Executive VA - Business Development & Relationship Management

ROLE TITLE

Executive VA – Business Development & Relationship Management

Remote | Pacific Time Business Hours | Philippine Based

Role Summary

Khalifeh & Associates is a long-established MEP engineering consulting firm in Southern California. We are hiring an Executive VA whose primary responsibility is to help leadership rebuild dormant business relationships, establish new professional connections, and maintain a consistent pipeline of future project opportunities.

You will contact past clients and architectural firms that previously requested proposals, research new target firms and decision-makers, initiate outbound conversations by phone, follow up through email and LinkedIn, schedule meetings, and document every meaningful interaction. You will use proposal history and relationship records to make outreach relevant rather than sending generic messages.

This role requires someone who can pick up the phone, speak confidently with professional stakeholders, and keep relationships moving without waiting for daily instructions. You must be comfortable following up when contacts do not respond, adjusting your approach based on feedback, and managing multiple outreach priorities while maintaining accurate records.

Business development is the primary focus. Executive and administrative support, marketing-material maintenance, and project coordination are additional responsibilities that support the firm's overall workflow.

You do not need an engineering background. However, experience with professional services, architecture, construction, real estate development, design firms, or similar relationship-driven industries is a strong advantage.

Core Responsibilities

1. Business Development Outreach and Relationship Re-Engagement

• Review the proposal history and proposal summary tracker to identify past clients, architectural firms, and other contacts who requested proposals or previously engaged with the firm but have since become inactive.
• Use the available proposal history and relationship notes to establish context before contacting a dormant lead. Do not approach prior contacts as if they have never interacted with the firm.
• Make outbound phone calls to reconnect with past clients, architects, developers, designers, and other relevant professional contacts. Use email follow-ups when needed.
• Research new architectural firms, developers, contractors, consultants, and architect-adjacent organizations when building or expanding the target list.
• Review target firms' websites, LinkedIn profiles, leadership teams, and recent projects before outreach so that conversations and messages are relevant to the recipient.
• Identify appropriate decision-makers and initiate professional conversations that can lead to meetings, referrals, renewed relationships, or future project opportunities.
• Maintain a structured outreach cadence, generally following up monthly unless the lead's circumstances or timing call for earlier action.
• Record every meaningful outreach outcome, including contact status, response, relationship context, next action, and follow-up date.
• Gather feedback when contacts are willing to share it, including why a proposal was not awarded, pricing concerns, service gaps, or dissatisfaction with a current provider.
• Maintain the business development pipeline by updating outreach stages, relationship status, opportunity notes, and pending follow-ups.
• Use LinkedIn to identify decision-makers, establish connections, review relevant activity, and maintain professional visibility with target contacts.
• Support outreach strategies and re-engagement campaigns intended to generate meetings, referrals, and future project opportunities.

2. Meeting Coordination and Relationship Support

• Schedule business development calls, meetings, and in-person lunches between leadership and high-priority contacts.
• Coordinate calendars and follow-ups so that promising conversations lead to a defined next step rather than remaining undocumented interactions.
• Draft and send professional outreach emails that reflect the firm's voice, positioning, and prior relationship with the recipient.
• Monitor relevant inbound communications and route or organize client inquiries, drawings, and project requests so that they are not overlooked.
• Keep leadership informed of meaningful contact responses, potential opportunities, objections, and relationship developments.

3. Marketing Support and Materials Maintenance

• Maintain organized marketing materials and project reference documents used during outreach and relationship-building activities.
• Help manage the client's LinkedIn presence by reviewing connection requests, monitoring messages, and identifying relevant industry contacts.
• Support light social media or online presence updates as directed.
• Research target firms, industry opportunities, and potential partnerships that could expand the business development pipeline.
• Coordinate updates to company materials, including project lists, award announcements, and website content, when applicable.

4. Executive, Administrative, and Project Coordination

• Manage calendar scheduling for business development meetings, calls, and follow-ups through Microsoft Outlook.
• Organize proposal files, project documents, and communication records so that leadership can retrieve the correct information when needed.
• Track proposal and client-request deadlines, missing documents, pending actions, and required follow-ups.
• Monitor active project coordination items by tracking key deadlines, coordinating follow-ups with internal team members and clients, and confirming that required documents, drawings, and deliverables are received and organized.
• Maintain documentation and process trackers for outreach, marketing activities, and internal priorities.
• Coordinate with IT support when access to Outlook, the phone system, shared folders, or other required tools needs to be established or resolved.
• Provide bookkeeping support using QuickBooks only if that responsibility is assigned.

