Proposal Manager

Arkeus•Stafford, VA

20d

About The Position

As Proposal Manager at Arkeus, you will own how the company wins new defence business. You will lead bids from release of an RFP or solicitation through submission, transforming engineering capabilities into compliant, persuasive proposals. Reporting to the VP of Growth, you will run proposals for traditional FAR/DFARS procurements and faster acquisition routes such as OTAs, DIU Commercial Solutions Openings, and SBIR/STTR, and adapt bids for Australian, UK, NATO, and other allied buyers. You will collaborate with business development on capture and finance on pricing. This is a senior, hands-on role combining proposal writing and management. You will work directly with engineers, program leads, and executives to develop responses. As the pipeline grows, you will build the processes, content library, and resourcing needed to scale the proposal function.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience writing or managing proposals.
A track record of winning US government contracts worth more than US$5M.
Hands-on experience with DoD solicitations, including Section L/M analysis, compliance matrices, and colour-team reviews.
Experience with fast acquisition routes such as OTAs, DIU, SBIR/STTR, or Replicator-style programs, in addition to traditional large-program bids.
Experience bidding in at least one non-US defence market.
Technical fluency in uncrewed systems, such as UAS/UAV, autonomy, EO/IR payloads, or counter-UAS, and the ability to translate engineering content into evaluator-focused language.
Experience working under ITAR/EAR controls.
Strong organisation and ability to remain calm under deadline pressure, communicate credibly with engineers, executives, and customers, hold contributors to schedule, and provide direct editorial feedback.

Nice To Haves

Shipley training or APMP certification at Practitioner or Professional level.
Experience bidding in Australia, the UK, or NATO markets.
Eligibility to obtain a US security clearance.

Responsibilities

Lead each bid from RFP or solicitation release through submission, including requirements analysis, compliance matrices, schedules, win themes, and Pink, Red, and Gold team reviews.
Write technical, management, and past-performance proposal volumes, and edit subject-matter expert contributions into consistent, persuasive, compliant responses.
Prepare bids for FAR/DFARS procurements and faster acquisition routes, including OTAs, DIU Commercial Solutions Openings, SBIR/STTR, AFWERX, and Army xTech.
Adapt proposals for Australian Defence (ASDEFCON), UK MOD, NATO/NSPA, and other allied buyers, accounting for differences in format, evaluation criteria, and sovereignty requirements.
Coordinate with business development on capture strategy, gate reviews, and competitor analysis, and with finance on pricing volumes and basis-of-estimate narratives.
Ensure proposals meet ITAR/EAR, CUI marking, and DISP/CMMC requirements.
Build and maintain an approved content library, including past performance, resumes, and boilerplate, to reduce the cost of future bids.
Build the processes, content, and resourcing needed to scale the proposal function.