Business development manager: marketing

We are seeking a Business Development Manager to join our Utility Growth Team and accelerate growth across the utility market, selling integrated marketing, communications, and customer engagement services alongside ICF’s broader consulting and technology offerings.

ICF’s utility clients are navigating one of the most significant transformations in the energy industry—decarbonization, grid modernization, electrification, and customer program innovation. Succeeding in this environment requires utilities to engage, educate, and motivate their customers like never before. We combine deep domain expertise with full-service marketing and communications capabilities to help utilities drive program participation, customer engagement, and brand trust.

This role is ideal for a high-energy, consultative seller who thrives in complex, relationship-driven sales environments and can translate client challenges into growth opportunities across ICF’s utility marketing portfolio, including opening new relationships beyond ICF’s traditional energy efficiency contacts.

What You’ll Do

• Build and advance a pipeline of utility marketing opportunities across North America, proactively opening doors with utility stakeholders beyond ICF’s traditional energy efficiency contacts—including corporate communications, corporate marketing, brand management, customer solutions, community relations, and procurement.
• Own the full sales lifecycle from prospecting and discovery through qualification, pursuit, negotiation, and close.
• Qualify leads based on client need, strategic fit, competitive position, budget, decision process, and timing, and advance or disqualify opportunities accordingly.
• Build compelling, client-specific value propositions that connect ICF’s marketing capabilities to measurable client outcomes.
• Maintain complete, accurate, and current opportunities, contacts, activities, next steps, close dates, and forecasts in the CRM.
• Meet established pipeline development, sales activity, and revenue goals, and communicate risks and opportunities through regular pipeline reviews.

Your focus will include selling:

• Marketing and communications strategy, campaign development, and implementation
• Creative, content, digital, strategic communications and brand management, including web experience, marketing automation, and campaign analytics
• Integrated offerings tailored to each client’s strategy, customer base, and regulatory environment

First 30 Days

• Gain an understanding of utility marketing growth priorities, key pursuits, and pipeline management processes while contributing to the development and maintenance of a $45M+ qualified pipeline.
• Develop a strong command of ICF’s marketing, communications, and customer engagement services, ICF’s energy, climate and environmental offerings, and how they integrate with consulting and technology services
• Learn and apply ICF’s business development and capture processes
• Build relationships with utility sales, delivery, and marketing leaders across EEI, and begin mapping stakeholders in corporate communications, brand, and customer solutions functions
• Begin developing a target account and contact strategy by solution area
• Partner with delivery teams to identify expansion and cross-sell opportunities within existing utility clients

First 6 Months

• Lead 10–15 concurrent pursuits across the full sales lifecycle
• Proactively build new relationships and generate net-new meetings and opportunities with utility stakeholders outside of energy efficiency—including corporate communications, corporate marketing, brand management, customer solutions, community relations, and procurement—through direct, proactive (including cold) outreach
• Develop win strategies, including competitive positioning, stakeholder mapping, and ongoing competitive analysis of marketing/communications agencies and consulting competitors
• Drive pursuit activities including pipeline reviews, forecasting, and gate reviews
• Contribute as a proposal reviewer across multiple solutions and offerings
• Identify and secure strategic partners, including negotiating teaming agreements
• Maintain accurate pipeline tracking and reporting in CRM systems

12–18 Months

• Close $15M+ in new sales across marketing, communications, and customer engagement solutions
• Contribute to utility market and account growth strategies
• Partner with ICF’s marketing team to support thought leadership and targeted campaigns, and conference strategies
• Develop business cases, pricing strategies, and value propositions to expand into new utility segments or solution areas or adjacent markets
• Collaborate with senior leadership to translate EEI growth priorities into actionable sales plans

What You Bring

Minimum Qualifications:

• 10+ years in business development, sales, or capture management
• Experience selling into the utility, energy, or government (federal or state) sector—utilities operate much like public-sector bureaucracies, and many of ICF’s largest clients are government or quasi-governmental entities
• Proven success managing multiple complex pursuits and closing $5M+ annually
• Experience selling, and leading teams to sell, core marketing services—including marketing strategy, campaign development and execution, creative and content production, crisis communications and stakeholder engagement, digital and social engagement, and research and analytics—ideally alongside consulting or technology solutions
• Proficiency managing the full sales lifecycle using CRM tools

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience selling agency or full-service marketing engagements, including strategy, creative, digital, media, and analytics
• Direct experience working within, or competing against, marketing/communications/PR agencies, with fluency in how agencies price, package, and position their services
• Familiarity with marketing technology ecosystems such as content management, marketing automation, and CRM platforms
• Demonstrated experience leading competitive RFP responses and navigating formal procurement processes.
• Bachelor’s degree

Key Competencies:

• Strong consultative selling and discovery skills
• Ability to orchestrate cross-functional teams and the conversations that lead to innovation and meaningful impact, influencing without authority
• Excellent client- and customer-facing skills, with strong interpersonal and communication skills, storytelling, and executive presence
• Strategic thinker with strong sales and competitive judgment
• A problem-solver who is highly organized, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities and deadlines at once, and a bias for action and accountability
• Extensive, active professional network, with the ability to build relationships from the program level up through corporate communications and CMO-level stakeholders
• Diligent and comfortable with proactive prospecting and cold outreach
• Forward-thinking on marketing, communications, and digital trends—using technology and creativity to push client engagement forward
• Ability to build trust with marketing, program, and executive stakeholders

Bot and Third-Party Applications

Please note that this application must be submitted directly by the applicant for consideration. Failure to do so may result in the application being excluded for consideration. Applicants needing an accommodation for disability or religious purposes in connection with the application process should contact Candidateaccommodation@icf.com for assistance.

Working at ICF

ICF is a global advisory and technology services provider, but we’re not your typical consultants. We combine unmatched expertise with cutting-edge technology to help clients solve their most complex challenges, navigate change, and shape the future.

We can only solve the world's toughest challenges by building a workplace that allows everyone to thrive. We are an equal opportunity employer. Together, our employees are empowered to share their expertise and collaborate with others to achieve personal and professional goals. For more information, please read our EEO policy.

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Reasonable Accommodations are available, including, but not limited to, for disabled veterans, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs, in all phases of the application and employment process. To request an accommodation, please email Candidateaccommodation@icf.com and we will be happy to assist. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

Read more about workplace discrimination rights or our benefit offerings which are included in the Transparency in (Benefits) Coverage Act.

Candidate AI Usage Policy

At ICF, we are committed to ensuring a fair interview process for all candidates based on their own skills and knowledge. As part of this commitment, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate or assist with responses during interviews (whether in-person or virtual) is not permitted. This policy is in place to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the interview process.

However, we understand that some candidates may require accommodation that involves the use of AI. If such an accommodation is needed, candidates are instructed to contact us in advance at candidateaccommodation@icf.com. We are dedicated to providing the necessary support to ensure that all candidates have an equal opportunity to succeed.