Manager, Proposals

HealthFitness; Lake Forest (IL); On-site; USD 63,000 - 91,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health/dental/vision

Life insurance

FSA and HSA

401(k) plan

Employee Assistance Program

Back-up Care for Children, Adults andH

Wellness initiatives

Job summary

Trustmark, based in Lake Forest, IL, seeks an experienced leader to head the Proposal and RFP Submission team. You will drive performance, governance, and cross-functional collaboration with Sales and Underwriting to deliver accurate, compliant customer deliverables.

You’ll oversee AI-enabled processes, workforce planning, and continuous improvement in a fast-paced environment. The role requires a solid background in Life/Health Insurance and experience managing teams, with strong communication

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree with 2-4 years of related experience OR High School Diploma or GED with 4-6 years related experience
• People Management experience
• Strong time management skills
• Analytical, detail oriented and creative
• Demonstrates initiative/self-motivation & resourceful.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products; Adobe Writer
• Excellent verbal/written communication skills
• Ability to overcome barriers to obtain required information
• Insurance product experience from a Sales or Underwriting background
• 3+ years’ experience with Life/Health Insurance
• Strong documentation skills

Responsibilities

• Lead workforce planning and team development activities by monitoring demand and capacity trends, determining staffing requirements, recruiting, and onboarding talent, and fostering a high-performance culture focused on continuous improvement, employee development, accountability, and operational excellence.
• Establish, monitor, and report on operational performance metrics for submission and RFP activities, including turnaround times, quality standards, productivity measures, and year-over-year trend analysis to drive business insights and process improvements.
• Analyze and report on year-to-year trends; creation/distribution of activity reports to appropriate teams.
• Develop, maintain, and enforce operational standards, procedures, job aids, and documentation to support consistency, scalability, knowledge transfer, and continuous process improvement across the team.
• Direct proposal workflow, quality assurance, and audit functions to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant delivery of customer-facing submissions. Develop and maintain auditing methodologies, quality control processes, and best-practice standards while serving as a key liaison between Sales, Underwriting, and other business partners throughout the proposal and quote lifecycle.
• Monitor/manage workflow of proposal requests/underwriting offers; review/evaluate requests and quality of output; create/update auditing/quality control documentation; audit team cases; consistent review of best practices in key areas; act as liaison between Sales and Underwriting teams as needed to complete proposals/underwriting offers.
• Work across the organization with team SMEs to create and maintain all online and manual tools used for proposal and rate creation and training documents utilized by the Proposal and Submission teams.
• Provide strategic oversight of AI-enabled submission technologies, including monitoring large language model (LLM) performance, validating output accuracy, analyzing usage trends, and refining model inputs and governance practices to ensure alignment with evolving business objectives, compliance requirements, and customer needs.
• Provide strategic oversight of transfer from Salesforce to Dynamics, including current Salesforce and Client Central processes for Proposal and Submission teams.
• Determine staffing requirements, interview, hire & work with others to train team members; develop & mentor team members by having bi-weekly 1x1’s; create/maintain positive team environment; hold team accountable for performance.
• Lead the RFP Submission Team, including oversight of AI-enabled submission tools, governance processes, and quality audit functions, to ensure the accurate translation of information into business-ready, customer-facing deliverables.
• Manage the Proposal Unit responsible for delivering comprehensive responses to external customer requests, including RFPs, product proposals, pricing/rate requests, questionnaires, and third-party portal submissions.

Skills

People Management

Time Management

Analytical Thinking

Communication Skills

Creativity

Self-motivation

Overcoming barriers

Detail-oriented

Insurance product experience

Education

Bachelor's Degree with 2-4 years experience

High School Diploma or GED with 4-6 years experience

Tools

Microsoft Office

Adobe Writer

Job description

Trustmark’s mission is to improve wellbeing – for everyone. It is a mission grounded in a belief in equality and born from our caring culture. It is a culture we can only realize by building trust. Trust established by ensuring associates feel respected, valued and heard. At Trustmark, you’ll work collaboratively to transform lives and help people, communities and businesses thrive. Flourish in a culture of diversity and inclusion where appreciation, mutual respect and trust are constants, not just for our customers but for ourselves. At Trustmark, we have a commitment to welcoming people, no matter their background, identity or experience, to a workplace where they feel safe being their whole, authentic selves. A workplace made up of diverse, empowered individuals that allows ideas to thrive and enables us to bring the best to our colleagues, clients and communities.

