Proposal Development Manager

U.S. Bank•Minneapolis, MN

1d•$133,365 - $156,900

About The Position

The Proposal Development Manager leads the day-to-day activities and performance of the proposal development team, aligning resources to business needs and ensuring assignments are completed with consistent quality, accuracy, and timeliness. The role directly manages and develops proposal professionals, distributes workloads, monitors schedules and deadlines, and provides hands-on guidance to resolve delivery challenges and uphold quality standards. It coordinates team assignments while balancing capacity, priorities, complexity, and development needs. The manager also provides strategic, writing, and editorial leadership for complex or high-priority opportunities. The role oversees proposals from kickoff and strategy alignment through content development, review, and submission, ensuring that deliverables are client-focused, persuasive, compliant, and aligned with established proposal strategies, processes, and standards. It works with Sales, Product, Pricing, Legal, Risk, Marketing, subject-matter experts, and other contributors, and escalates broader strategic or organizational decisions to the Head of Proposal Strategy & Management.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Communications, English, Journalism, Marketing, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
At least 7 years of experience in proposal writing, proposal management, business writing, marketing communications, or a related discipline.
Demonstrated experience leading, coaching, or developing proposal writers or similar professional teams.
Strong experience managing multiple concurrent RFPs, RFIs, questionnaires, or complex client deliverables.
Exceptional writing, editing, proofreading, and executive communication skills.
Strong workload, resource, and deadline-management capabilities.
Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, highly matrixed environment.
Strong collaboration and stakeholder-management skills.
Ability to translate complex financial, technical, and product information into concise, client-focused messaging.

Nice To Haves

Experience in financial services, payments, treasury management, commercial banking, fintech, or another complex B2B environment.
Experience with proposal management platforms such as Responsive.
Experience developing executive summaries, strategic positioning, win themes, and value-based messaging.
Familiarity with proposal content-management and knowledge-management practices.
APMP certification or related proposal-management training.
Experience using AI-enabled tools to support proposal writing, editing, content development, or workflow efficiency.

Responsibilities

Directly manage, coach, mentor, and develop proposal writers; set expectations for quality, execution, collaboration, responsiveness, and deadline management.
Identify team and individual development needs, build proposal-writing capabilities, support onboarding and training, and improve consistency across the team.
Manage daily writer assignments and workloads, balancing capacity, proposal complexity, deadlines, and writer capabilities; rebalance assignments when needs change.
Track upcoming deadlines, resource constraints, competing priorities, and delivery risks; coordinate coverage for absences and serve as the first escalation point for writer capacity or delivery challenges.
Escalate significant capacity, prioritization, or delivery risks to the Head of Proposal Strategy & Management.
Oversee active proposal assignments from kickoff and strategy alignment through development, review, and submission; monitor milestones, content deadlines, review cycles, pens-down dates, and submission requirements.
Help writers resolve obstacles, reinforce accountability for proposal processes and deadlines, and ensure appropriate escalation when contributors or stakeholders miss critical deadlines.
Provide hands-on support for complex, high-value, or time-sensitive assignments when needed.
Lead proposal writing and editorial quality; review and strengthen executive summaries, strategic narratives, key sections, and other high-visibility content.
Coach writers to turn complex product, technical, financial, and business information into clear, compelling, client-focused messaging.
Maintain standards for grammar, tone, structure, readability, brand alignment, client focus, and alignment with client requirements, objectives, differentiators, and win themes.
Partner with the broader proposal team on quality control and continuous improvement.
Lead regular workload and assignment discussions and maintain visibility into active assignments, upcoming demand, capacity, and resource needs.
Identify recurring delivery challenges and recommend operational improvements; reinforce approved processes, templates, content, and tools.
Partner with proposal leadership on staffing, capacity planning, training, and team capability development; support adoption of proposal technology, approved AI capabilities, and content-management practices.
Serve as the primary day-to-day leadership contact for proposal development resources, assignments, and delivery coordination; help writers navigate competing stakeholder requests and priorities.
Partner with Sales, Product, Pricing, Legal, Risk, Marketing, subject-matter experts, and other contributors to support proposal delivery.
Escalate broader strategic, governance, organizational, or business-priority decisions to the Head of Proposal Strategy & Management.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision healthcare coverage.
Basic and optional term life insurance.
Short-term and long-term disability insurance.
Pregnancy disability and parental leave.
401(k) and employer-funded retirement plan.
Paid vacation, from two to five weeks depending on salary grade and tenure.
Up to 11 paid holiday opportunities.
Adoption assistance.
Sick and Safe Leave accruals of one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 80 hours per calendar year unless otherwise provided by law.
Incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase, 401(k) contribution, and pension, subject to eligibility requirements.