Specialist, Request for Proposals

About EAB

At EAB, our mission is to make education smarter and our communities stronger. We work with more than 2,800 institutions to drive transformative change through data-driven insights and best-in-class capabilities. From kindergarten to college to career, EAB partners with leaders and practitioners to accelerate progress and drive results across enrollment, student success, institutional strategy, data analytics, and advancement. We work with each partner differently, tailoring our portfolio of research, technology, and marketing and enrollment solutions to meet the unique needs of every leadership team, as well as the students and employees they serve.

At EAB, we serve not only our partner institutions but each other—that's why we are always working to make sure our employees love their jobs and are invested in their communities. See how we've been recognized for this dedication to our employees by checking out our recent awards.

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The Specialist, Request for Proposals plays a key role in driving EAB’s commercial success by supporting high-impact RFP responses. As part of a multi-million-dollar sales enablement function, this role carries significant ownership over proposal strategy and messaging for high-value opportunities.

Working closely with sales, product, marketing, and subject matter experts, the Specialist translates complex customer needs and RFP requirements into clear, persuasive narratives that demonstrate EAB’s value as a long-term partner. The role requires strong judgment, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to influence outcomes without direct authority.

This is a highly visible role for a self-starter who is motivated by impact, accountability, and continuous growth. The position offers exposure to firm-wide strategy, a defined career path, and the opportunity to build trusted relationships across EAB’s commercial, product, and delivery teams.

This role may be based in Washington, DC or Richmond, VA.

This position is also posted at the Senior Specialist level; candidates are being considered at both levels for the current opening.

• →Analyze RFPs, customer insights, and strategic inputs to identify customer priorities and define proposal strategy.
• →Use creativity and problem solving to develop clear, persuasive RFP responses that meet requirements, differentiate EAB’s offerings, position EAB as a long-term partner, and uphold EAB’s RFP standards of excellence.
• →Own and manage a portfolio of RFPs simultaneously, balancing competing deadlines and ad hoc requests while maintaining high quality standards.
• →Create, refine, and standardize RFP content to reflect product updates, market trends, and competitive positioning.
• →Maintain EAB’s RFP content library, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and alignment with current product and competitive messaging.
• →Identify and lead process improvements that increase RFP quality, efficiency, or team productivity, including experimentation with AI-enabled tools and data-driven workflows.
• →Partner with sales, product, and marketing teams to address RFP requirements and product-specific questions.
• →Build and maintain deep knowledge of EAB’s products, customers, markets, and competitors through ongoing learning and research.
• →Capture insights from RFP activity and share competitive and market intelligence with relevant internal teams.
• →Advise commercial and account management teams on RFP best practices and proposal strategy.
• →Provide other support to the RFP team and the broader strategy and operations team as necessary.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent required
• 1-2+ years in a writing, marketing, or sales enablement role
• Strong writing skills and comfort in a writing-intensive role
• Strong communicator with excellent interpersonal skills
• Strong project management skills
• Expertise in MS Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Familiarity with cloud-based content management platforms (Box, Dropbox, etc.).

• Curiosity: possesses a strong desire to learn and constantly deepen knowledge related to the role.
• Initiative: identifies problems, develops solutions, and delivers improvements without external prompting.
• Independence: operates effectively with little oversight, while also seeking support when needed.
• Growth mindset: aware of the limits of your own knowledge and abilities and unafraid to ask for help or feedback for continuous improvement.
• Organization: deftly manages large volumes of information, deadlines, and resources.
• Speed: effectively prioritizes and delivers results without sacrificing quality.
• Resourceful: finds and creates solutions to overcome obstacles in the relentless pursuit of right answer.
• Adaptability: solves complex problems and successfully manages ambiguity and unexpected change.
• Collaboration: strives for personal achievement while also supporting team members and overall team success.
• Commitment to embracing a continual learning environment and contributing to a dynamic and welcoming culture of fairness, authenticity, and belonging in support of EAB’s mission, values, and aspiration.

If you’ve reached this section of the job description and are unsure of whether to apply, please do! At EAB, we welcome new perspectives and learn from each other’s unique experiences. We would encourage you to submit an application if this is a role you would be passionate about doing every day.