Senior Proposal Manager

Responsibilities:

 The Senior Proposal Manager reports to the Director, Proposal Operations and is matrixed to the Capture Manager by assigned qualified opportunities. The position has operational and management control over the entire technical proposal development life cycle from opportunity qualification to post-proposal submission activities, thereby leading, planning, scheduling, and overseeing large-scale Federal, state, and local government and commercial business opportunities.

Key success factors include the ability to plan and manage a schedule;commitment to on-time performance; experience developing and managing proposals; management of internal and external resources; coordination of inputs, reviews, and strategy implementation; problem identification and resolution; and process training and leadership. The Senior Proposal Manager will support all Vangent divisions responding to RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, oral presentations, marketing efforts, etc. Additionally, this individual shall fully understand, continually improve, and promote world-class proposal processes.

- Responsible for high-quality content and appearance of the final proposal product and the on-time delivery of the proposal

- Collaborate with the capture team to gain an appropriate understanding of the sales strategy and to ensure the response clearly conveys the proper business perspective, key messages, value proposition, and differentiators against our competition

- Drive proposal strategy meetings to discuss themes, discriminators, solution, pricing, etc

- Conduct lessons learned and document and implement actions to improve overall process

- Work with management to select technical proposal team members and delegate authority/responsibility

- Lead, manage, train, and mentor a team of writers; editors; reviewers; graphic artists; coordinators; operational, management, and technical subject matter experts; and subcontractors

- Ensure team members have the resources needed to do their jobs well

- Identify, assess, resolve, and/or escalate issues as needed

- Read and interpret solicitation to identify critical items required for a compliant response

- Apply project management techniques to control scope, cost, and schedule

- Construct technical proposal budget and work with Capture Manager to monitor budget

- Develop and be held accountable for the overall proposal schedule, production schedule, outlines, compliance matrices, proposal development plan, and writing assignments

- Create/Maintain proposal file organization and distribute internal and external proposal documents to team (e.g., RFP, schedule, etc.)

- Maintain configuration control of all living and dead proposal files, forms, graphics, drafts, reviewers- comments, and approvals

- Assist writers by creating shell proposal sections, draft cover letters, and boilerplate materials

- Coach and mentor writers in the development of timely, compliant proposal writing assignments

- Provide technical writing, editing, and proof-reading services

- Coordinate the collection and accumulation of cost, scheduling, and performance elements from functional departments as requested from Business Volume Lead

- Ensure the technical and business proposals align

- Review proposals to ensure sections comply with RFP requirements, contain win strategies, win themes, and comply with Vangent format and style criteria; provide feedback on proposal products

- Lead activities required to successfully assemble multi-functional, cross-divisional teams to perform Storyboard, Pink, Red and Gold Team proposal reviews

- Obtain corporate sign-off of the technical volumes

- Assist with the formatting and layout of the proposal volumes

- Produce, assemble, and ship multiple copies of responses and report on delivery of responses; responsible for production and on-time delivery

- Coordinate activities involved in the development of orals presentations, discussions, and Final Proposal Revisions (FPRs)

- Act as the single point of contact for technical proposal team members

- Provide weekly status to the Proposal Services Manager on proposal efforts

- Lead Technical Proposal Kickoff Meeting and daily status calls

- Provide timely and accurate status reports to the proposal team

- Counsel proposal team on complex proposal issues and make recommendations. 

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree required, advance degree preferred

Minimum 10 years proposal management experience specific to the federal contracting arena consistently managing proposals of at least $50M or higher

Solid understanding of the federal government procurement process and policies

Leadership potential and ability to be a team player and lead teams in the production of proposals with a variety of staff members involved

Management skills required to direct large, multi-contractor proposal team efforts

Ability to collaborate and work as a team leader, with dynamic interpersonal skills to interact with all levels of management

Organizational skills and ability to prioritize multiple tasks in order to meet schedules

Presentation skills and the ability to communicate, influence, and gain commitment of proposal team.

Creative thinking, problem solving skills, and detail-oriented

Proficiency in Microsoft products

Show initiative and be flexible working in a changing environment with high stress and tight deadlines

Ability to successfully execute many complex tasks simultaneously, maintain professional attitude, and work as a team member, as well as independently

Strong commitment to corporate quality standards

Trained in the Shipley Associates, Hy Silver, etc. methodologies of proposal development

Familiar with industry-leading proposal development concepts, practices, and procedures.

Understanding of Federal government requests for proposals and sound proposal practices to ensure responsiveness and compliance

Dedicated to completing objective and missions under pressure

Other Considerations:  Nights, weekends, and travel as required to meet deadlines.