Proposal Specialist

CDW•Virtual - Illinois, IL

13d•$71,000 - $100,000

About The Position

The Proposal Specialist leads the end-to-end process for responding to RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, and similar solicitations. Acting as the coordinator for each pursuit, the specialist runs color team reviews from assignment through submission, supports post-submission activities, and brings together contributors from sales, technical, pricing, contracts, legal, program management, partners, and vendors to create a cohesive response. The role combines persuasive writing with disciplined project management and uses content library and knowledge management platforms, along with company-approved generative AI tools, to produce compliant, compelling, win-focused responses efficiently. The position aims to increase win rates and drive revenue. The Proposal Specialist assesses opportunities, plans and manages proposal schedules and contributors, facilitates color team reviews, and collaborates on win strategies, themes, discriminators, and value propositions. The specialist writes, edits, and tailors content; verifies AI-generated output and protects confidential information; maintains content resources; and ensures proposal compliance, quality, and timely submission. The role also supports clarifications, Q&A, oral presentations, BAFOs, protests, debriefs, lessons learned, award transitions, and departmental training and process-improvement activities. CDW describes itself as a collaborative technology solutions provider and an AI-fluent organization. It encourages curiosity, continuous learning, responsible use of AI, and an equitable, transparent, and respectful hiring process.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent relevant work experience.
Two or more years of proposal writing, proposal management, project management, technical or business writing, or editorial experience.
Excellent writing, editing, and verbal communication skills.
Ability to manage multiple deadline-driven projects simultaneously.
Strong attention to detail and focus on compliance.
Working proficiency with generative AI tools and willingness to adopt new technology.
Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint) and Adobe Acrobat.
Sound judgment, composure under pressure, and constructive communication with all levels of the organization, including executives.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of public sector or government procurement, including contracts, terms and conditions, and purchasing requirements.
General knowledge of IT products, services, and solutions.
Experience with proposal content or RFP response platforms and structured color team reviews, such as Shipley.
APMP certification (Foundation or Practitioner) or PMI certification (CAPM or PMP).

Responsibilities

Analyze solicitations for requirements, evaluation criteria, instructions, and risks; build compliance matrices and outlines that map requirements to owners.
Research customer priorities, constraints, hot buttons, incumbents, and the competitive landscape.
Provide context and input for sales-led bid/no-bid decisions.
Build schedules backward from due dates, define roles, and track actions, risks, and dependencies.
Manage concurrent proposals, hold contributors accountable without direct authority, and escalate issues early.
Plan, facilitate, and adjudicate Kickoff, Pink, Red, and Gold color team reviews; coordinate Green pricing reviews owned by sales or technical leads.
Collaborate with opportunity teams to develop win strategies, win themes, discriminators, and value propositions.
Write, edit, and tailor persuasive, accurate, compliant content aligned with evaluation criteria and presented in one voice.
Use company-approved generative AI tools to analyze solicitations, draft and refine content, summarize requirements, and accelerate reviews.
Verify AI output, protect confidential data, and maintain the content library, templates, and boilerplate.
Ensure compliance with solicitation instructions, forms, certifications, formatting, and page limits.
Manage final assembly, quality control, and on-time submission, including submission through portals.
Support clarifications, Q&A, oral presentations, BAFOs, and protests as needed, in a supporting rather than leading role.
Request and conduct debriefs, capture lessons learned, support award transitions, and close out opportunities.
Participate in training, department and process-improvement initiatives, industry days, and pre-proposal conferences; share best practices with peers.