We are seeking a Senior Bid & Proposal Manager to lead competitive proposals for the Defense Products business line. The role owns the bid lifecycle from opportunity qualification and capture planning through proposal submission, negotiation support, and lessons learned. The successful candidate will turn complex customer requirements into clear, compliant, competitive, and executable offers.
Working closely with the Deputy Director and the CEO, the Bid & Proposal Manager will establish the proposal strategy, orchestrate contributors, and maintain full control of scope, schedule, cost, risk, and compliance throughout the pursuit.
Key responsibilities
Bid leadership and governance
- Own end-to-end management of RFIs, RFQs, RFPs, ITTs, and unsolicited proposals for defense products and solutions.
- Establish the bid plan, governance, calendar, work breakdown, review cycle, decision gates, and submission requirements.
- Drive bid/no-bid recommendations based on strategic fit, customer value, competitive position, delivery feasibility, risk, and expected financial return.
- Lead kick-off meetings, progress reviews, color-team reviews, executive approvals, and final submission readiness.
- Maintain the bid register, action log, assumptions, clarifications, dependencies, risks, and audit trail.
Capture and win strategy
- Partner with Engineering to shape opportunities before formal solicitation.
- Develop the win strategy, value proposition, key messages, competitive differentiators, teaming approach, and customer-focused solution narrative.
- Coordinate customer questions and clarifications while protecting confidentiality and ensuring consistent communications.
- Support negotiation preparation and handover from the pursuit team to the delivery organization after contract award.
Proposal development and integration
- Translate solicitation requirements into a structured compliance matrix and proposal architecture.
- Coordinate technical, commercial, contractual, financial, security, export-control, industrial-benefit, and delivery inputs.
- Challenge contributors to ensure that the proposed solution is coherent, differentiated, evidence-based, and deliverable.
- Consolidate schedules, staffing plans, cost estimates, pricing assumptions, margins, cash profile, risks, and contingencies.
- Edit and improve proposal content for clarity, consistency, persuasiveness, and alignment with customer evaluation criteria.
- Control versions, approvals, document quality, production, portals, and on-time submission.
Compliance, risk, and continuous improvement
- Ensure adherence to customer instructions, internal approval authorities, contractual requirements, security rules, and confidentiality obligations.
- Coordinate reviews with Legal, Finance, Security, Quality, and other control functions.
- Facilitate post-submission debriefs and lessons learned; maintain reusable proposal content, templates, evidence, and best practices.
- Monitor bid performance indicators and provide concise reporting to Defense Products leadership.