Proposal Manager

Socket.dev; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, and dental insurance

401(k) with employer match

Paid holidays and vacation

Job summary

APTIM seeks an experienced Proposal Manager to lead complex federal and commercial pursuits. You will shape solution frameworks, develop persuasive content, and guide graphics concepts while coordinating cross-functional teams under tight deadlines.

You will collaborate with capture managers, program teams, and subject-matter experts to ensure compliant, compelling responses and strong win themes. Occasional travel and evening work are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, communications, marketing, English, journalism, or engineering-related field.
• 8+ years of proposal-management experience in fast-paced environments.
• Experience leading cross-functional, multi-partner proposal teams.
• Ability to develop compelling narratives from source documents and SME interviews.
• Strong facilitation, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Excellent writing, editing, grammar, punctuation, and proofreading skills.
• Ability to travel and work some evenings/weekends as needed.

Responsibilities

• Lead the full proposal lifecycle from planning to final submission.
• Translate capture strategy and technical solutions into win themes and persuasive content.
• Develop and maintain the Proposal Execution Plan with schedules and milestones.
• Lead storyboarding, kickoff, daily status, and color-team reviews.
• Coordinate contributions from SMEs, writers, designers, schedulers, estimators, contracts peers.
• Develop original content and adapt boilerplate as needed.
• Conceptualize win themes, discriminators, and executive summaries.
• Maintain compliance matrices and respond to amendments and questions.
• Perform quality reviews for responsiveness and accuracy.
• Mentor junior staff and improve proposal libraries.

Skills

Facilitation

Communication

Collaboration

Stakeholder management

Writing/editing

Time management

MS Office proficiency

Education

Bachelor's degree in business/communications/engineering

Master's degree preferred

Tools

MS Word

MS PowerPoint

Job description

Job Overview:

APTIM is seeking an experienced Proposal Manager with a strong understanding of the federal proposal process and the ability to lead complex, deadline-driven pursuits. Relevant market experience may include nuclear decommissioning, emergency management, disaster recovery, environmental remediation, A/E, construction, and base operations support.

This is a hands-on role responsible for shaping solution frameworks, developing persuasive proposal content, and guiding graphics concepts. Success in this position requires exceptional communication, collaboration, adaptability, sound judgement, and a high degree of ownership. The Proposal Manager must be able to lead cross-functional teams under deadline pressure, balance concurrent priorities, and keep contributors aligned, accountable, and focused.

The role will primarily support federal pursuits but will also lead critical bids for our commercial and state and local government clients. The Proposal Manager will collaborate closely with capture managers, program and project managers, strategic business unit leaders, contract and pricing professionals, and technical subject matter experts to develop compliant, compelling responses to client Request for Proposals (RFP).

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Lead the full proposal lifecycle—from initial planning and kickoff through development, reviews, production, oral presentations, and final submission with no oversight.
• Partner with capture managers and solution leads to translate capture strategy and technical solutions into clear win themes, discriminators, and persuasive proposal content.
• Develop and maintain the Proposal Execution Plan, including the schedule, outline, assignments, milestones, review cycles, action items, and production requirements.
• Lead effective storyboarding, solutioning, kickoff, daily status, and color-team review meetings (i.e., Pink Team, Red Team, Gold Team, etc.).
• Coordinate and manage contributions from subject matter experts, writers, graphic designers, schedulers, estimators, procurement professionals, contracts professionals, consultants, and other proposal-team members.
• Develop original, customer-focused proposal content using source materials and interviews with technical personnel; adapt approved existing boilerplate when appropriate.
• Conceptualize and develop strategic win themes, discriminators, executive summaries, and other high-impact messaging.
• Create and maintain detailed compliance matrices and ensure all solicitation requirements are addressed.
• Monitor solicitation amendments, questions, and answers, and other modifications, incorporating applicable changes into the proposal strategy, schedule, compliance matrix, and response documents.
• Conduct quality reviews across all sections and volumes to ensure responsiveness, compliance, accuracy, consistency, readability, and effective visual presentation.
• Own proposal compliance and quality through all stages of the proposal, including delivery.
• Maintain and improve proposal libraries, reusable content, source documents, templates, and lessons learned.
• Use approved internal AI tools to improve proposal-development efficiency while complying with company confidentiality, data-handling, and quality-control requirements.
• Mentor new and junior proposal staff.
• Support other proposal team priorities as business needs require.
• Although not extensive, some travel and evening and weekend work is required during peak proposal periods to meet critical deadlines.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in business, communications, marketing, English, journalism, or an engineering-related discipline
• At least 8 years of overall progressive experience, culminating specifically to a proposal manager, in a fast-paced, deadline-driven, high-volume proposal environment.
• Experience leading large, cross-functional, multi-partner, or multi-contractor proposal teams.
• Proven ability to develop compelling, customer-focused proposal narratives and oral-presentation materials from source documents and subject matter expert interviews.
• Strong facilitation, communication, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Exceptional writing, editing, grammar, punctuation, and proofreading skills.
• Strong organizational, prioritization, and time-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent pursuits and deadlines.
• Sound judgment and the ability to make timely decisions in complex or ambiguous situations.
• Advanced proficiency with MS Office applications, particularly Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.
• Demonstrated initiative, accountability, and meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to work occasional evenings or weekends and travel as required.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in business, communication, marketing, or an engineering-related discipline.
• Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) certifications and/or continued education in proposal related subjects.
• Proposal experience in one or more of the following markets: nuclear decommissioning, emergency management, disaster recovery, environmental remediation, A/E, construction, or base operations support.
• Experience developing and coaching oral presentations for competitive federal procurements.
• Experience using approved AI-enabled tools to support proposal planning, content development, editing, compliance, or quality assurance.

About APTIM

APTIM enhances the quality of the environment, wellbeing of people, resilience of communities, and opportunity for employees to make a difference, not just a living. A leading professional solutions firm, we specialize in environmental, sustainability, resilience, and infrastructure solutions. Our team of experts provide these integrated solutions for forward-thinking government agencies, commercial and industrial clients, and energy customers. Together, we create sustainable and resilient communities for all.

What you can expect from APTIM:

• Work that is worthy of your time and talent
• Respect and flexibility to live a full life at work and at home
• Dogged determination to deliver for our clients and communities
• A voice in making our company better
• Investment into your personal and professional development

As of the date of this posting, a good faith estimate of the current pay range for this position is $140,000 - $160,000 per year. Compensation depends on several factors including: experience, education, key skills, geographic location of the position, client requirements, external market competitiveness, and internal equity among other employees within APTIM.

Employee Benefits

APTIM Federal Services, LLC is committed to providing an extensive range of benefits that protect and promote the health and financial well-being of our employees and their families through the APTIM Benefits Marketplace https://aptim.makeityoursource.com/.

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance: Through the marketplace, our employees can choose benefits from five metallic levels and several carriers to find the right benefits that work for them in their location.
• Company paid and optional Life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity coverage
• Paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave (eligibility based on company policy and applicable law)
• 401(k)APTIM offers three 401k plans through the Aon Pooled Employer Plan (PEP). The specific plan you are eligible for depends on the business unit you are in. The details of the largest plan are found here:
  • APTIM 401(k) Guide
  • APTIM - Helpful Documents

Watch our video:

About APTIM - In Pursuit of Better