Pitch Manager

This newly created role offers an exciting opportunity to join our International bids team with a dedicated focus on Africa.

As the Africa Pitch Manager you will work with lawyers across practice groups, sectors and offices to help the firm win new profitable business. You will be responsible for project managing the creation of pitches and presentation materials, developing impactful value propositions that respond to our clients' needs, with an emphasis on strategic, cross-border and high value African opportunities. You will also help to embed marketing systems and best practice bid processes and documentation across our African business, championing change and helping to develop skills.

The role reports into the International pitch team – a specialist team that acts as a centre of excellence, leading on our most strategic bid opportunities – working closely with our Africa Marketing & Business Development team.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Advise and challenge legal teams on the decision to respond to pitch opportunities
• Lead pitches in accordance with our best practice pitch process
• Developing the pitch strategy including win themes and value proposition
• Scoping the pitch opportunity to understand client needs and to ensure our proposal is responsive
• Involving subject matter experts, for example the pricing team, to develop our proposition
• Creation and updating of Africa-focused pitch material across key practices and sectors
• Using our pitch automation tool to create first drafts which are then tailored to be compelling and focused on the client
• Briefing contributors to ensure their input is tailored, relevant and received on time
• Finalising and submitting pitches in line with the client's instructions
• Coordinate presentation rehearsals and offer advice and coaching on style, approach, messaging
• Conducting client debriefs to capture feedback
• Coach, mentor and support other Marketing & Business Development colleagues on best practice pitch techniques
• Deliver training to lawyers, secretaries and MBD on pitch best practice and our pitch tools and systems
• Provide recommendations on improving the pitch process
• Take responsibility for additional projects which support the pitch team and broader Africa Marketing & BD team's priorities.

About you

• Experience of working under pressure on complex pitches and proposals
• Effective time and project management skills
• Excellent communication skills and stakeholder management
• Excellent interpersonal skills, able to exercise tact and diplomacy
• Negotiation and influencing skills
• Commercial awareness and acumen
• An ability to deal with confidential and sensitive information
• Experience in dealing with a demanding workload and conflicting priorities
• A collaborative working style, able to work on own initiative and as part of a team
• Bi-lingual French and English language skills will be looked upon extremely favourably.

About us

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers and business service professionals located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Our global reach ensures that we can help businesses with their legal needs anywhere in the world. We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality, service excellence and value to our clients and offering practical and innovative legal solutions to help them succeed. Our clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies, as well as government and public sector bodies.

Our values

In everything we do connected with our People, our Clients and our Communities, we live by these values:

• Be Supportive – we are compassionate and inclusive, valuing diversity and acting thoughtfully
• Be Collaborative - we are proactive, passionate team players investing in our relationships
• Be Bold - we are fearless and inquisitive, challenging ourselves to think big and find creative new solutions
• Be Exceptional - we are strategic and driven, exceeding standards and expectations

Diversity and inclusion

At DLA Piper, diversity and inclusion underpins how we live our values and everything we do. We believe that everyone has a voice, and that everyone’s voice counts. We know that the rich diversity across our firm makes us stronger, more innovative and creative, which helps us to better serve our clients and communities. We are committed to providing an inclusive working environment and culture across our global firm, where everyone can bring their authentic self to work.

Diversity of perspective, thought, background and culture combine to make us the leading global law firm; that’s why we actively seek to build balanced teams. We welcome the unique contribution that you will bring to our firm and actively encourage applications from all talented people – however your talent is packaged, whatever your background or circumstance and regardless of how you identify.

Hybrid working

We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly. That's why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for agile working arrangements.