Proposal Development Manager

US Bank; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

U.S. Bank in Minneapolis seeks a Proposal Development Manager to lead the day-to-day operations of the proposal development team, aligning resources to business needs and ensuring quality, accuracy, and timely delivery across complex opportunities.

You will coach writers, manage workloads, shape strategy, review executive summaries, and uphold proposal standards while collaborating with cross-functional partners to win high-priority proposals.

Qualifications

• Experience leading proposal development teams and delivering high-quality, client-focused proposals.
• Ability to coach writers, manage workloads, and balance capacity with deadlines.
• Strong editorial leadership to shape executive summaries and narrative content.

Responsibilities

• Directly manage, coach, and develop proposal writers.
• Establish expectations for writing quality and deadline management.
• Provide ongoing coaching, mentoring, and writing guidance.
• Identify development needs and build proposal writing capabilities.
• Support onboarding and training of new proposal writers.
• Build consistency in writing quality, client-centric messaging, and proposal execution.
• Manage daily writer assignments and workload across the team.
• Assess capacity, deadlines, and writer capabilities when assigning work.
• Monitor workloads and rebalance as priorities change.
• Escalate capacity or delivery risks to leadership.
• Coordinate coverage for planned and unplanned absences.
• Oversee end-to-end proposal development: kickoff to submission.
• Monitor milestones, content deadlines, review cycles, and pens-down dates.
• Help writers resolve obstacles that affect quality or delivery.
• Reinforce adherence to proposal processes and deadlines.
• Provide hands-on support for complex, high-value assignments.

Skills

Proposal development

People leadership

Editing & writing

Cross-functional collaboration

Content strategy

Job description

At U.S. Bank, we're on a journey to do our best. Helping the customers and businesses we serve to make better and smarter financial decisions and enabling the communities we support to grow and succeed. We believe it takes all of us to bring our shared ambition to life, and each person is unique in their potential. A career with U.S. Bank gives you a wide, ever-growing range of opportunities to discover what makes you thrive at every stage of your career. Try new things, learn new skills and discover what you excel at-all from Day One.

Job Description

Proposal Development Manager

Position Summary

The Proposal Development Manager is responsible for leading the day-to-day activities and performance of the proposal development team, ensuring resources are effectively aligned to business needs and proposal assignments are delivered with consistent quality, accuracy, and timeliness. This role directly manages and develops proposal professionals, oversees workload and assignment distribution, monitors proposal schedules and deadlines, and provides hands‑on guidance to resolve delivery challenges and maintain quality standards. The manager serves as the primary point of coordination for the proposal development team, balancing capacity, priorities, complexity, and development needs across assignments. In addition to people leadership, this role provides strategic, writing, and editorial leadership for complex or high‑priority opportunities and helps ensure proposals are developed through a disciplined, collaborative process. Deliverables must be client‑focused, persuasive, compliant, and aligned with established proposal strategy, processes, and standards.

Key Responsibilities

Proposal Development Team Leadership

• Directly manage, coach, and develop proposal writers.
• Establish clear expectations for writing quality, project execution, collaboration, responsiveness, and deadline management.
• Provide ongoing coaching, feedback, mentoring, and writing guidance.
• Identify individual and team development needs and help build proposal writing capabilities.
• Support onboarding and training of new proposal writers.
• Build greater consistency across the team in writing quality, client‑centric messaging, executive communication, and proposal execution.

Day-to-Day Workload & Assignment Management

• Manage daily proposal writer assignments and workload across the team.
• Assess capacity, proposal complexity, deadlines, and writer capabilities when assigning work.
• Monitor workloads and rebalance assignments when priorities or capacity change.
• Maintain visibility into upcoming deadlines, resource constraints, competing priorities, and delivery risks.
• Serve as the first point of escalation for writer capacity or delivery challenges.
• Coordinate coverage for planned and unplanned absences.
• Escalate significant capacity, prioritization, or delivery risks to the Head of Proposal Strategy & Management.

End-to-End Proposal Development Oversight

• Provide oversight across the portfolio of active proposal development assignments, from kickoff and strategy alignment through content development, review, and submission.
• Monitor progress against key milestones, content deadlines, review cycles, pens‑down dates, and submission requirements.
• Help writers resolve obstacles that could affect quality or delivery.
• Reinforce accountability for established proposal processes and deadlines.
• Ensure appropriate escalation when contributors or stakeholders miss critical deadlines.
• Provide hands‑on support for complex, high‑value, or time‑sensitive assignments when needed.

Writing & Quality Leadership

• Serve as the proposal development, writing, and editorial leader for the team.
• Review and strengthen executive summaries, strategic narratives, key proposal sections, and other high‑visibility content.
• Coach writers on translating complex product, technical, and business information into clear, compelling client value.
• Reinforce consistent standards for grammar, tone, structure, readability, brand alignment, and client focus.
• Help ensure responses clearly address client requirements, business objectives, differentiators, and opportunity‑specific win themes.
• Partner with the broader proposal team to support quality‑control and continuous‑improvement practices.

Team Operations

• Lead regular writer workload and assignment discussions.
• Maintain visibility into active assignments, upcoming demand, capacity, and resource needs.
• Identify recurring delivery challenges and recommend operational improvements.
• Reinforce consistent use of approved proposal processes, templates, content, and tools.
• Partner with proposal leadership on staffing, capacity planning, training, and team capability development.
• Support adoption of proposal technology, approved AI capabilities, and content‑management practices.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as the primary day‑to‑day leadership contact for issues involving proposal de