Senior Proposal Manager

Key Responsibilities

• Own the full proposal lifecycle from pre-RFP shaping and capture integration through final submission and post-submittal activities.
• Build and enforce proposal schedules, compliance matrices, annotated outlines, and volume-level deliverable plans across technical, management, past performance, and cost volumes.
• Enforce our Shipley-based proposal process adapted to SHR’s size and operating tempo. Continuously improve the process based on lessons learned.
• Make authoritative decisions on content structure, resource allocation, and schedule adjustments when trade-offs are required. Escalate to leadership when necessary.
• Develop administrative and management volume content from scratch, including executive summaries, management approaches, staffing and organizational plans, transition plans, quality assurance plans, and resumes.
• Perform substantive editing of technical content authored by engineers and SMEs to ensure clarity, compliance with Sections L/M, and alignment with win themes and discriminators.
• Ensure a consistent voice, compelling narrative arc, and clear discriminator emphasis across all volumes. Every section must read as if one sharp mind wrote it.
• Develop and refine proposal graphics concepts in coordination with graphic designers, ensuring visuals reinforce key messages and evaluation criteria.
• Collaborate with the President, BDE, and leads to identify, shape, and position SHR for upcoming opportunities.
• Lead Black Hat sessions, competitive analysis, and win strategy development. Translate competitive intelligence into actionable proposal messaging.
• Drive storyboarding and theme development sessions aligned to customer pain points, evaluation criteria, and SHR’s competitive advantages.
• Execute structured data calls with internal teams, on-site personnel, and subcontractor partners to gather technical, operational, and past performance inputs on schedule. Translate raw SME input into polished, customer-focused, evaluation-aligned proposal content. Do not wait for perfect inputs, extract what is needed and drive the content forward.
• Coordinate with teaming partners and subcontractors on content contributions, ensuring consistency with SHR’s proposal standards and compliance requirements.
• Maintain and continuously curate the SHR Proposal Library, including past performance write-ups, key personnel resumes, corporate qualifications, reusable boilerplate, and graphics.
• Ensure past performance citations are current, relevant, quantified, and mapped to specific solicitation requirements for each pursuit.
• Build a knowledge management discipline that accelerates proposal starts and reduces rework across pursuits.
• Plan and execute Pink Team, Red Team, Gold Team, and Final Production reviews with structured agendas, evaluation criteria, and feedback mechanisms. Lead Red Team reviews as the process owner. Ensure reviewer feedback is captured, dispositioned, and incorporated with full traceability. Verify compliance, responsiveness, and scoring alignment prior to Gold Team and final production.
• Oversee final formatting, graphics integration, page count compliance, and production quality for all submission volumes.
• Ensure full compliance with solicitation instructions (Sections L/M) and submission requirements across all applicable platforms (SAM.gov, PIEE, agency portals, email submissions).
• Manage final quality control checkpoints and submission logistics. No proposal ships without your sign-off.
• Lead development of oral presentation materials, demonstration scripts, and executive briefing packages when required by solicitation.
• Cook up rehearsals, coaching sessions, and messaging alignment with presenters and executive leadership.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of federal proposal management experience in a government contracting environment, with demonstrated success managing and winning IT services proposals.
• Proven experience developing administrative and management volumes from scratch (executive summaries, management plans, staffing plans, transition approaches, QA plans).
• Expert-level writing, substantive editing, and document production skills. Ability to take rough SME input and produce polished, evaluation-ready content under pressure.
• Deep familiarity with FAR/DFARS-based procurements, evaluation structures, and federal acquisition processes.
• Demonstrated experience applying the Shipley Method or equivalent structured proposal development process.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent proposals under tight deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Experience managing proposal efforts in at least two of the following IT domains: enterprise IT engineering and platform operations, cybersecurity engineering, cloud infrastructure or AI/ML.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to direct cross-functional teams, hold contributors accountable, and make decisions under time pressure.
• Bachelor’s degree required (Master’s degree in English, Communications, Business, or a related field preferred).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting small business growth environments and understanding the unique dynamics of small business federal contracting.
• Direct experience supporting proposals for DoD agencies (DISA, DIA, DSCA, USACE) and/or DHS components (FEMA, CISA, USCIS, TSA).
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks as they relate to proposal content: CMMC, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, DoD 8140.
• Experience with AI/ML-related proposal content, including operational AI platforms, responsible AI frameworks, and emerging technologies such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.
• Working knowledge of GovWin, SAM.gov, FPDS, USA Spending, and other federal market intelligence tools.
• Experience with proposal collaboration and production tools (SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Teams, Adobe InDesign or Illustrator for graphics coordination).
• APMP certification (Practitioner or Professional) or equivalent.