Senior Proposal Manager

Spry Methods • McLean, VA

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Proposal Manager runs Spry’s proposals day to day, writes core sections, and helps shape the pursuits behind them. The role can take a bid from kickoff through submission without day-to-day direction and also supports capture, deal assessment, and pipeline work. The Senior Proposal Manager works directly with the Director of BD, who leads capture decisions, sets proposal strategy, and owns pricing. This role owns the proposals themselves and stays involved at every stage, often on more than one pursuit at a time. When the Director is at events or with customers, the Senior Proposal Manager runs the proposal day to day, from contributor check-ins through color reviews and submission. The role calls for frequent communication, adaptability when priorities shift, and tailoring one’s approach to the people involved rather than imposing the same process on everyone.

The position covers opportunity sourcing, qualification, and capture strategy; proposal writing and volume development; proposal management and compliance; pipeline management and reporting; content library and past performance upkeep; and debriefs, events, and ad hoc support. The work includes finding and assessing federal opportunities, recommending bids or no-bids, researching customers and competitors, preparing capture materials, writing proposal sections and responses, managing schedules and compliance, maintaining CRM and SharePoint content, and supporting debriefs and selected industry events. Industry events account for roughly 5% of the time.

Success means proposals are timely and compliant, bids continue moving when the Director is unavailable, drafts are ready for color reviews, the pipeline has enough qualified opportunities, and debrief feedback improves over the first year. The role helps the Director spend more time with customers and less time on research, drafting, and CRM upkeep. It also connects the full pursuit cycle, from opportunity identification through proposal submission, and reduces reliance on consultants for research and core proposal work.

Requirements

• At least 7 years of federal proposal experience, including leading several proposals from kickoff to submission.
• Strong writing skills; candidates must provide samples of volumes they wrote, and finalists complete a writing exercise.
• Experience coordinating proposals, including compliance matrices, schedules, and color team reviews.
• Experience helping shape capture strategy, win themes, and bid/no-bid recommendations.
• Experience finding and qualifying federal opportunities using SAM.gov, GovWin, or similar tools, and supporting pipeline management in a CRM.
• Working knowledge of FAR basics, Sections L and M, and common federal contract vehicles.
• Clear, frequent communication; ability to remain steady when plans change and adapt approach to the people being worked with.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain a security clearance. An active clearance is not required.

Nice To Haves

• APMP Practitioner or Shipley certification.
• Experience at a small business where one person covered capture, proposal, and pipeline work.
• Exposure to DoD, Federal Civilian, or National Security customers.
• Experience reviewing pricing volumes for compliance and consistency with technical volumes.

Responsibilities

• Find opportunities in SAM.gov, GovWin, agency forecasts, and partner leads, and prepare short briefs on promising opportunities.
• Assess opportunity fit, competition, incumbency, and timing; present bid/no-bid recommendations to the Director of BD.
• Research customers and competitors to shape capture plans, win themes, and teaming options.
• Draft call plans and help prepare for customer meetings and industry days.
• Help the Director set and adjust capture strategy for priority pursuits.
• Write technical and management sections on priority pursuits and own short RFI, RFQ, and task order responses.
• Interview subject matter experts and turn notes into clear, compliant narratives.
• Carry win themes and discriminators through proposal sections; write past performance narratives tied to measurable outcomes, executive summaries, and cover letters.
• Run proposal kickoffs, establish schedules and writing assignments, and build compliance matrices and annotated outlines.
• Keep contributors on schedule, adapting check-ins to individual working styles.
• Prepare drafts for color team reviews and incorporate agreed comments into final versions.
• Handle formatting, final quality checks, and on-time portal submission.
• Maintain CRM stages, due dates, and next steps for tracked opportunities; prepare pipeline reports and help run pipeline reviews.
• Check that pricing volumes match technical and management volumes, and flag gaps to the Director, who owns pricing.
• Maintain past performance summaries, resumes, and boilerplate in SharePoint; add strong language from bids to the library after submission.
• Coordinate with the Director to keep capture content and past performance write-ups consistent.
• Request and document debriefs and use feedback to improve the process.
• Attend selected industry days and events when useful to a pursuit, roughly 5% of the time.
• Handle ad hoc leadership requests related to proposals and growth.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed