Shelley Shaffer

About Shelley Shaffer

Winning work in architecture and design requires more than strong proposals, it takes clear strategy, compelling storytelling, and disciplined execution.Throughout my career, I’ve led the evolution of marketing and pursuit practices to help teams compete more effectively, position their value with clarity, and improve how they go after high-value opportunities.My work sits at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and systems, building scalable pursuit frameworks and leading teams to deliver clear, differentiated, and winning strategies.I’m particularly passionate about:• Elevating pursuit quality through clear strategy and compelling narratives • Building teams and processes that scale across regions and practices • Turning data and insights into measurable improvements in win rates • Creating alignment between brand, business development, and client experience I’m a builder of teams, systems, and standards that make great work possible.

Experience

1. Principal and Director of Marketing

   HKS, Inc.

   May 1996 — Present · Richmond, VA, US

   As Director of Marketing, I use my strengths as a strategist, manager, collaborator, problem solver and service provider.Key ResponsibilitiesSTRATEGIST: Work with Business Development and Marketing teams to create and manage strategy for targeted pursuits, marketing materials, content development and researchMANAGER: Responsible for overall management of the Marketing team including hiring, mentoring, training, workload management and development of group’s future directionCOLLABORATOR: Create and improve business development, RFP and information gathering and storing processes working with 27 marketing staff members and 24 officesPROBLEM SOLVER: Work with IT to improve databases and CRM systems for improved reporting of marketing metrics, statistics gathering and project information storage and retrievalSERVICE PROVIDER: Create/update branded and targeted firm-wide resources, manage marketing workload and provide services to marketing efforts firm-wideHired in 1996, I was promoted to Marketing Coordinator in 1998, Marketing Manager in 2001, Associate and Associate Director of Marketing Services in 2007, Vice President in 2012, Director of Marketing in 2014 and Associate Principal in 2022.Career Highlights Helped create standards for newly formed Marketing group, which brought together marketing staff from all sectors and offices into one cohesive team, standardizing our brand and marketing efforts firm-wideWorked with team to refresh brand standards, creating new flexible styles for marketing materialsPrepared three successful FAIA submissions with HKS Principals and two winning Vista Award submissions with project teamsRestructured group to serve as a firm-wide resource to more effectively share workload to cover fluctuation of pursuits worldwide. Developed training manual and exercises for onboarding new hiresCreated collaborative process encouraging a lean approach to firm-wide marketing efforts

Education

• John Tyler Community College

  Associate’s Degree, Design and Visual Communications, General