Defense Proposals Lead | Technical Writing & Compliance

CHAOS Industries; Washington; On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401k

Free daily lunch

Unlimited PTO

Casual dress code

Job summary

CHAOS Industries is seeking a Proposal Manager to lead the development and delivery of compliant responses for U.S. federal and defense opportunities.

You will own the proposal process from planning to submission, coordinating cross-functional contributors and ensuring timely, accurate responses. The role emphasizes hands-on writing, editing, and collaboration with engineers, product leaders, business development, capture, and other SMEs to craft original content and tailor material to customer

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in communications, marketing, English, computer science, engineering, or business, or equivalent professional experience.
• Five or more years of experience managing proposals for U.S. federal, defense, or national security customers.
• Demonstrated experience leading proposals from solicitation analysis and planning through review, production, and submission.
• Significant hands-on experience writing and editing technical proposals, RFIs, white papers, or similar customer-facing responses.
• Ability to quickly learn complex hardware or software products and translate technical information into clear, compelling content.
• Experience managing multiple contributors, competing deadlines, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Experience supporting both rapid-turn responses and larger, long-form or partner-supported proposals.
• Exceptional writing, editing, communication, organization, and attention to detail.
• Sound judgment and the ability to identify risks, resolve ambiguity, and maintain quality under demanding deadlines.
• Ability to obtain a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of proposals, RFIs, sources-sought, white papers, and other RFx deliverables.
• Analyze solicitation instructions, evaluation criteria, amendments, and submission requirements.
• Develop and maintain compliance matrices, schedules, outlines, work assignments, review plans, and checklists.
• Lead proposal kickoffs, working sessions, status reviews, and formal review cycles.
• Coordinate inputs from engineering, product, business development, capture, finance, contracts, legal, and other contributors.
• Manage multiple concurrent responses with rapid-turn submissions and longer, more complex proposals.
• Identify risks early and elevate issues that could affect submission quality or timeliness.
• Lead final integration, production, QA, portal upload, and on-time submission.
• Interview engineers, product leaders, executives to develop accurate narratives.
• Build content from a blank page when material does not exist.
• Translate complex concepts into clear, customer-focused responses.
• Tailor existing content to mission needs and evaluation criteria.
• Incorporate win themes and differentiators across responses.
• Edit contributions into a consistent voice while preserving accuracy.
• Review content for responsiveness, clarity, and compliance.
• Lead cross-functional proposal teams and improve templates and materials.

Skills

Writing

Editing

Communication

Organization

Attention to detail

Time management

Risk identification

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

CHAOS Industries is seeking a Proposal Manager to lead the development and delivery of compliant responses for U.S. federal and defense opportunities.

You will own the proposal process from planning to submission, coordinating cross-functional contributors and ensuring timely, accurate responses. The role emphasizes hands-on writing, editing, and collaboration with engineers, product leaders, business development, capture, and other SMEs to craft original content and tailor material to customer