Emily Barnes
Versatile Senior Proposal Writer & Pursuit Strategist Turning Complex Solutions into Revenue
- Role
- Proposal Writing Consultant at PNC
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Emily Barnes
Emily Barnes is a senior proposal and pursuit strategist with 10+ years of experience helping organizations win complex, high-stakes business across technology, financial services, healthcare, public sector, and global enterprise. She has led and written strategic RFP responses for some of the world’s most recognized organizations, including Microsoft, PNC, EY, and UPMC, contributing to billions of dollars in won revenue.Emily specializes in translating complex technical and business solutions into clear, compelling, client-centric narratives that resonate from procurement teams to the C-suite. She brings deep expertise in win theme development, executive summaries, and end-to-end proposal leadership, as well as proven success leading and mentoring global writing teams. Known for her strategic mindset and collaborative approach, she partners closely with sales, product, and subject matter experts to elevate proposal quality, strengthen differentiation, and increase win rates.In addition, Emily is an early adopter and thoughtful practitioner of AI in proposal development, helping teams use emerging tools to enhance—not replace—human insight, strategy, and storytelling. Organizations value her for her ability to improve proposal maturity, drive measurable results, and bring structure, clarity, and confidence to mission-critical pursuits.
Experience
Proposal Writing Consultant
Jun 2025 — Present
Wrote strategic proposal content for high profile RFPs, winning two of the largest contracts for PNC product lines-Led strategic discussions to develop win themes and targeted executive summaries for proposals-Worked with proposal managers, sales executives, product managers and other experts to develop content and improve client centricity while clearly explaining service value-Pitched new content based on data and reporting to elevate and substantiate content and claims-Helped train the RFP team on best practices using AI tools to enhance proposal content and streamline writing assignments-Evaluated existing content and provided edits that made content more strategic that targeted business benefits.
Education
West Virginia University
BA, English, Professional Writing and Editing
2004 — 2008
Shipley Associates
Writing Federal Proposals
2011 — 2011
Skills
- Finance
- Supervision
- Managerial Finance
- Teammate
- Microsoft Excel
- Powerpoint
- Auditing
- Contract Compliance
- Gaas
- Us Gaap Reporting
- Cost Accounting
- Client Relations
Find verified contacts for anyone on LinkedIn
Unifers gives sales teams verified emails and direct dials, enriched profiles, and outreach that lands in the inbox.
Free plan included · No credit card required
This profile is compiled from publicly available professional sources. Unifers is not affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn. Request removal of this profile.