Capture Manager Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

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Inside Capture Manager
Chicago, IL (Metropolitan area)
Full-Time
About DivIHN Integration Inc.
Welcome to DivIHN! DivIHN Integration Inc. is an information technology consulting and solutions firm serving commercial, State, Local and Education, and Federal clients. We are seeking a proactive, disciplined, and highly capable professional to join our team as Inside Capture Manager- SLED and Federal ("ICM").
We are looking for someone who understands the government capture and proposal lifecycle, knows what must happen at each stage, and can independently identify leads and drive them from early identification through proposal submission and post-submission follow-up. This is not a passive coordination role. The successful candidate will not wait to be told what to do next. This individual will anticipate requirements, drive the established inside capture processes, enable contributors, shape solution narratives, and identify and manage risks early in the process, and bringing forward mitigating recommendations and solutions. We need someone who will help us operate, grow, and continuously improve a centralized, shared, internal capture and proposal function that supports DivIHN's growth as an IT consulting and solutions provider.
Here is a quick introduction to DivIHN, before we talk further about the job and the person.
DivIHN (Divine) is a Chicago-based technology consulting firm founded in 2002. We present ourselves and deliver as the Expert Advisor, Solution Provider, and True Partner of our Clients. Our Clients know that we are committed to their holistic success; that we can be counted upon to deliver, always; they have enabled us to be true to our core purpose: Positively Impacting Lives, one interaction at a time. Our business focus is 'Success and Transformation of our Clients'.
Our culture is 'Seeking Excellence, with Grace'. The value system espoused by DivIHN is Honesty, Commitment, Excellence, and Grace.
Our services include
Our Specializations include

• Digitalization
• Business Technology Transformation
• Cybersecurity Consulting
• Operations and Management
• Talent Mobilization

• Enterprise Architecture
• Salesforce & ServiceNow
• Microsoft
• Cybersecurity
• Analytics with AI/ML

We differentiate ourselves by our holistic approach to solutions, our Value Delivery Model founded on 4 levels of Leadership, our Culture of seeking Excellence with Grace, and our pioneering effort in developing specialist communities.
ABOUT THE ROLE
The Inside Capture Manager will support DivIHN's growth across the SLED and Federal markets.
This is intended to be a leader of a shared service capture function , not simply a proposal coordinator. The person needs to understand and lead the full capture/proposal lifecycle, identify opportunities, drive pursuits forward, coordinate contributors, and ensure proposals are completed and submitted successfully.
The position will be responsible for helping manage opportunities across the full business development lifecycle, including:

• Opportunity identification and qualification
• Capture planning
• Customer and competitive research
• Teaming and solution development
• Proposal planning and development
• Formal reviews
• Proposal submission and follow-up
• Post-submission capture activities
• Lessons learned
• Bid material management

The successful candidate must understand the differences between business development, capture, and proposal management and know what activities, decisions, and deliverables are required at each stage. This role requires someone who can lead independently, maintain urgency, create order, hold contributors accountable, and keep leadership fully informed.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Opportunity Qualification & Capture

• Identify and qualify published, non-published, and longer-term strategic government opportunities.
• Find opportunities and actively move them into the capture process.
• Support both State/SLED and Federal capture.
• Ideally have prior experience with both markets. Significant experience leading capture organizations in one or the other required.
• Research customers, opportunities, competitors, and procurement requirements.
• Develop and manage capture plans.
• Shape opportunities pre-RFP through customer engagement, competitive/incumbent analysis, teaming, and acquisition strategy.
• Identify gaps, risks, and dependencies early.
• Support development of win strategies and differentiators.
• Lead Go/No-Go recommendations based on customer access, fit, past performance, competition, acquisition path, and probability of win.

Proposal Management

• Execute and improve DivIHN's standard Proposal Lifecycle.
• Own assigned proposals from solicitation release through final disposition.
• Analyze solicitations for requirements, evaluation criteria, instructions, attachments, certifications, and submission requirements.
• Develop compliance matrices, annotated outlines, schedules, responsibility assignments, and review plans.
• Coordinate technical, management, staffing, recruiting, pricing, contracts, finance, executive, and partner inputs.
• Lead proposal kickoffs, working sessions, status meetings, and formal reviews.
• Hold contributors accountable for deadlines and quality.
• Manage Pink, Red, Gold, and final quality reviews and ensure comments are resolved.
• Monitor amendments and customer questions and incorporate resulting changes.
• Ensure final proposals are compliant, accurate, persuasive, professionally presented, and timely.
• RFP writing is non-negotiable.
• The candidate needs to be able to personally contribute to and/or lead proposal development rather than simply managing the administrative process. Superior written and verbal English skills are required. Responsibilities include:

1. Reviewing RFPs and solicitations.
2. Understanding requirements and evaluation criteria.
3. Developing proposal content.
4. Creating compliance matrices and proposal schedules.
5. Managing proposal contributors.
6. Managing onshore and offshore proposal/RFP writers.
7. Keeping contributors accountable to deadlines.
8. Leading proposal reviews.
9. Ensuring proposals are compliant, compelling, differentiated, and submitted on time.
10. Developing new, and farming existing, targeted solution delivery partner relationships.
11. Develop targeted teaming relationships to close capability, past performance, vehicle, socioeconomic, and customer-access gaps.

