Federal Proposal Manager Jobs in Virginia (NOW HIRING)

Federal Proposal Manager

Position Overview

A growing Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business supporting critical national security missions is seeking an experienced Federal Proposal Manager to lead proposal development and help build a scalable proposal function.

This is a hands-on role for someone who can both manage and write proposals, operate independently, and successfully lead multiple federal submissions under demanding timelines. The ideal candidate has experience supporting a smaller or mid-sized government contractor where they owned significant portions of the proposal lifecycle rather than working within a narrowly specialized proposal team.

The Proposal Manager will work closely with executive leadership, business development, capture, recruiting, technical subject matter experts, and teaming partners to develop compliant, persuasive, and competitive proposals.

This is a remote position requiring strong organization, sound judgment, and the ability to manage competing priorities with limited supervision.

Key Responsibilities

Proposal Management

• Lead federal proposals from opportunity qualification and kickoff through final production and submission.
• Manage responses to RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, Sources Sought notices, IDIQ task orders, GWAC opportunities, and multiple-award contract vehicles.
• Analyze solicitation documents and identify requirements, evaluation criteria, risks, dependencies, and compliance obligations.
• Develop proposal schedules, outlines, compliance matrices, writing assignments, review calendars, and production plans.
• Manage multiple concurrent proposal efforts while maintaining quality, compliance, and on-time delivery.
• Coordinate proposal kickoff meetings, solution-development sessions, and Pink, Red, Gold, and other color team reviews.
• Maintain version control, document configuration, and proposal collaboration processes.
• Proactively communicate proposal risks, resource gaps, deadlines, and decision requirements.

Proposal Writing and Editing

• Write, edit, and refine customer-focused proposal content, including:
• Executive summaries
• Technical approaches
• Management plans
• Staffing plans
• Transition plans
• Quality-control plans
• Past performance
• Corporate experience
• Key-personnel resumes and narratives
• Translate complex technical and operational information into clear, persuasive proposal language.
• Review proposal content for compliance, consistency, accuracy, readability, grammar, and alignment with win themes.
• Work directly with technical subject matter experts to strengthen solution content and supporting evidence.

Proposal Function Development

• Help establish and mature the organization’s proposal-management function.
• Develop repeatable proposal workflows, governance standards, templates, checklists, and quality-control procedures.
• Build and maintain a centralized proposal content library containing:
• Reusable proposal language
• Past-performance references
• Corporate capabilities
• Staff resumes
• Management approaches
• Technical content
• Standard templates and boilerplate
• Recommend tools and technologies that improve proposal collaboration, efficiency, document management, and production.
• Educate internal contributors on proposal schedules, responsibilities, review expectations, and submission requirements.

Capture and Business Development Support

• Support capture planning, opportunity qualification, and bid/no-bid decisions.
• Participate in pipeline reviews, teaming discussions, solution-development sessions, and opportunity-planning meetings.
• Contribute to customer research, competitive assessments, win strategies, discriminators, and proposal messaging.
• Partner with business development and capture leaders to improve proposal readiness before solicitation release.
• Support rapid-turnaround task order and IDIQ responses in national security, defense, intelligence, cybersecurity, technology, and professional-services markets.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, communications, English, marketing, journalism, or a related discipline.
• At least five years of experience managing and writing federal government proposals.
• Demonstrated experience owning the full proposal lifecycle from solicitation analysis through submission.
• Experience responding to IDIQ task orders, GWACs, multiple-award contracts, and rapid-turnaround federal opportunities.
• Experience developing compliance matrices, proposal outlines, schedules, writing assignments, and review plans.
• Strong knowledge of Shipley Associates or a comparable proposal-development methodology.
• Exceptional writing, editing, proofreading, organization, and project-management skills.
• Ability to synthesize complex technical information into compelling, customer-focused content.
• Demonstrated success managing multiple proposals simultaneously with minimal supervision.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and collaborative document-management platforms.
• Ability to succeed in a fully remote, fast-paced, and deadline-driven environment.
• Demonstrated employment stability and progressive responsibility within federal proposal roles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Shipley proposal-management or proposal-writing certification.
• Experience supporting a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business or another growing federal small-business contractor.
• Experience establishing or transforming a proposal-management function.
• Experience supporting Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, or other national security customers.
• Experience supporting both proposal management and capture or business-development activities.
• Working knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulation and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement.
• Experience developing proposal graphics, presentations, process diagrams, or visual content using PowerPoint, Visio, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar tools.
• Experience working with executive leaders, technical teams, recruiters, subcontractors, and external teaming partners.

First 90–120 Day Priorities

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Establish a standardized proposal-development process with templates, schedules, compliance matrices, review procedures, and quality-control standards.
• Organize and build a centralized library of reusable proposal content, resumes, past performance, corporate experience, and templates.
• Successfully manage multiple federal proposal efforts with 100% on-time and compliant submissions.
• Implement repeatable workflows and color team reviews that improve proposal quality, consistency, and turnaround time.
• Participate in opportunity qualification, capture planning, win-strategy development, and pipeline reviews.
• Develop proposal performance metrics, including:
• On-time submission rate
• Compliance rate
• Proposal turnaround time
• Number and value of proposals submitted
• Proposal win rate
• Become the organization’s proposal subject matter expert and establish productive working relationships across leadership, business development, capture, recruiting, and technical teams.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate has supported federal proposals within both structured and entrepreneurial environments. They understand formal proposal methodology but are also willing to roll up their sleeves, write content, organize information, chase inputs, resolve compliance issues, and personally drive submissions across the finish line.

They are comfortable working with limited infrastructure and are energized by the opportunity to build a proposal function rather than simply inherit one. They understand the pace and complexity of national security contracting and can balance strategic thinking with detailed execution.