Strategic Proposal Lead for RFP Success

U.S. Bank; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 141,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

401(k) and employer-funded retirement

Paid vacation

Sick leave

Parental leave

Paid holidays

Adoption assistance

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Job summary

U.S. Bank is seeking a Proposal Specialist in San Francisco to lead end-to-end RFP/RFI responses, finalist presentations, and proactive proposals.

You will orchestrate cross-functional teams, manage timelines, ensure compliant, compelling submissions, and align content with win strategy. In this highly collaborative role, you will partner with Sales, Product, SMEs, Pricing, Legal, Risk, Marketing, and other stakeholders to produce client-focused materials that improve win rates and revenue

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, English, Finance, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in proposal management, proposal writing, sales support, marketing, communications, or a related discipline.
• Experience managing complex, cross-functional RFP and proposal efforts.
• Strong project management, organizational, and prioritization skills.
• Exceptional writing, editing, proofreading, and communication abilities.
• Ability to influence stakeholders and drive accountability without direct authority.
• Strong attention to detail with a commitment to quality and accuracy.

Responsibilities

• Own the full lifecycle of assigned RFPs, RFIs, and proposal opportunities from intake through final submission.
• Develop and manage proposal project plans, milestones, deliverables, and deadlines.
• Facilitate kickoff meetings and establish clear roles, responsibilities, and response schedules.
• Monitor progress, identify risks, Escalate issues, and drive timely completion of all deliverables.
• Ensure adherence to proposal governance, quality standards, and approval processes.
• Draft, edit, and tailor proposal responses to align with client requirements, business objectives, and win themes.
• Translate complex business, product, and technical information into clear, persuasive, client-focused narratives.
• Ensure proposals effectively articulate business outcomes, value propositions, competitive differentiation, and organization capabilities.
• Maintain consistency of messaging, branding, formatting, and quality across all proposal deliverables.
• Partner with Sales to understand client objectives, competitive dynamics, and opportunity strategy.
• Coordinate contributions from Product, Pricing, SMEs, Legal, Risk, Operations, Marketing, and other stakeholders.
• Drive stakeholder accountability for content completion, reviews, approvals, and deadlines.
• Facilitate review cycles and consolidate feedback from multiple contributors into a cohesive final response.
• Lead the development and coordination of finalist presentations for strategic pursuits.
• Ensure alignment between written proposal responses and finalist presentation messaging.
• Collaborate with Sales and solution teams to build compelling presentation narratives, win themes, and client-specific value propositions.
• Manage presentation development, executive reviews, rehearsal sessions, and final production of presentation materials.
• Support presenter coaching and readiness to ensure a successful client-facing delivery.
• Leverage proposal content libraries, templates, and reusable assets.
• Identify content gaps and partner with stakeholders to develop new content.
• Ensure content remains accurate, current, and aligned to approved messaging.
• Utilize proposal management technologies and AI-enabled tools to improve efficiency and consistency.
• Participate in proposal debriefs, win/loss reviews, and process improvement initiatives.
• Recommend enhancements to proposal workflows, governance, quality assurance, and stakeholder engagement models.
• Help establish best practices that improve proposal effectiveness, speed, scalability, and overall win rates.

Skills

Project management

Proposal writing

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Attention to detail

Influence stakeholders

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, English, Finance, or a related field

Tools

RFPIO

Seismic

Job description

U.S. Bank is seeking a Proposal Specialist in San Francisco to lead end-to-end RFP/RFI responses, finalist presentations, and proactive proposals.

You will orchestrate cross-functional teams, manage timelines, ensure compliant, compelling submissions, and align content with win strategy. In this highly collaborative role, you will partner with Sales, Product, SMEs, Pricing, Legal, Risk, Marketing, and other stakeholders to produce client-focused materials that improve win rates and revenue