Proposal Specialist

DroneShield Limited; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

DroneShield Limited in Sydney seeks a Proposal Specialist to own select proposal responses across defence and security markets, coordinating with sales, engineering, legal, and finance. You will manage inputs across cross-functional teams to develop compelling, compliant submissions.

This is a hands-on, fast-paced role that thrives in a hybrid work environment, generally three days per week from our Sydney HQ, with collaboration across Australia and international markets.

Qualifications

• 2+ years in technology proposal development, preferably in defence, aerospace, or dual-use sectors.
• Familiarity with ASDEFCON, defence and/or government procurement.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and structuring skills—you’re confident developing core content yourself.
• Outstanding organisational and project management skills—you can independently manage internal and external stakeholders and multiple bids simultaneously under tight deadlines.
• Experience with defence industrial participation (offset) programs is highly desirable, including offset obligations and reporting for government procurements.

Responsibilities

• Consult and collaborate with Commercial Directors in vetting inbound opportunities.
• Own and manage the full lifecycle of proposal responses from review to submission.
• Lead the writing effort across technical, management, and executive sections.
• Coordinate inputs from SMEs, legal, finance, and engineering to deliver compliant submissions.
• Establish and manage proposal plans, timelines, and internal review cycles.

Skills

Proposal development

Defence/ASDEFCON

Technical writing

Project management

Cross-functional collaboration

Offset programs

Tools

Jira

Salesforce

SharePoint

Teams

MS Office

Job description

Proposal Specialist

Sydney

Work with cutting-edge AI technology that helps make the world a safer and more secure place. DroneShield (ASX:DRO) develops market-leading counter-drone solutions used by military organisations, government agencies, airports, critical infrastructure operators, and law enforcement operating in some of the most challenging and high-stakes environments in the world. Employees work at the forefront of innovation, solving complex technical problems and delivering mission-critical capabilities where performance, reliability, and speed matter.

As an ASX200-listed company and the world's only publicly listed pure-play counter-drone business, DroneShield is experiencing rapid growth. Revenue increased from A$57 million in 2024 to more than A$217 million in 2025, supported by record profitability, a global sales pipeline exceeding A$2.5 billion, and annual R&D investment of over A$50 million.

Since 2017, DroneShield has grown from 11 employees to more than 550 globally, with operations across Australia, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, supporting customers in over 70 countries.

The role is based at DroneShield's Sydney headquarters, which houses corporate, commercial, engineering, and operational teams supporting the company's global growth and customer base.

About the role

DroneShield seeks a Proposal Specialist to own select proposal responses—including RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, and other submissions—across Australia and international defence and security markets in support of regional Commercial Directors.
This role may be in-office or hybrid, with an expectation of generally working at least 3 days per week from our Sydney HQ. This role is ideal for a strategic doer—someone comfortable managing a proposal response while writing the bulk of it.
You will collaborate closely with sales, engineering, legal, finance, and executive stakeholders. You will manage inputs across cross-functional teams to develop compelling, high-quality, compliant proposals. This is a hands‑on role suited to someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is passionate about delivering winning bids.

Responsibilities, Duties and Expectations

• Consult and collaborate with Commercial Directors in vetting and critically evaluating inbound opportunities.
• Own and manage the full lifecycle of proposal responses from initial review to final submission—including internal gating reviews, compliance, scheduling, content development and delivery.
• Lead the writing effort, developing high-quality narrative content across technical, management, and executive sections.
• Coordinate inputs from subject matter experts, commercial, legal, finance, and engineering to deliver complete and compliant submissions.
• Establish and manage proposal plans, timelines, response matrices, and internal review cycles.
• Run internal reviews and incorporate feedback to continuously improve response quality.
• Contribute to building and maintaining a library of reusable content, templates, past performance examples, and standard boilerplate.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• 2+ years of hands‑on experience in technology proposal development, preferably in defence, aerospace, or dual‑use sectors.
• Familiarity with ASDEFCON, defence and/or government procurement.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and structuring skills—you’re confident developing core content yourself.
• Outstanding organisational and project management skills—you can independently manage internal and external stakeholders and multiple bids simultaneously under tight deadlines.
• Experience with defence industrial participation (offset) programs is highly desirable, including the ability to assess offset obligations, develop industrial participation strategies, model offset credit requirements, engage with local industry partners, and support compliance reporting for government defence procurements in Europe and other international markets.
• Skilled at working cross-functionally with local and remote technical and non-technical teams.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), collaboration tools such as SharePoint, Teams, Jira, and Salesforce.

Note for recruitment agencies: We do not accept unsolicited candidates from external recruiters unless specifically instructed.

Data Privacy

DroneShield Group Pty Ltd collects and processes personal information for recruitment and hiring purposes. Where applicable, personal information is processed on the basis of DroneShield's legitimate interests in assessing and selecting candidates for employment. For further information regarding how we collect, use, disclose, store, and retain personal information, including your privacy rights, please refer to our Privacy Policy: https://www.droneshield.com/privacy-policy

We are committed to supporting veterans in our Australian and U.S. offices and welcome role applications from them. We encourage all applicants to voluntarily share details of prior military service. We foster a diverse workplace, with focus on multicultural teams, flexibility in the workplace, and a supportive environment.