Proposal Manager

It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing! We're committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business. Who We Are ERPA empowers organizations to modernize critical enterprise systems and move forward with confidence. For more than 25 years, we have helped over 1,000 higher education, government, and commercial organizations navigate complex business and technology transformations through a requirements-driven approach focused on measurable outcomes. With deep expertise across Workday, PeopleSoft, and Amazon Web Services, ERPA delivers deployment, cloud modernization, application management, optimization, and advisory services across the full technology lifecycle. Through transparent guidance and long-term partnership, we help clients reduce risk, simplify complexity, and maximize the value of their technology investments. Where We Are Growing ERPA is expanding its Solutions team and seeking an experienced Proposal Manager to lead the development of compelling, compliant, and differentiated responses to requests for proposals, information, and qualifications, including RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, and related sales opportunities. Reporting to the AVP, Solutions, this highly visible role partners closely with Sales, Delivery, technical and functional consultants, recruiting, and executive leadership. The Proposal Manager will own the proposal development lifecycle, from partnering with Sales on the initial opportunity assessment and kickoff through final production and submission, while keeping contributors aligned, content accurate, and deadlines on track. The ideal candidate is a highly organized, detail-oriented self-starter who understands how enterprise SaaS solutions are sold, deployed, and managed. Candidates should have experience developing proposals for Workday deployments or comparable SaaS solutions, preferably within HCM, Financial Management, or Student Information Systems. Success in this role requires more than coordinating documents. You must be able to partner with Sales and Delivery to understand client requirements, facilitate solution-development discussions, translate technical and functional concepts into clear business value, and articulate why ERPA is the right partner. You will also help modernize ERPA’s proposal operations by maintaining reusable proposal content and applying AI tools responsibly to improve quality, consistency, and efficiency. The Proposal Manager will embody ERPA’s core values: Empathy, Responsibility, Passion, and Agility. Key Responsibilities Lead all stages of the proposal development lifecycle, including partnering with sales on opportunity assessment, kickoff, response planning, content development, reviews, production, approval, and final submission. Review and analyze public-sector, higher education, and commercial RFx documents to identify requirements, evaluation criteria, submission instructions, risks, dependencies, and compliance obligations. Develop proposal schedules, responsibility matrices, content plans, and review milestones, ensuring contributors remain accountable and deadlines are met. Partner with Sales, Delivery, recruiting, legal, finance, and executive stakeholders to develop accurate and persuasive proposal content, and address requirements accurately and compliantly. Attend and support solutioning sessions that align ERPA’s proposed approach, staffing model, deployment methodology, differentiators, and value proposition with the client’s needs. Translate technical and functional information into clear, concise, customer-focused narratives that are understandable to both business and technical audiences. Draft, edit, and refine proposal content while integrating contributions from multiple authors into a consistent and compelling “one voice” response. Manage proposal compliance, including templates, page limits, required forms, certifications, attachments, formatting requirements, and submission instructions. Prepare and coordinate questions, assumptions, exceptions, and requests for clarification for submission to prospective clients. Identify gaps, risks, and constraints during proposal development and proactively recommend solutions or escalation paths. Lead proposal status meetings and communicate progress, decisions, risks, and action items to contributors, leadership, and other key stakeholders. Collaborate with Recruiting and Delivery leadership to confirm that proposed staffing, qualifications, résumés, and resource assumptions support the proposed solution. Maintain and continuously improve ERPA’s proposal boilerplate and content repository, including company information, service descriptions, methodologies, case studies, résumés, project examples, and standard responses. Establish processes for content ownership, review cycles, version control, tagging, and retirement of outdated or duplicative proposal materials. Use AI tools, Claude, to support research, content development, editing, summarization, compliance reviews, and content reuse, while validating all outputs for accuracy, confidentiality, tone, and quality. Participate in proposal retrospectives and apply lessons learned to improve future win strategies, content, tools, and processes. Support additional sales-enablement and pursuit activities as business needs require. Preferred Qualifications Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience. At least five (5) years of proposal management or proposal development experience supporting government, public-sector, higher education, and/or commercial opportunities. Demonstrated experience developing deployment and/or Application Management Services (AMS)/managed services proposals for Workday or similar enterprise SaaS solutions , involving HCM, Financial Management, Student Information Systems, or related business platforms. Proven ability to independently manage multiple complex proposals and competing deadlines in a fast-paced environment. Demonstrated success coordinating cross-functional teams that include sales, technical, functional, delivery, recruiting, contracts, and executive stakeholders. Strong technical and functional acumen, with the ability to understand implementation approaches, deployment methodologies, staffing models, integrations, data conversion, testing, change management, and other common SaaS delivery concepts. Exceptional writing, editing, proofreading, and document-management skills, with meticulous attention to detail. Experience maintaining reusable proposal content, boilerplate libraries, or knowledge repositories. Hands-on experience using AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Claude, to improve proposal-development efficiency and quality. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Word, including styles, section management, tables, references, captions, headers and footers, and complex document formatting. Experience with PowerPoint and/or Canva in presentation development is desired. Proficiency with Adobe Acrobat Pro, including editing, combining, organizing, and quality-checking PDF files. Excellent verbal communication, facilitation, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills. Sound judgment and the ability to handle confidential and sensitive business information appropriately. Familiarity with structured proposal methodologies, color-team reviews, compliance matrices, storyboarding, and win-theme development. Understanding of enterprise software deployment methodologies and the professional-services sales lifecycle. Experience contributing to proposal-process transformation or continuous-improvement initiatives. What Success Looks Like A successful Proposal Manager at ERPA will: Deliver complete, compliant, polished proposals on time. Improve the clarity and consistency of ERPA’s proposal messaging. Keep diverse stakeholder groups aligned and accountable throughout each pursuit. Build a reliable, current, and easily searchable library of reusable proposal content. Apply AI thoughtfully to accelerate proposal development without compromising accuracy, confidentiality, or quality. Strengthen ERPA’s ability to communicate differentiated solutions and win strategic opportunities. What We Offer A values-driven culture grounded in Empathy, Responsibility, Passion, and Agility Remote work opportunity Paid time off and paid holidays Medical, dental, and vision insurance Life insurance and short- and long-term disability coverage Flexible spending accounts 401(k) plan with a strong company match Applicants are considered for all positions in accordance with statutes and regulations concerning non-discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, age, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, non-disqualifying disability, veteran status, or other protected classification. ERPA is an equal opportunity employer, as well as a substance and tobacco free workplace. All offers of employment are contingent on satisfactory pre-employment drug screen which may include reference checks, criminal background investigation, and when applicable licensing verification. Applicants for this position in the United States must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States and with ERPA. DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this job description restricts management's right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities of this job. Reasonable Accommodations: ERPA provides reasonable accommodations to the known limitations of otherwise qualified employees and applicants for employment with disabilities, sincerely held religious beliefs, practices and observances, unless doing so would result in an undue hardship. Applicants for employment may request a reasonable accommodation/modification by contacting his/her recruiter. Nothing in this job description restricts management's right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities of this job. Applicants are considered for all positions in accordance with statutes and regulations concerning non-discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, age, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, non-disqualifying disability, veteran status, or other protected classification. ERPA is an equal opportunity employer, as well as a substance and tobacco free workplace. All offers of employment are contingent on successfully passing the pre-employment drug screen and background investigation which may include reference checks, criminal background investigation, and when applicable licensing verification. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We will not consider any applicants that require sponsorship for employment visa status either now or in the future. Ifyou like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us! Notice: We use E-Verify to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires. ERPA