About the role

Leads the Proposal and RFP Submission team by managing performance, workflow, and quality standards to ensure accurate, timely, and compliant customer deliverables. Drives operational excellence through reporting, trend analysis, process improvements, and cross-functional collaboration with Sales, Underwriting, and other business partners. Oversees team development, technology initiatives, AI-enabled processes, and operational governance while fostering a high-performing and accountable team culture.

Key Accountabilities:

Workforce Management

• Lead workforce planning and team development activities by monitoring demand and capacity trends, determining staffing requirements, recruiting, and onboarding talent, and fostering a high-performance culture focused on continuous improvement, employee development, accountability, and operational excellence.

Operational Oversight

• Establish, monitor, and report on operational performance metrics for submission and RFP activities, including turnaround times, quality standards, productivity measures, and year-over-year trend analysis to drive business insights and process improvements.
• Analyze and report on year-to-year trends; creation/distribution of activity reports to appropriate teams.
• Develop, maintain, and enforce operational standards, procedures, job aids, and documentation to support consistency, scalability, knowledge transfer, and continuous process improvement across the team.

Proposal Operations, Quality & Business Partner Management

• Direct proposal workflow, quality assurance, and audit functions to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant delivery of customer-facing submissions. Develop and maintain auditing methodologies, quality control processes, and best-practice standards while serving as a key liaison between Sales, Underwriting, and other business partners throughout the proposal and quote lifecycle.
• Monitor/manage workflow of proposal requests/underwriting offers; review/evaluate requests and quality of output; create/update auditing/quality control documentation; audit team cases; consistent review of best practices in key areas; act as liaison between Sales and Underwriting teams as needed to complete proposals/underwriting offers.
• Work across the organization with team SMEs to create and maintain all online and manual tools used for proposal and rate creation and training documents utilized by the Proposal and Submission teams.

Technology Transformation

• Provide strategic oversight of AI-enabled submission technologies, including monitoring large language model (LLM) performance, validating output accuracy, analyzing usage trends, and refining model inputs and governance practices to ensure alignment with evolving business objectives, compliance requirements, and customer needs.

• Provide strategic oversight of transfer from Salesforce to Dynamics, including current Salesforce and Client Central processes for Proposal and Submission teams.

• Determine staffing requirements, interview, hire & work with others to train team members; develop & mentor team members by having bi-weekly 1x1’s; create/maintain positive team environment; hold team accountable for performance.

• Lead the RFP Submission Team, including oversight of AI-enabled submission tools, governance processes, and quality audit functions, to ensure the accurate translation of information into business-ready, customer-facing deliverables.

• Manage the Proposal Unit responsible for delivering comprehensive responses to external customer requests, including RFPs, product proposals, pricing/rate requests, questionnaires, and third-party portal submissions.

Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree with 2-4 years of related experience OR High School Diploma or GED with 4-6 years related experience
• People Management experience
• Strong time management skills
• Analytical, detail oriented and creative
• Demonstrates initiative/self-motivation & resourceful.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products; Adobe Writer
• Excellent verbal/written communication skills
• Ability to overcome barriers to obtain required information
• Insurance product experience from a Sales or Underwriting background
• 3+ years’ experience with Life/Health Insurance
• Strong documentation skills

Preferred:

• Insurance product experience from a Sales or Underwriting background
• 3+ years’ experience with Life/Health Insurance
• Strong documentation skills

The compensation range for this role is (based on the corporate location in Lake Forest, Illinois):

$62,947.30 - $90,923.65 per year

The final salary offer will be determined based on factors such as location, qualifications, experience, skill set, and other relevant factors. This position may also be eligible for bonus. We understand that compensation is an important factor when considering a new opportunity, and we strive to provide a competitive salary within the market.

Brand: Trustmark

In addition to compensation, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes: Health/dental/vision, life insurance, FSA and HSA, 401(k) plan, Employee Assistant Program, Back-up Care for Children, Adults and Elders and many health and wellness initiatives. We also offer a Wellness program that enables employees to participate in health initiatives to reduce their insurance premiums.

Trustmark is committed to leveraging the talent of a diverse workforce to create great opportunities for our people and our business. We are an equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veteran status.