Proposal Manager

Company: Sayres Defense
Location: Washington
Posted on: February 17, 2026

Job Description:

Job Description Job Description Proposal Manager Location: Hybrid-Remote (U.S.) Clearance: Active Secret or ability to obtain required Sayres Defense is seeking a Proposal Manager to support our Business Development team. This position is hybrid remote, based in Washington, DC. The position is in one of Washington DC's most exciting, growing, and developing areas, just outside the Washington Navy Yard, close to the Washington Nationals' baseball park. The economic development of the site provides for a high quality of work/life balance with many vibrant restaurants and green spaces along the river. Job Duties: Manage the proposal development process and design high-quality, compelling, and compliant federal proposals, ensuring consistent, efficient implementation of processes and best practices for (RFPs, RFQs, RFI's, and White Papers). Conduct in-depth research to understand government agency solicitation requirements and evaluation criteria and use gathered information to generate win themes, RFP/RFI content, and other artifacts. Analyze customers' requirements and prepare responses to formal solicitations and requests for information/market research, ensuring 100% compliance oversight (RFI, RFP, FARS, page allocations, evaluation factors). Manage the proposal preparation and execution of all proposal activities. This includes, but is not limited to, the development of proposal artifacts, kick-off and proposal presentations, internal proposal portal creation/population (SharePoint), data call management, schedule development and management, content creation, artifact/file management, color team review facilitation and management, etc. Write and collate content as required, edit templates, weave proposal win themes throughout, identify competitive differentiators and unique approaches, and gather information and research to include in proposals. Coordinate with contributors, including partners and vendors, and manage schedules to ensure 100% on-time delivery. Provide progress updates to leadership and facilitate after-action debriefings, summarize recommendations for improvement and apply lessons learned. Oversee the design or modification of proposal graphics that demonstrate understanding, approach, discriminators, and/or messaging with inputs from SMEs, leadership, proposal or capture manager, or government documentation. Coordinate with capture leads and recruiting to ensure the timely sourcing, interviewing, and confirmation of availability of qualified candidates to be included in proposals. Coordinate the signatures of LOIs/LOCs as needed per solicitation requirements. Manage the production and delivery of the finished product, strictly adhering to government regulations, formatting guidelines, and submission requirements. Facilitate and participate in proposal strategy development and win strategy planning. Support business development activities as needed. Ensure performance of organizational conflict of interest and current client risk assessments. Assign and oversee development of OCI Mitigation Plans. Required Candidate Skills and Education: BA/BS degree Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret clearance 6-10 years of experience working with federal solicitations Exceptional research, communication, planning, and presentation skills Experience developing/writing white papers, federal proposals, and presentations Confident personality with the ability to think strategically and help teams develop sound marketing, pursuit, and proposal strategies Excellent interpersonal skills, both written & oral, good negotiation, problem solving, presentation, planning, and time management skills Ability to balance multiple projects simultaneously and adapt to changing priorities and assignments Self-starter with the ability to work effectively in a remote environment Demonstrated ability to write compelling proposals in response to government solicitations, including RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs Proficiency in MS Office Suite Preferred Candidate Skills and Educations: Shipley or APMP certification Experience managing proposals valued at $100M and above The position description is only meant to be a representative summary of the major responsibilities and accountabilities performed by the incumbents of this position. The incumbents may be requested to perform position-related tasks other than those stated in this description. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, gender identity, disability or veteran status. At Sayres, our employees enjoy an atmosphere conducive to realizing their potential through personal and professional development while simultaneously exceeding customers' expectations. We offer a broad spectrum of technical, engineering and administrative services including acquisition, financial and program management; fleet synthetic training; logistics; ship construction engineering; systems engineering and integration; wargaming; test and evaluation; security, counterintelligence and policy analysis and have been providing excellence in service to the Federal Government since 2001. Sayres is headquartered in Washington, DC with offices throughout the United States and has a presence abroad. CJ Job Posted by ApplicantPro

Keywords: Sayres Defense, Ellicott City , Proposal Manager, Energy / Utilities , Washington, Maryland