Manager, Proposals

Trustmark • Lake Forest, IL

1d • $62,947 - $90,924 • Onsite

About The Position

Leads the Proposal and RFP Submission team by managing performance, workflow, and quality standards to ensure accurate, timely, and compliant customer deliverables. Drives operational excellence through reporting, trend analysis, process improvements, and cross-functional collaboration with Sales, Underwriting, and other business partners. Oversees team development, technology initiatives, AI-enabled processes, and operational governance while fostering a high-performing and accountable team culture.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree with 2-4 years of related experience OR High School Diploma or GED with 4-6 years related experience
• People Management experience
• Strong time management skills
• Analytical, detail oriented and creative
• Demonstrates initiative/self-motivation & resourceful.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products; Adobe Writer
• Excellent verbal/written communication skills
• Ability to overcome barriers to obtain required information
• Insurance product experience from a Sales or Underwriting background
• 3+ years’ experience with Life/Health Insurance
• Strong documentation skills

Nice To Haves

• Insurance product experience from a Sales or Underwriting background
• 3+ years’ experience with Life/Health Insurance
• Strong documentation skills

Responsibilities

• Lead workforce planning and team development activities by monitoring demand and capacity trends, determining staffing requirements, recruiting, and onboarding talent, and fostering a high-performance culture focused on continuous improvement, employee development, accountability, and operational excellence.
• Establish, monitor, and report on operational performance metrics for submission and RFP activities, including turnaround times, quality standards, productivity measures, and year-over-year trend analysis to drive business insights and process improvements.
• Analyze and report on year-to-year trends; creation/distribution of activity reports to appropriate teams.
• Develop, maintain, and enforce operational standards, procedures, job aids, and documentation to support consistency, scalability, knowledge transfer, and continuous process improvement across the team.
• Direct proposal workflow, quality assurance, and audit functions to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant delivery of customer-facing submissions.
• Develop and maintain auditing methodologies, quality control processes, and best-practice standards while serving as a key liaison between Sales, Underwriting, and other business partners throughout the proposal and quote lifecycle.
• Monitor/manage workflow of proposal requests/underwriting offers; review/evaluate requests and quality of output; create/update auditing/quality control documentation; audit team cases; consistent review of best practices in key areas; act as liaison between Sales and Underwriting teams as needed to complete proposals/underwriting offers.
• Work across the organization with team SMEs to create and maintain all online and manual tools used for proposal and rate creation and training documents utilized by the Proposal and Submission teams.
• Provide strategic oversight of AI-enabled submission technologies, including monitoring large language model (LLM) performance, validating output accuracy, analyzing usage trends, and refining model inputs and governance practices to ensure alignment with evolving business objectives, compliance requirements, and customer needs.
• Provide strategic oversight of transfer from Salesforce to Dynamics, including current Salesforce and Client Central processes for Proposal and Submission teams.
• Determine staffing requirements, interview, hire & work with others to train team members; develop & mentor team members by having bi-weekly 1x1’s; create/maintain positive team environment; hold team accountable for performance.
• Lead the RFP Submission Team, including oversight of AI-enabled submission tools, governance processes, and quality audit functions, to ensure the accurate translation of information into business-ready, customer-facing deliverables.
• Manage the Proposal Unit responsible for delivering comprehensive responses to external customer requests, including RFPs, product proposals, pricing/rate requests, questionnaires, and third-party portal submissions.
• Other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Health/dental/vision
• life insurance
• FSA and HSA
• 401(k) plan
• Employee Assistant Program
• Back-up Care for Children, Adults and Elders
• many health and wellness initiatives
• Wellness program that enables employees to participate in health initiatives to reduce their insurance premiums.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: Associate degree