Senior Proposal Leader for Complex, High-Value Bids

CDW; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 126,000; Full time

Job summary

CDW is seeking a Senior Proposal Specialist to lead the most complex, high-value pursuits from initiation to submission. You’ll coordinate sales, technical, pricing, contracts, legal, program management, partners and vendors, acting as a quarterback for multi-team bids and coaching a growing team.

You will shape win themes, write executive summaries and ensure compliant, persuasive content aligned with evaluation criteria, using approved AI tools to accelerate reviews and maintain a single,

Qualifications

• Minimum Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• Five or more years of proposal writing or proposal management experience, including leading complex responses.
• Excellent writing, editing and verbal communication skills, including strengthening others' work.
• Proven project management skills; able to lead large cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Ability to manage multiple complex, deadline-driven projects with little oversight.
• Strong attention to detail and a focus on compliance.
• Proficiency with generative AI tools and ability to help others adopt them.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint) and Adobe Acrobat.
• Sound judgment, composure under pressure and executive-level communication that influences senior leaders.
• Proven ability to coach and mentor others.

Responsibilities

• Lead the largest, most complex and high-value pursuits, including multi-volume and high-dollar bids.
• Analyze requirements, evaluation criteria and risks; build compliance matrices mapping each to an owner.
• Research the customer, incumbent and competition, and inform sales-led bid/no-bid decisions.
• Run the kickoff, build the schedule backward from the due date, define roles and track risks.
• Manage many concurrent proposals with little oversight; hold contributors accountable without authority.
• Serve as the escalation point for difficult pursuits and their schedule, resource and compliance issues.
• Lead Kickoff, Pink, Red, Gold and White reviews; coordinate Green (pricing).
• Drive reviewer comments to closure and serve as expert reviewer on other team members' pursuits.
• Shape win strategy, themes, discriminators and value propositions with the opportunity team.
• Write executive summaries and advise sales leadership on win themes and proposal strength.
• Write persuasive, accurate, compliant content in one voice, aligned to evaluation criteria for easy scoring.
• Use approved generative AI tools to analyze solicitations, draft and refine content and speed up reviews.
• Verify AI output, protect confidential data, champion AI adoption and grow the content library.
• Ensure compliance with forms, certifications and page limits; manage final assembly, QC and on-time submission.
• Lead debriefs and lessons-learned sessions and share findings with the team.
• Coach and mentor Proposal Specialists and junior staff, modeling best practices as a go-to expert.
• Lead or contribute to initiatives improving processes, templates, checklists, standards and the content library.

Skills

Proposal writing

Proposal management

Project management

Executive communication

Coaching

AI adoption

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft Office

Adobe Acrobat

SharePoint

PowerPoint

Job description

CDW is seeking a Senior Proposal Specialist to lead the most complex, high-value pursuits from initiation to submission. You’ll coordinate sales, technical, pricing, contracts, legal, program management, partners and vendors, acting as a quarterback for multi-team bids and coaching a growing team.

You will shape win themes, write executive summaries and ensure compliant, persuasive content aligned with evaluation criteria, using approved AI tools to accelerate reviews and maintain a single,