Senior Manager, Proposals

About the role

Leads and matures the pre-award proposal management function for Viasat Government through functional leadership, people management, and operational excellence. This role leads a group of proposal professionals while serving as a senior, hands-on leader for the most critical pursuits.

Responsibilities

• Develops talent, establishes execution standards, and drives a scalable pre-award operating model to ensure consistent delivery of high-quality, compliant, and competitive proposals.
• Partners across Business Development, Technical, Financial, Operational, and Supply Chain functions to align resources, priorities, and strategies, while strengthening continuity from opportunity shaping through proposal submission and program transition.
• Operates with autonomy, influencing senior leadership, crafting organizational capability, and encouraging ongoing improvement throughout the pre-award lifecycle.
• Manages and develops a team of proposal managers and support personnel, with accountability for performance, engagement, and career development.
• Provides regular coaching, feedback, and performance management, ensuring high standards and continuous growth.
• Drives hiring, onboarding, and succession planning to build a scalable and resilient organization.
• Fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and ongoing improvement.
• Serves as lead proposal manager on the highest-priority and most complex opportunities.
• Oversees and guides team execution across the full proposal portfolio.
• Ensures adherence to established processes, compliance requirements, and quality standards.
• Leads executive reviews and ensures effective incorporation of feedback.
• Promotes disciplined, repeatable execution practices across all proposals.
• Acts as a key integrator across pre-award collaborators, including Business Development, Sales, Engineering, Finance, Operations, and Contracts.
• Drives alignment between customer requirements, technical solutions, and cost/schedule assumptions.
• Enables effective collaboration and resolves cross-functional challenges through leadership and influence.
• Improves handoff quality from proposal through program execution.
• Oversees coordination and integration of cost and risk inputs across functions.
• Owns resource planning and workload prioritization across the proposal team.
• Aligns staffing with pipeline demand, strategic priorities, and business goals.
• Identifies and mitigates resource constraints, capability gaps, and execution risks.
• Ensures effective utilization and development of team members.
• Leads initiatives to improve proposal processes, tools, and systems.
• Establishes and tracks performance metrics (e.g., cycle time, quality, win rate, rework).
• Partners with system owners (Salesforce, Agile tools, costing systems) to optimize workflows.
• Drives adoption of best practices and continuous improvement across the team.

Requirements

• 8+ years of proposal management, capture, or related experience.
• Demonstrated experience in people leadership and team development.
• Proven ability to lead functions or teams with increasing scope and complexity.
• Strong understanding of the full pre-award lifecycle in a government/defense environment.
• Experience establishing processes, governance, and scalable operating models.
• Ability to influence and collaborate effectively across senior and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong communication, leadership presence, and decision-making capability.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Ability to travel up to 25%.

What You'll Need

• Experience leading proposals and capture processes in the aerospace and defense industry.
• Knowledge of industry tools and information systems such as Salesforce, SAM.gov, etc.
• Working knowledge of AI tools such as Claude and Copilot.
• Experience with US government capture processes such as the Federal Acquisitions Regulations.

Benefits

Salary range $121,000.00 - $191,000.00 / annually. For specific work locations within San Jose, the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, the base pay range for this role is $150,000.00- $225,000.00/ annually. Additional cash or stock incentives may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position offered. Learn more about Viasat’s comprehensive benefit offerings that are focused on your holistic health and wellness at https://careers.viasat.com/benefits.

EEO Statement

Viasat is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, seeking to create a welcoming and diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, genetics, age, or veteran status or any other applicable legally protected status or characteristic. If you would like to request an accommodation on the basis of disability for completing this on-line application, please click here.