Strategic Proposals Lead – Defense Tech

Droneshield; Canberra; Hybrid; AUD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

DroneShield seeks a Proposal Specialist to own select proposal responses 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.

Qualifications

• 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 stakeholders and multiple bids under tight deadlines.
• Experience with defence industrial participation programs and offset obligations is desirable.
• Skilled at working cross-functionally with local and remote teams.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Teams, Jira, and Salesforce.

Responsibilities

• Consult and collaborate with Commercial Directors in vetting and evaluating inbound opportunities.
• Own and manage the full lifecycle of proposal responses from initial review to final submission including internal gating, 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 boilerplate.

Skills

Proposal development

Technical writing

Project management

Cross-functional collaboration

MS Office

SharePoint/Teams/Jira/Salesforce

Industry knowledge (defence)

Tools

SharePoint

Teams

Jira

Salesforce

Microsoft Office

Job description

DroneShield seeks a Proposal Specialist to own select proposal responses 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.