Senior/Proposals Manager

CBSET; Lexington, Northern (MA, KY); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

CBSET in Lexington, MA is seeking a Proposals Manager to lead the end-to-end proposal function, directing a team of Proposal Development Specialists and instituting standards for accuracy, consistency, and fast turnaround.

The role demands 5+ years in proposal development or commercial operations, a life sciences or related degree, and strong pricing judgment with familiarity in Microsoft 365 and Salesforce. On-site with hybrid flexibility in MA.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in life sciences, business, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in proposal development, sales operations, or commercial operations with at least 2 years in people management.
• Experience in CRO/pharma/medical device or life sciences environment preferred.
• Ability to build or mature standardized processes from ad hoc origins.
• Strong quantitative fluency with pricing models and cost structures.

Responsibilities

• Manage, coach, and develop a team of Proposal Development Specialists with workload distribution across ~800 annual proposals.
• Establish onboarding, training, and quality-review processes for proposal staff.
• Own hiring and performance management as the team scales.
• Design and maintain proposal templates, pricing tools, and approval workflows, coordinating with Marketing & Revenue Ops and Salesforce/CRM integration.
• Define and track metrics for proposal accuracy, consistency, and turnaround time.
• Escalate complex scoping and pricing decisions outside standard templates; contribute drafting workload as needed.
• Collaborate with Commercial Operations leadership to refine pricing models and capacity planning.
• Coordinate with Technical Sales and scientific staff for complex studies to ensure accurate scoping.

Skills

People leadership

Pricing judgment

Process improvement

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in life sciences / biomedical engineering / business or related field

Tools

Microsoft 365 (Excel, Word)

Dynamics/PowerApps

Salesforce

Job description

REPORTS TO: Director of Strategic Accounts & Client Growth / VP of Commercial Operations

LOCATION: Lexington, MA/moving to Waltham, MA Q1 2027 (on-site/hybrid/remote potential)

POSITION SUMMARY

The Proposals Manager owns CBSET’s proposal function end to end: people, process, and output. This role manages a team of Proposal Development Specialists, sets and enforces standards for accuracy, consistency, and turnaround time, and serves as the point of escalation for complex or non-standard scoping decisions. The Proposals Manager is CBSET’s first dedicated leader for this function (first-in-kind hire). As such, a key mandate is to establish the team’s operating rhythm, tools, and quality standards to maintain CBSET’s high-quality technical proposals, while evolving into the most efficient workflow to quickly delivery quotes to clients.

Range of Base Salary: $80,000 – $105,000 per year. (Please note, salaries vary within the range based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, and certifications.)

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage, coach, and develop a team of Proposal Development Specialists, including workload distribution and prioritization across an active bid volume of approximately 800 proposals annually.
• Establish onboarding, training, and quality-review processes for proposal staff, including guidance on scoping judgment for non-standard requests.
• Own hiring and performance management for the proposal team as it scales.

Proposal Process & Quality Ownership:

• Design and maintain CBSET’s proposal templates, pricing tools, and approval workflows, working closely with Marketing & Revenue Ops on tooling and Salesforce/CRM integration.
• Set and enforce standards for proposal accuracy, consistency, and turnaround time; define and track the metrics that measure them.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex, high-value, or ambiguous scoping and pricing decisions that fall outside standard templates.
• Carry certain amount of proposal drafting load, commensurate with other manager duties.
• Partner with Commercial Operations leadership to maintain and refine CBSET’s pricing models and cost structures as service lines and capacity assumptions evolve.
• Validate that proposals for complex or strategic studies (e.g., advanced therapy, cell therapy, orthopedic programs) reflect accurate scientific and operational scoping, coordinating with Technical Sales and scientific staff as needed.
• Identify recurring pricing or scoping issues and recommend process or template changes to resolve them systematically.

Cross-Functional Partnership:

• Work directly with Key Account Executives and Business Development Executives to align proposal turnaround with deal urgency and account strategy.
• Partner with the Director of Strategic Accounts & Client Growth on reporting proposal pipeline status, win/loss trends, and turnaround performance.
• Provide input to leadership on how proposal volume and complexity trends should inform future headcount and capacity planning.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, biomedical engineering, business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of experience in proposal development, sales operations, or commercial operations, including at least 2 years in a people-management or team-lead capacity.
• Experience in a CRO, pharmaceutical, medical device, or broader life sciences environment strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to build or mature a process from an ad hoc or individual-contributor state into a managed, standardized function.
• Strong quantitative fluency with pricing models and cost structures.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications (Excel, Word, Dynamics/PowerApps) and CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred).

Preferred:

• Familiarity with GLP study design, preclinical testing, or medical device/biologics/advanced therapy regulatory pathways.
• Experience managing high volume, fast-turnaround proposal or bid functions.
• Track record of building templates, tools, or workflows that improved proposal accuracy or speed at scale.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Builder mentality: comfortable standing up a function’s process, tools, and standards where none currently exist.
• People leadership: develops team members’ scoping and pricing judgment rather than reviewing every proposal personally.
• Commercial judgment: balances pricing accuracy and turnaround speed against win-rate and margin considerations.
• Cross-functional credibility: works fluently with sales, technical, and scientific stakeholders to validate complex scopes.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

Must be able to perform duties which require talking, hearing, standing or sitting for long periods of time, entering data into a computer. May occasionally require wearing of safety equipment (PPE) according to OSHA regulations and company standards during on-site tours.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

• Animal facility and laboratories with moderate noise possible.
• Office working environment with quiet noise conditions.

COMMENTS:

This position may require (>20%) domestic and international travel or performing duties on weekends and/or holidays.

• The opportunity to help build a commercial organization from the ground up inside a growing, well-capitalized firm.
• Direct exposure to executive leadership and a clear line of sight to the company’s growth strategy.
• Competitive base salary plus performance-based incentive compensation, commensurate with experience.

All employees are required to satisfactorily perform the essential duties and responsibilities of their position. The essential duties and responsibilities listed above are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.