to say "yes" or finding a path to the desired outcome of the client
  • Understanding client expectations; addressing with the client if expectations are unrealistic or meeting or exceeding (no cost impact) realistic client expectations
• Actively Seeks Knowledge
  • Continually working to build a solid foundation of functional knowledge
  • Commitment to a constant state of learning
  • Sharing expertise with teammates
  • Adaptable to constantly changing technology and client requirements
• Good Egg
  • Integrity
  • Trustworthiness
  • Treats people with kindness
  • Compassion...