Director of Proposals

Overview:

As the Director of Proposals, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the company’s success in securing high-value government contracts. You will have the opportunity to lead and optimize a growing proposal organization, collaborate with executive leadership, and make a tangible impact on the company’s expansion. If you thrive in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment and have a track record of leading winning proposal teams, we invite you to apply.

Our client is seeking an experienced Director of Proposals to lead and manage the company’s proposal development function, ensuring a disciplined, repeatable, and high-quality approach to government contracting responses. This position requires a proven leader who can oversee the full lifecycle of proposals, manage a team of proposal professionals, and drive winning strategies to secure federal contracts. The Director of Proposals will actively contribute to proposal management and live proposal efforts, taking on hands-on proposal development responsibilities as needed. The Director will be responsible for setting proposal strategies, optimizing processes, enforcing compliance, and aligning proposal development with the company’s business growth objectives.

Responsibilities:

Proposal Leadership & Management

• Lead and oversee the entire proposal development lifecycle, from RFX receipt through post-submission debrief.
• Develop and implement proposal strategies that maximize evaluation scores and increase the company’s win rate.
• Define and enforce industry best practices (Shipley or equivalent and AI tools) to enhance the company’s proposal process and efficiency.
• Supervise, mentor, and provide guidance to the proposal management team, including Senior Proposal Managers, Proposal Writers, and other contributors.
• Manage the proposal pipeline, ensuring all opportunities are adequately resourced and executed with excellence.
• Direct color team reviews, ensuring compliance, clarity, and compelling proposal content
• Leads and facilitates Blue Team reviews to outline technical approach sections.

Process Optimization & Compliance

• Standardize and improve proposal and orals development processes, tools, templates, and guidelines.
• Maintain a 100% compliance rate by ensuring adherence to federal acquisition regulations (FAR/DFAR) and solicitation requirements.
• Develop and enforce schedules, compliance matrix and checklists, and standardized response templates to streamline proposal development.
• Responsible for quality, management of the proposal content library to improve response efficiency and consistency.
• Collaborate with Contracts, Pricing, HR, and Operations teams to ensure complete and compliant submissions.
• Provide Orals coaching and complex proposal orchestration.

Strategic Growth & Capture Support

• Partner with stakeholders (BD, Capture, Executives) to develop competitive win strategies and identify key differentiators.
• Analyze RFPs, RFIs, and other solicitations to guide pursuit decisions and optimize proposal efforts.
• Work closely with subject matter experts (SMEs), teaming partners, and subcontractors to integrate technical, management, and past performance solutions into proposals.
• Drive continuous improvement in proposal quality, integrating feedback from debriefs and lessons learned into future efforts.
• Lead strategic initiatives to position the company for success in key federal contract vehicles and IDIQs/GWACs.

Hands-on Proposal Development & Tactical Execution

• Take a direct role in managing large, complex IDIQ/GWAC responses.
• Read and analyze RFP's and prepare compliant response outlines, draft, format, and edit proposal content for readability, consistency, clarity, and to meet requirements.
• Lead proposal responses, including drafting, formatting, and editing content for clarity, consistency, and compliance.
• Develop proposal outlines, compliance matrices, and schedules to ensure efficient and high-quality proposal execution.
• Writes and refines non-technical sections such as executive summaries, management approaches, and past performance narratives.
• Organize and coordinate contributions from internal teams, teaming partners, subcontractors, and SMEs.
• Conduct compliance and quality checks to ensure proposals meet solicitation requirements.
• Support the creation of proposal graphics, layouts, and storyboards to enhance readability and presentation.
• Demonstrate an outstanding level of commitment to each proposal effort.
• Participate in special projects as required.
• Contribute to ISO activities.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field i.e. Communications, English, Social Science, or technical discipline consistent with the aforementioned domains or relevant experience.
• 15 years of experience in proposal development, management, and strategy within federal contracting.
• 5 years of experience leading/managing a proposal department or managing multiple proposal managers and teams.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills with experience developing non-technical proposal content, including executive summaries, management approaches, and past performance.
• 2 years experience using AI technologies and tools to improve proposal team efficiencies and industry best practices. (Expert level preferred)
• Proven leadership experience driving process improvements.
• Demonstrated ability to lead large, complex IDIQ/GWAC responses involving multiple teaming partners.
• Strong understanding of Shipley methodologies or equivalent industry best practices.
• Expertise in federal acquisition regulations (FAR/DFAR) and compliance best practices.
• Ability to work under tight deadlines, manage multiple priorities, and lead teams in high-pressure environments.
• Strong collaboration skills with business development, capture, contracts, pricing, and technical teams.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and proposal management tools.
• Must possess a passion to win.

Preferred Qualifications:

• APMP Membership and APMP Practitioner Level certification or higher.
• Experience with governmental proposal development and processes is preferred, experience with leading proposals for IaaS, Cyber Security, Cloud, and emerging technologies is a plus.
• Experience with proposal automation and knowledge management tools.