Proposal Writer
Develops persuasive, compliant proposal content across the full Federal and DoD pursuit lifecycle, translating complex autonomy, AI, software, hardware, and mission concepts for government customers. Requires 7+ years of proposal writing experience, a bachelor's degree, strong acquisition knowledge, and U.S. citizenship.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Write Government and customer-facing pursuit materials, including RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, white papers, solution briefs, capability statements, executive summaries, past performance narratives, and technical and management volumes.
- Analyze solicitations, statements of work, evaluation criteria, and acquisition documentation to create compliant, responsive, persuasive, opportunity-specific content.
- Partner with Capture, Business Development, Programs, Product, Engineering, and leadership to align narratives with capture strategy, win themes, discriminators, customer priorities, and mission needs.
- Translate complex concepts involving software, autonomy, AI, systems integration, hardware, and fielded capabilities for technical and non-technical audiences.
- Interview subject-matter experts, identify content gaps, and turn raw inputs into polished written products.
- Draft content covering technical approaches, architectures, implementation strategies, management approaches, and mission impact.
- Support storyboarding, outlining, drafting, editing, reviews, revisions, final production, and submission, incorporating stakeholder and color-team feedback.
- Review and integrate contributions from multiple authors into a cohesive, accurate, compliant, clear, and persuasive narrative.
- Collaborate with technical teams and designers on graphics, diagrams, tables, and other visual elements.
- Maintain reusable proposal templates, technical narratives, capability descriptions, past-performance content, and boilerplate libraries.
- Manage multiple concurrent pursuits and compressed timelines while maintaining quality.
Requirements
- 7+ years of hands-on proposal writing, proposal development, or business development writing experience, including meaningful experience supporting U.S. Government or DoD opportunities.
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Journalism, Communications, or a related field.
- Experience developing Federal proposals, RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, Sources Sought responses, white papers, and other competitive Government submissions.
- Strong understanding of the Federal and DoD acquisition and proposal processes.
- Working knowledge of FAR and DFARS and Federal proposal compliance requirements.
- Exceptional writing, editing, and storytelling skills, including the ability to turn complex or incomplete inputs into persuasive narratives.
- Ability to incorporate capture strategies, win themes, discriminators, customer priorities, and evaluation criteria into proposal content.
- Strong information-gathering skills and the ability to identify gaps and develop complete content from disparate inputs.
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, including complex formatting, styles, templates, and proposal production.
- U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance.
Nice-to-haves
- Active DoD security clearance at Secret level or higher.
- Experience in defense technology, aerospace, autonomous systems, or another highly regulated technical environment.
- Familiarity with DoD acquisition pathways and non-traditional mechanisms, including OTAs, CSOs, BAAs, SBIR/STTR, and rapid acquisition efforts.
- Knowledge of Shipley, color-team reviews, compliance matrices, storyboarding, and competitive positioning.
- Knowledge of capture management and the Federal business development lifecycle.
- Experience supporting pre-RFP capture activities and live proposal efforts.
- Familiarity with proposals involving software, hardware, systems integration, autonomy, and fielded operational capabilities.
- APMP certification or another proposal or capture management credential.
Skills and attributes
- Clear, concise, persuasive writing and editing.
- Customer-focused storytelling.
- Technical curiosity and critical thinking.
- Ability to identify missing information, weak arguments, compliance gaps, and unclear concepts.
- High ownership, attention to detail, collaboration, and ability to work under pressure.
Compensation and benefits
- Competitive salary.
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans.
- 401(k) retirement savings plan with company benefits.
- Career growth opportunities.
Skills
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint, Far, Dfars, Proposal Writing, Proposal Production, Compliance Matrices, Storyboarding, Shipley, Dod Acquisition, Federal Proposals, Capture Management, Autonomy, Systems Integration, Artificial Intelligence
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