Proposal Manager

Proposal Manager

The Proposal Manager is responsible for leading and coordinating Iris Technology Corporation's proposal development process across both the Tactical and Space business areas. This position manages proposals from initial requirements review and kickoff through development, Basis of Estimate (BOE), leadership review, approval, submission, and post-submission activities.

The Proposal Manager works cross-functionally with Business Development, Engineering, Program Management, Operations, Supply Chain, Contracts, Finance, Product, and senior leadership to develop proposals that are responsive to customer requirements, competitively positioned, appropriately priced, and executable upon award. A key responsibility of this role is ensuring that the employees and functional leaders who will ultimately perform the proposed work are actively involved in developing estimates, schedules, assumptions, and technical inputs.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end proposal development process for Tactical and Space opportunities, from receipt of a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quote (RFQ), or other customer request through final submission.
• Review and analyze customer solicitations, statements of work, specifications, proposal instructions, evaluation criteria, contractual requirements, and other applicable documents to identify proposal requirements, deliverables, risks, and deadlines.
• Develop and maintain proposal schedules, compliance matrices, action-item trackers, content assignments, review milestones, and submission requirements.
• Plan and facilitate proposal kickoff meetings to communicate customer requirements, proposal strategy, schedule, responsibilities, deliverables, assumptions, and key decision points to the proposal team.
• Coordinate with Business Development and senior leadership to understand the opportunity strategy, customer objectives, competitive environment, and desired proposal positioning.
• Develop, coordinate, and maintain proposal Basis of Estimate (BOE) documentation, including labor hours, labor categories, material requirements, subcontractor costs, non-recurring engineering, testing, tooling, travel, schedule assumptions, and other applicable cost elements.
• Work directly with Engineering, Program Management, Operations, Supply Chain, and other employees who will perform the proposed work to develop realistic labor estimates, material requirements, schedules, technical approaches, assumptions, and execution plans.
• Challenge and validate proposal estimates by ensuring proposed hours, resources, schedules, and assumptions are adequately supported and consistent with the proposed scope of work.
• Utilize historical program performance, actual costs, prior proposals, lessons learned, and other available data to improve the quality and accuracy of future estimates.
• Partner with Finance and Contracts to support pricing development and ensure consistency between the technical proposal, BOE, pricing, contractual requirements, and customer deliverables.
• Coordinate make/buy inputs, supplier and subcontractor quotations, material estimates, lead times, and other external cost inputs with Supply Chain and Operations, as applicable.
• Identify proposal risks, exclusions, dependencies, assumptions, and areas requiring management decisions and ensure they are clearly documented and addressed prior to submission.
• Facilitate structured proposal reviews with senior leadership and key stakeholders, including technical, pricing, compliance, and final approval reviews.
• Prepare proposal packages for management review and approval, clearly identifying key assumptions, pricing considerations, risks, schedule commitments, exceptions, and outstanding decisions.
• Track comments, decisions, and action items resulting from proposal reviews and ensure required changes are incorporated prior to final approval.
• Coordinate the development and integration of technical, management, schedule, past performance, pricing, and other proposal volumes or sections.
• Ensure proposals are compliant with customer instructions, internally consistent, professionally presented, and submitted accurately and on time.
• Coordinate with Contracts to identify and appropriately address customer terms and conditions, representations and certifications, flowdowns, contractual exceptions, and other compliance requirements.
• Maintain proposal documentation, approvals, BOEs, pricing support, customer communications, and final proposal records in accordance with company procedures and applicable recordkeeping requirements.
• Coordinate responses to customer clarification questions, revised requests, Best and Final Offers (BAFOs), negotiations, and other post-submission activities.
• Support proposal-to-program transition following award by ensuring Program Management and execution teams understand the proposed scope, BOE, schedule, assumptions, commitments, exclusions, risks, and customer requirements.
• Conduct or facilitate proposal lessons-learned activities following significant wins, losses, or completed proposal efforts and incorporate improvements into future proposal processes.
• Develop and continuously improve proposal templates, BOE methodologies, checklists, review processes, historical estimating data, and other tools to increase proposal quality, consistency, efficiency, and accuracy.
• Maintain visibility into active and upcoming proposal activity and communicate resource conflicts, schedule risks, and required leadership decisions.
• Support development of proposal metrics, including proposal volume, turnaround time, win/loss information, estimate-to-actual performance, and other measures useful for improving the proposal process.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned in support of Iris Technology Corporation's business objectives.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Finance, Program Management, Contracts, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in proposal management, program management, estimating, contracts, business development, or a related function within an engineering, aerospace, defense, or government contracting environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional proposal efforts involving technical, cost, schedule, and contractual inputs.
• Experience developing or coordinating Basis of Estimate (BOE) documentation and supporting cost or pricing development.
• Experience interpreting RFPs, RFQs, statements of work, specifications, proposal instructions, and contractual requirements.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple proposals, priorities, stakeholders, and deadlines simultaneously.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with technical professionals, functional managers, executives, and other cross-functional stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within the aerospace, defense, space, tactical systems, electronics, or other highly regulated technical manufacturing industries.
• Experience supporting U.S. Government, Department of Defense, prime contractor, and commercial aerospace proposals.
• Experience with FAR/DFARS requirements and government contracting environments.
• Experience developing proposals involving engineering development, non-recurring engineering (NRE), hardware production, testing, qualification, and recurring production.
• Experience with cost estimating, labor estimating, material estimating, pricing analysis, or estimate-to-actual analysis.
• Experience working with Engineering, Program Management, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Contracts organizations.
• Experience facilitating formal proposal reviews, such as Pink Team, Red Team, Gold Team, or equivalent internal review processes.
• APMP certification, PMP certification, or other relevant professional certification.

Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Strong proposal planning, organization, and project management skills.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to evaluate scope, labor estimates, schedules, material requirements, assumptions, and proposal risks.
• Ability to translate customer requirements into clear proposal requirements, assignments, and deliverables.
• Ability to facilitate productive cross-functional meetings and drive teams toward decisions and deadlines.
• Ability to appropriately challenge estimates and assumptions while maintaining collaborative working relationships.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to identify inconsistencies between technical scope, schedule, BOE, pricing, and contractual commitments.
• Ability to communicate complex proposal information clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong judgment and ability to recognize issues requiring escalation or senior leadership decisions.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities and firm customer deadlines.
• Ability to establish repeatable processes while maintaining flexibility for proposals of varying size, complexity, customer type, and business area.
• Strong sense of ownership, accountability, follow-through, and commitment to meeting customer and company deadlines.

Benefits (***Full-Time Hires Only***)

• Flexible education benefits
• 12 paid holidays per year
• 401(k) retirement plan offered after eligibility (see 401(k) Summary Plan Description)
• Paid Time Off (vacation and personal) accrues at the rate of 80 hours per year (3.08 hours per biweekly pay period), with accrual at higher rates according to the length of service matrix (see employee handbook addendum)
• Five (5) sick days per year, Prorated by the quarter hired in
• Long Term Disability – paid by employer after eligibility
• Life Insurance