Proposal Writer / Proposal Manager / Business Analyst | Active | with Security Clearance

Ares Enterprise; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Ares Enterprise in Washington, DC is seeking a mid-level Proposal Writer/Proposal Manager/Business Analyst to support federal business development, capture, and proposal efforts. The role integrates writing, editing, coordination, and market research across the full proposal lifecycle.

You will analyze solicitations, develop compliance matrices and outlines, coordinate inputs from SMEs and executives, and help craft win themes and competitive positioning for federal opportunities.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of federal proposal development or related experience.
• Experience writing and editing federal proposals and RFx responses.
• Ability to analyze solicitations and identify requirements and gaps.
• Experience developing compliance matrices, outlines, and schedules.
• Strong written communication, grammar, and proofreading skills.
• Ability to coordinate inputs from executives, SMEs, and partners.

Responsibilities

• Write, edit, and develop federal proposal content including technical and management approaches.
• Review solicitations, amendments, and evaluation criteria for compliance.
• Develop compliance matrices, outlines, schedules, and submission checklists.
• Manage small-to-medium proposal efforts from release to final submission.
• Coordinate inputs from executives, SMEs, program managers, recruiters, partners, and subcontractors.
• Facilitate kickoff, status, and review meetings; support final quality reviews.
• Research agencies, competitors, and market opportunities to support win themes.
• Track deadlines, inputs, risks, and action items; maintain reusable content libraries.

Skills

Federal proposals

Proposal management

Requirements analysis

Capture support

Written communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, English, Government, Information Technology, or related field

Tools

Microsoft Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Teams

SharePoint

Job description

Ares Enterprise, LLC is seeking a Proposal Writer / Proposal Manager / Business Analyst to support our federal business development, capture, and proposal efforts. This is a mid-level position ideal for a highly organized professional who combines strong proposal writing skills with proposal coordination, requirements analysis, and federal market research experience. The successful candidate will support the full proposal lifecycle, including analyzing solicitations, developing compliance matrices and proposal outlines, coordinating inputs from subject matter experts, writing and editing proposal content, managing schedules and reviews, and supporting final proposal production and submission. In addition to proposal development, this position will provide business analysis and capture support by researching federal opportunities, analyzing PWS/SOW requirements, identifying gaps and risks, supporting bid/no-bid decisions, and helping develop win themes and competitive positioning.

Key Responsibilities

• Write, edit, and develop federal proposal content, including technical approaches, management approaches, staffing plans, transition plans, past performance, and corporate experience.
• Review RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, Sources Sought Notices, PWS/SOWs, amendments, Q&As, and evaluation criteria.
• Develop proposal compliance matrices, annotated outlines, schedules, writing assignments, and submission checklists.
• Manage small-to-medium proposal efforts from solicitation release through final submission.
• Coordinate proposal inputs from executives, technical SMEs, program managers, recruiters, partners, and subcontractors.
• Facilitate proposal kickoff meetings, status meetings, and proposal reviews.
• Support Pink Team, Red Team, Gold Team, and final quality-control reviews.
• Ensure proposal responses comply with solicitation instructions, evaluation criteria, page limits, formatting, and submission requirements.
• Analyze federal opportunities and translate requirements into actionable proposal and solution-development tasks.
• Conduct research on agencies, competitors, incumbents, contract vehicles, procurement history, and federal market opportunities.
• Support opportunity qualification, capture planning, teaming analysis, and bid/no-bid decisions.
• Assist in developing win themes, discriminators, customer hot buttons, and competitive positioning.
• Track proposal deadlines, outstanding inputs, risks, dependencies, and action items.
• Maintain and improve reusable proposal content, past performance narratives, resumes, corporate capabilities, and proposal libraries.
• Support multiple concurrent federal pursuits in a deadline-driven environment.

Required Qualifications

• 3–5 years of relevant professional experience in federal proposal development, proposal management, government contracting, business development, capture, or business analysis.
• Minimum 2 years of direct experience supporting federal government proposals, including RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, Sources Sought Notices, or task-order responses.
• Demonstrated experience writing and editing federal proposal content.
• Experience analyzing federal solicitations, PWS/SOW requirements, instructions, and evaluation criteria.
• Experience developing compliance matrices, proposal outlines, proposal schedules, requirements trackers, or similar proposal management tools.
• Understanding of the federal government procurement and proposal lifecycle.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to identify requirements, gaps, risks, dependencies, and compliance issues.
• Excellent written communication, grammar, editing, and proofreading skills.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills with the ability to manage multiple simultaneous deadlines.
• Ability to gather information from technical SMEs and translate complex concepts into clear, concise, and persuasive written content.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of assigned proposal activities.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to coordinate with executives, technical personnel, program managers, recruiters, and teaming partners.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, English, Government, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal IT services, digital modernization, software development, cybersecurity, cloud, ServiceNow, low-code/no-code, infrastructure, or professional services proposals.
• Familiarity with Shipley or another structured proposal-development methodology.
• Familiarity with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and federal contracting terminology.
• Experience supporting GWAC, IDIQ, BPA, GSA MAS, and task-order competitions.
• Experience conducting federal market and competitive research using SAM.gov, USASpending.gov, GovWin, HigherGov, or similar platforms.
• Experience supporting small-business and socioeconomic set-aside competitions.
• Experience working with prime contractors, subcontractors, and teaming partners during proposal development.
• APMP certification or interest in obtaining APMP certification.