Proposals Creative Design Lead

Aptive • UNAVAILABLE, UNAVAILABLE

4d

About The Position

Aptive is seeking a Proposals Creative Design Lead to join our Bids and Proposals Team. This role is accountable for building, scaling, and continuously improving Aptive’s proposal graphics capability, including the processes, reusable assets, templates, AI-enabled workflows, and standards that help proposal teams produce compelling, compliant, and differentiated responses faster and more consistently. The right candidate is both a hands-on designer and a systems thinker. They will produce high-quality proposal visuals, but their larger value will come from creating a compounding capability: a graphics process and library that make each future proposal easier, faster, and stronger.

Requirements

• 10+ years of graphic design experience, including federal proposals and presentations.
• Bachelor’s degree or major in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
• Advanced proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Office; experience with proposal production and desktop publishing tools.
• Experience building or managing reusable design assets, templates, graphics libraries, brand systems, or visual standards.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical, operational, or management concepts into clear visual stories.
• Experience creating processes, standards, training materials, or enablement resources for non-design users.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled design, productivity, or content-generation tools and sound judgment about responsible use.
• Legal authorization to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting high-volume, deadline-driven federal RFx responses and oral presentations.
• Strong time management, creativity, problem-solving skills, and attention to detail.
• Ability to balance hands-on production work with scalable process improvement.
• Comfort working across multiple concurrent proposal teams with shifting priorities and occasional evening/weekend deadlines.
• Outstanding written, verbal, and visual communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the proposal graphics operating model: Manage the end-to-end process for graphics intake, prioritization, concepting, reviews, version control, finalization, storage, reuse, and post-submission improvement.
• Build and govern the graphics library: Create and maintain a searchable, reusable library of editable graphics, templates, icons, visual frameworks, PowerPoint/Word layouts, usage guidance, metadata, and approved source files.
• Improve proposal visual storytelling: Partner with capture, proposal, solution, and delivery teams to translate complex ideas into clear, persuasive visuals, including workflows, staffing models, transition plans, governance structures, differentiators, and management approaches.
• Produce high-quality proposal graphics: Develop graphics, oral presentation visuals, layouts, and other design assets that are compliant, brand-aligned, submission-ready, and tailored to federal client requirements.
• Enable AI-supported graphics workflows: Evaluate, implement, and refine AI-enabled tools and practices that accelerate ideation, first-draft visuals, asset discovery, template adaptation, formatting, and quality checks while maintaining appropriate human review.
• Establish standards and guardrails: Define visual design standards, brand expectations, review practices, and responsible AI use guidelines, including accuracy, originality, copyright/IP, client sensitivity, and compliance considerations.
• Train and support proposal teams: Create easy-to-use tools, examples, checklists, and guidance so proposal managers, writers, capture leads, and solution architects can request, review, adapt, and reuse graphics effectively.
• Drive continuous improvement: Use proposal lessons learned, team feedback, and usage data to improve templates, visual patterns, library content, workflows, and adoption over time.
• Support proposal production: Assist with desktop publishing, final formatting, quality reviews, file naming, file maintenance, version control, and deadline-driven production needs when required.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior