Senior Manager, Capture

Foundant + smartsimple; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Impact-driven work

Competitive salary

Flexible PTO

Professional development

Internal mobility

Autonomy

Recognition program

Job summary

Foundant + smartsimple is seeking a senior leader to guide a team of proposal and security response professionals in the United States. You will own the full response process, from intake to submission, and lead strategic sourcing to win high-potential opportunities across markets.

You will modernize how the function works with AI-assisted workflows, set quality standards, and partner with Sales, Legal, Security, and Product to ensure timely, compliant, and highly responsive submissions.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in proposal, bid, or capture roles with direct team management.
• Experience inside capture/proposal with gates, reviews, content governance.
• Track record of handling several concurrent pursuits against fixed deadlines.
• Ability to secure commitments from peer functions you do not manage.
• Excellent writing and editing skills.
• Fluency with procurement mechanics: RFI, RFP, RFT, addenda, submissions.
• US state/county/city procurement experience.
• Comfort using SharePoint, Salesforce, and Excel.
• Experience coaching contributors across time zones.

Responsibilities

• Lead the team: coach, develop, set priorities, and protect from unmanaged demand.
• Represent the function to sales leadership and the revenue org.
• Own the full response process from intake to submission and final review.
• Own the response calendar, logistics, and compliance for on-time submissions.
• Raise go/no-go decisions with fast, defensible answers for sellers.
• Scale how we identify opportunities across portals and markets we serve.
• Sharpen selection to focus on high-potential opportunities; decline others early.
• Partner with sales leadership on pre-solicitation engagement.
• Drive transformation: modernize the function with AI-assisted workflows.
• Define metrics, baselines, and reporting; institutionalize learning from wins/losses.
• Build cross-functional relationships and establish reliable SLAs with product, legal, security, etc.
• Reduce late-stage risk with materials ready before deadlines.
• Shape design for scale: roles, coverage model, and capacity planning.
• Develop capacity planning across products and geographies.

Skills

5+ years in proposal/bid/capture

Leadership of proposal/bid teams

Multi-project management

Stakeholder management

Strong writing/editing

Procurement mechanics knowledge

US procurement experience

Cross-timezone coaching

Tools

SharePoint

Salesforce

Excel

Job description

What You'll Do:

Lead the team

• Manage, coach, and develop a team of experienced proposal and security response professionals.

• Set priorities, workload, and quality standards, and protect the team from unmanaged demand.

• Represent the function to sales leadership and the wider revenue organization.

Own the response function end to end

• Own the full response process, from intake and qualification through drafting, review, and submission.

• Own the quality of every response that leaves the team, including final review before submission.

• Own the response calendar, submission logistics, and compliance so that every submission is on time and fully responsive.

• Make the go/no-go recommendation, and give sellers a fast, consistent, defensible answer.

Scale how we find and select opportunities

• Build and scale how we identify opportunities so that we see the right solicitations early rather than late.

• Expand sourcing coverage across procurement portals, aggregators, and public sector channels in the markets we serve.

• Sharpen how we select: concentrate the team’s effort on the opportunities with the largest revenue potential and the strongest chance of winning, and decline the rest early and confidently.

• Partner with sales leadership on pre-solicitation engagement so that we are known to a buyer before a bid is released.

Drive the transformation

• You will have a clear mandate and executive sponsorship to modernize how this function works.

• Raise our qualification, content management, and review practices to a standard you would recognize as best-in-class, sized appropriately for a team of this scale.

• Design and implement practical AI-assisted workflows across the response process, with human review built in, and drive real adoption across the team.

• Build the measurement layer: define the metrics that matter for this function, establish the baselines, and report on them.

• Make learning from wins and losses a routine practice that feeds back into how we qualify opportunities and how we write.

Partner across the business

• Build the working relationships and agreed service levels with the teams this function depends on, including Sales, Solution Engineering, Professional Services, Security and Compliance, Legal, and Product.

• Establish named expert contacts and reliable turnaround expectations for each product line.

• Reduce late-stage risk so that supporting materials are in place well before deadlines rather than during the final week.

Shape the function for scale

• Deliver a point of view on how this function should be designed as it scales: roles, coverage model, and capacity.

• Build the capacity plan that supports our growth targets across products and geographies.

What You’ll Need:

Required

• 5+ years in proposal, bid, or capture roles, including at least 2 years managing proposal or bid professionals directly.

• Direct experience inside a capture or proposal function that used recognized best practice: qualification gates, structured reviews, content library governance, and disciplined win/loss analysis.

• A track record of running several concurrent pursuits against fixed, unmovable deadlines.

• Demonstrated ability to secure and hold commitments from peer functions you do not manage.

• Excellent writing and editing.

• Fluency with formal procurement mechanics: RFI, RFP, RFT, question periods, addenda, best and final offers, and portal submission.

• United States state, county, or city procurement experience.

• Working comfort with SharePoint, Salesforce, and Excel.

• Experience coaching experienced individual contributors, including remote and across time zones.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience putting AI to work inside a capture function: structuring content so it can be retrieved reliably, generating and reviewing first drafts, and holding human review standards.

• APMP certification (Foundation, Practitioner, or Professional), or Shipley capture and proposal training.

• Domain knowledge in grants management, nonprofit technology, public sector technology, or philanthropy.

• Experience with security questionnaires such as SIG and CAIQ, and with the interface between a bid desk and a security or GRC function.

• Experience supporting multiple products, particularly a portfolio formed through acquisition.

Why You'll Love Working at Foundant:

• At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to innovation and making a positive impact. Whether you're working on projects that empower not-for-profits, community foundations, or corporations, your contributions will help drive real-world change.
• We offer competitive salary and benefits, including tuition, and lifestyle reimbursements, and bespoke mindfulness and fitness initiatives.
• With our Flexible PTO policy, you'll have the freedom to manage your time in a way that supports your personal well-being and professional success.
• We're committed to your professional and personal development. With our merger, you'll have the chance to collaborate across teams, giving you exposure to diverse ideas, expertise, and projects that span multiple industries.
• As part of a larger organization, you'll have even more opportunities to grow your career. Whether it’s exploring new roles, leadership opportunities, or shifting to a different department, we support internal mobility to help you achieve your career goals
• You'll enjoy autonomy and responsibility, empowering you to approach your work creatively and independently, fostering innovation and independent thought.
• Employee recognition is a core part of our culture. When you do a great job, we make sure everyone knows about it!

Foundant is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a diverse workforce that represents the communities we serve. We welcome and encourage applications from all qualified candidates, and will consider all applicants without regard to race, color, citizenship, religion, sex, marital/family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, Indigenous status, age, disability, or individuals who may require accommodation.

Foundant is also committed to providing accommodations throughout the interview and employment process. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates participating in all aspects of the selection process. If you have accessibility requirements during the recruitment process and require accommodation, please contact [e-mail].