Team Management

• A key component of the role is managing/leading offshore RFP writers.
• The candidate should be comfortable:

1. Delegating work to offshore resources.
2. Ensuring appropriate assigned workload and timely delivery of quality deliverables
3. Providing clear direction and deadlines.
4. Reviewing work for quality and completeness.
5. Holding writers/contributors accountable.
6. Coordinating multiple contributors across different pursuits.

Solution and Narrative Development

• Work with technical and business leaders to shape compelling, customer-focused solutions.
• Translate technical concepts into clear and persuasive proposal language.
• Ensure proposals tell a cohesive story connecting customer challenges, DivIHN's solution, differentiators, and measurable benefits.
• Challenge generic or weak content and drive improvements that strengthen DivIHN's probability of win.

Process Discipline and Continuous Improvement

• Maintain compliance with DiviHN's standard Proposal Lifecycle and maintain current solution development information repositories.
• Conduct post-submission reviews and capture lessons learned.
• Continuously improve DivIHN's capture and proposal operating model, tools, and practices

Performance Expectations

• The Inside Capture Manager is expected to operate with ownership, urgency, discipline, and limited supervision. Success means:
• Opportunities are properly qualified and capture activities happen at the right time.
• Leadership has clear visibility into status, risks, decisions, and next actions.
• Contributors understand their responsibilities and meet commitments.
• Risks and gaps are identified early with recommended solutions.
• Proposals are compliant, compelling, differentiated, and submitted on time.
• DivIHN's capture and proposal capability becomes increasingly repeatable, efficient, and scalable.

Experience and Qualifications

• Required QualificationsBachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, Marketing, or related field.
• 7+ years of Federal and/or SLED capture, proposal management, business development, or government contracting experience.
• 5+ years sourcing and managing government proposals through final disposition.
• Demonstrated performance converting opportunities into awarded contracts.
• Experience developing and maintaining strategic teaming and vendor relationships.
• Strong understanding of Federal and SLED procurement and capture lifecycles.
• Experience developing capture plans, compliance matrices, proposal schedules, and managing cross-functional proposal teams.
• Strong knowledge of IT services and solutions.
• Experience leading on-shore and off-shore team members.
• Superior written and verbal English skills.
• Strong ability to multi-task across multiple pursuits and deadlines.

Must-Haves

• Senior-level government capture/proposal experience leading a inside capture team
• Strong Federal or SLED inside (RF(x) and opportunity identification) experience.
• Superior RFP/proposal writing capability.
• Understanding of the government procurement/capture lifecycle.
• Strong understanding of acquisition strategies, contract vehicles, set-asides, and prime/sub teaming structures.
• Ability to independently identify and pursue opportunities.
• Experience managing multiple pursuits and deadlines.
• Strong research skills.
• Highly organized and process-oriented.
• Independently motivated.
• Superior written and verbal English communication.
• Comfortable managing offshore and onshore proposal resources.
• Natural affinity to working independently and taking ownership of outcomes.
• Ability to influence and drive superior results in a matrix-managed work environment
• Significant track record of converting opportunities into awarded contracts.

Preferred Qualifications

• APMP certification and/or Shipley Capture or Proposal training.
• Experience supporting an SBA 8(a), small business, or mid-tier government contractor.
• Familiarity with major Federal contract vehicles and market-intelligence tools such as SAM.gov, GovWin, and BidPrime.
• Experience with State of Illinois procurement.

Personality / Working Style: The hiring team is looking for someone who is:

• Driven
• Proactive
• Self-directed
• Highly organized
• Research-oriented
• Deadline-focused
• Comfortable working under pressure
• Able to manage multiple priorities
• Mature and professional
• Natural affinity for taking ownership of both activities and outcomes.
• Comfortable challenging weak assumptions or incomplete work
• Able to recognize, manage, and proactively address risks and issues through escalation where necessary

Leadership and Culture
The ideal candidate will be proactive, organized, self-directed, and comfortable taking ownership. This individual must demonstrate sound judgment, professional maturity, persistence, and personal accountability. The successful candidate must know when to act independently and when to elevate a decision. The person should be willing to challenge incomplete work, weak assumptions, and unrealistic timelines while remaining respectful and constructive.
DivIHN promotes a culture of Seeking Excellence with Grace. Our values include honesty, commitment, excellence, relationships, service, and grace. We seek someone who will pursue high standards, hold others accountable, build trust, and treat colleagues, clients, and partners with professionalism and respect.
Location
This is a U.S.-based position located in the Chicago metropolitan area. The successful candidate will be expected to work closely with DivIHN leadership, business development personnel, technical teams, customers, and industry partners. The role may require periodic attendance at in-person meetings, conferences, networking events, proposal sessions, and customer engagements. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. DivIHN is not offering relocation assistance for this position.
Compensation
DivIHN will offer a competitive compensation package, including performance-based incentives.
The Opportunity
This is an opportunity to help strengthen and operate DivIHN's capture and proposal capability across the SLED and Federal markets. We are not looking for someone who will merely administer proposals. We are looking for someone who understands the process, anticipates what comes next, drives the team, shapes the solution, strengthens the narrative, maintains discipline, improves the system, and consistently brings solutions forward. Success will be measured not only by the proposals submitted, but also by the quality of the process, the strength of the solutions, the accountability of the team, and the continued improve