Requirements (Non-Negotiable)

Candidates must meet all of the following requirements:

• Full-time availability during Pacific Time business hours, eight hours per day, Monday through Friday.
• Fluent, confident, professional spoken and written English.
• Ability to credibly communicate with architects, contractors, and other technical design and construction professionals.
• Proven professional-level business development and marketing experience.
• Experience representing a professional or technical service to a B2B audience.
• Ability to lead and work independently with accountability for results.
• Demonstrated experience in business development, sales support, client relationship management, account management, lead generation, or comparable client-facing work.
• Confidence initiating outbound phone calls with business owners, executives, architects, developers, designers, contractors, and other professional stakeholders.
• Experience managing outreach campaigns, follow-up cadences, CRM activities, or relationship-tracking systems.
• Strong research skills, including the ability to identify target firms, decision-makers, and relevant business opportunities.
• Consistent documentation and follow-through, ensuring that meaningful interactions, next actions, and follow-up dates are accurately recorded.
• Ability to prioritize business development activities alongside administrative and project coordination responsibilities without requiring daily step-by-step supervision.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Outlook, Word, and Excel.

Experience in architecture, engineering, construction, real estate development, design firms, building products, or similar professional services is strongly preferred. An engineering or architecture background is not required, but candidates must be able to communicate credibly with professionals in these industries.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience supporting professional services, architecture, engineering, construction, real estate development, design firms, building product suppliers, custom manufacturers, luxury residential service providers, or similar architect-adjacent markets.
• Experience with LinkedIn for professional networking, prospect research, and business development.
• Familiarity with ChatGPT or other AI-assisted productivity tools.

Engineering or architecture experience is not required. The ability to research, communicate with, and build relationships with professional stakeholders is more important than familiarity with MEP terminology.

Tools

• Microsoft Outlook — email and calendar management.
• RingCentral — outbound calling and phone-system access.
• Microsoft Office — Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Proposal Summary / Proposal History Tracker — researching prior proposals and relationships.
• Outreach Tracker — maintaining outreach activity, relationship status, follow-up dates, and opportunity notes.
• LinkedIn — prospect research, professional networking, and relationship visibility.
• QuickBooks — only if bookkeeping support is assigned.

The Outreach Tracker will need to be built or maintained as part of the role. Candidates should be comfortable working with an existing tracker or organizing structured records when a process needs to be established.

What We Actually Care About

• You initiate conversations. You do not avoid phone calls by defaulting to email or waiting for contacts to approach the company.
• You make outreach relevant. You review the relationship history and research the recipient before contacting them.
• You close the follow-up loop. Every interaction is documented, and outstanding next steps have an owner and a follow-up date.
• You build relationships, not just activity counts. You capture useful context, listen for business needs, and identify appropriate opportunities to reconnect.
• You operate without constant supervision. You recognize overdue follow-ups, missing information, and stalled conversations and take appropriate action.
• You protect execution quality. Outreach, calendar commitments, proposal records, and project coordination items remain organized and accurate.

What This Role Is NOT

• This is not a traditional Executive Assistant role focused primarily on inbox management, calendar scheduling, and general administration.
• This is not a passive lead-generation role where success means producing contact lists or sending bulk messages without meaningful conversations or follow-up.
• This is not a hardcore closing or engineering-sales position. The focus is relationship re-engagement, professional outreach, meeting generation, and pipeline support—not independently closing engineering contracts or providing technical advice.
• This is not a bookkeeping-first position. QuickBooks support is conditional and secondary to the core responsibilities.
• This is not a role for someone who avoids outbound calling, requires daily instructions for routine follow-ups, or cannot maintain accurate records independently.

Position Details

• Work arrangement: Remote contractor.
• Schedule: Full-time, eight hours per day, Monday through Friday, during Pacific Time business hours.
• Work environment: Performance-driven and async-friendly, with proactive communication and dependable follow-through. The required Pacific Time schedule must be maintained.
• Primary focus: Business development outreach, relationship re-engagement, and pipeline support.
• Secondary focus: Marketing-material maintenance, executive administration, and project coordination.
• Success standard: Relevant conversations, consistently managed follow-ups, accurate relationship records, meetings scheduled, and a well-maintained pipeline of potential opportunities.

Application Instructions

Apply with your resume and answer the following questions:

1. Describe a role in which you were responsible for outbound calls, client re-engagement, business development, account management, or lead follow-up. Who did you contact, what was your responsibility, and what happened as a result?
2. A firm requested a proposal several months ago but never moved forward. You have the proposal history, the firm's website, and a contact's LinkedIn profile. Explain how you would prepare for the first call, what you would say, and how you would handle the next steps if the contact does not respond.
3. Describe the tracker, CRM, or follow-up system you have used to ensure that no important relationship or next action was forgotten.

Candidates who provide only generic answers without describing specific actions, decisions, and follow-through may not be shortlisted.

Benefits

• Paid Time Off
• HMO
• Fully Remote Work