Senior Proposal Manager

Opportunity Sourcing, Qualification & Capture Strategy (20%) 

• Find opportunities in SAM.gov, GovWin, agency forecasts, and partner leads, and write short briefs on the ones worth a look. 

• Assess fit, competition, incumbency, and timing, and bring a bid/no-bid recommendation to the Director. 

• 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 capture strategy on priority pursuits and adjust it as new information comes in. 

Proposal Writing & Volume Development (25%) 

• Write technical and management sections on priority pursuits, and own short RFI, RFQ, and task order responses. 

• Interview subject matter experts and turn rough notes into clear, compliant narrative. 

• Carry win themes and discriminators through every section so the response reads as one argument. 

• Write past performance narratives that tie Spry’s work to measurable outcomes. 

• Draft executive summaries and cover letters that make the case on the first page. 

Proposal Management & Compliance (30%) 

• Run kickoffs, set schedules and writing assignments, and build compliance matrices and annotated outlines. 

• Keep contributors on schedule, adjusting check-ins to how each person works best. 

• Prepare drafts for color team reviews and work agreed comments into the final version. 

• Handle formatting, final quality checks, and on-time portal submission. 

Pipeline Management & Reporting (10%) 

• Keep the CRM current with stages, due dates, and next steps for every tracked opportunity. 

• Prepare pipeline reports and help the Director run pipeline reviews. 

• Check that pricing volumes match the technical and management volumes, and flag gaps to the Director, who owns pricing. 

Content Library & Past Performance (10%) 

• Keep past performance summaries, resumes, and boilerplate current and easy to find in SharePoint. 

• Pull strong language from each bid into the library after submission. 

• Work with the Director so capture content and past performance write-ups stay consistent. 

Debriefs, Events & Ad Hoc Support (5%) 

• Request and document debriefs, then use them to fix what isn’t working in the process. 

• Attend selected industry days and events when it helps a pursuit, roughly 5% of the time. 

• Pick up ad hoc leadership requests tied to proposals and growth.

• 7+ years of federal proposal experience, including leading several proposals from kickoff to submission. 

• Strong writing is mandatory. Candidates share 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 in 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. 

• A clear, frequent communicator who stays steady when plans change and adjusts their approach to the people they work with. 

• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain a security clearance. No active clearance is required; Spry sponsors clearances for eligible candidates. 

• It puts one person on the full pursuit cycle, from finding a deal to submitting the response. 

• It gives the Director time back for bid decisions, pricing, and customer engagement. 

• It keeps capture and proposal work connected, so what we learn early shows up in the response. 

• It reduces reliance on consultants for research and core proposal work.