Proposal & Costing Manager
Argenta · Shawnee, KS · 3 mo ago
SalesOther
About the role
The Proposal & Costing Manager is responsible for leading proposal development, costing, pricing governance, and commercial change-order activities across Argenta's manufacturing network. The role ensures commercial commitments are accurate, consistent, and aligned with operational capability, regulatory requirements, and long-term customer delivery expectations. This position serves as a key interface between Commercial, Alliance Management, Manufacturing, and Finance, supporting sustainable growth while protecting margin, capacity, and execution integrity.
Responsibilities
- Own and lead the proposal, costing, and change-order process, ensuring pricing and commercial commitments are aligned with operational capability, capacity constraints, and long-term customer delivery expectations.
- Act as a commercial integrity gatekeeper for scope, assumptions, and risk alignment.
- Prepare, review, and coordinate proposals, revisions, and change orders for RFQs, new programs, program expansions, and lifecycle changes.
- Develop and maintain standardized costing models, assumptions, and pricing logic.
- Establish and maintain SOPs governing pricing, proposal development, approvals, and commercial change management.
- Maintain centralized quote and change-order registers as the system of record.
- Perform quality control review of proposals prior to release, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and appropriate internal approvals.
- Track and report quote turnaround times and post-signature variances.
- As the primary liaison between Commercial, Alliance Management, MSAT, Manufacturing, Operations, and Finance during proposal development.
- Surface key cost drivers, assumptions, risks, and trade-offs to stakeholders.
- Support customer due diligence and commercial discussions, including participation in cross-functional reviews and customer meetings as required.
- Analyze proposal outcomes versus execution to identify opportunities for improvement in pricing methodology, governance, and assumptions.
- Continuously evolve tools, templates, and processes to support scalability.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in a scientific, engineering, business, or related discipline, OR equivalent combination of education and significant industry experience.
- Experience in pharmaceutical, veterinary, biologics, or CDMO environments strongly preferred.
- Strong commercial acumen with the ability to balance sales objectives and operational realities.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to clearly articulate complex commercial and technical concepts.
- Comfortable engaging with cross-functional teams and senior leadership, including SLT/ELT and external customers.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (financial models and scenario analysis), Word, and proposal documentation tools.
- High attention to detail with strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Strong organizational and coordination skills in complex, multi-site environments.