Quote & Proposal Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Join a fast-scaling aerospace startup and set the standard for excellence.

Company Overview

Allocor.tech designs and manufactures mission-critical power electronics and avionics including motor controllers, battery management systems, power distribution, flight control, and flight termination systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAS/UAM) and unmanned maritime platforms. Our customers are leaders in advanced air mobility, uncrewed aircraft, and electric watercraft. The team brings deep experience from organizations including Northrop Grumman, L3Harris, Sierra Space, and Aurora Flight Sciences.

We are a team of approximately 35 people generating roughly $10M in annual revenue. We recently closed a $6.0M Series A and are projecting 100–200% revenue growth over the next year as we scale production, expand our customer base, and professionalize the business beyond its engineering-led roots. This is a pivotal moment: we are building the technical depth and process rigor required to support rapid, disciplined growth while protecting the speed and agility that got us here.

Role Summary

The Quote & Proposal Manager will own the end-to-end management of all active quotes, ROMs, and formal proposals at Allocor.tech. This is a high-impact role for a commercially sharp, technically fluent professional who thrives in a fast-moving aerospace environment and wants real ownership of the quote-to-order pipeline. You will act as the critical bridge between engineering, operations, supply chain, and customers—translating complex technical capabilities into accurate, competitive, and profitable proposals while protecting margin, schedule, and customer trust. Success in this role directly enables Allocor.tech’s rapid growth trajectory.

Key Responsibilities

Quote Pipeline Ownership & Execution

• Own the complete active quote pipeline: intake, prioritization, tracking, status visibility, aging management, and forecast reporting of all RFQs, ROMs, and formal proposals.
• Lead development of accurate cost estimates and pricing packages by coordinating technical inputs from hardware, firmware, systems, and manufacturing engineering.
• Partner with engineering, business development, and program leads to gather technical specifications, define scope of work, and build level-of-effort and staffing estimates.
• Translate customer requirements (drawings, specifications, performance needs, and contractual language) into clear statements of work, assumptions, exclusions, and risk registers.
• Drive cross-functional quote reviews to validate technical feasibility, lead times, NRE, material risk, and cost drivers before submission.
• Translate complex software and systems capabilities into clear, compelling proposal language for both technical evaluators and non-technical stakeholders across government, defense, and commercial customers.
• Manage proposal schedules end-to-end kickoff, color-team reviews, compliance checks, coordinating inputs from multiple contributors to ensure on-time, compliant submission.
• Maintain a library of reusable proposal content, boilerplate technical narratives, past-performance write-ups, and templates.
• Track win/loss outcomes and debrief feedback, feeding lessons learned back into future proposals and templates.
• Ensure proposals meet customer and regulatory requirements, including DoD/FAR-DFARS solicitation instructions, FAA considerations, and ITAR/EAR export control handling of technical data.

Pricing Strategy, Risk & Margin Protection

• Develop and maintain pricing models that balance competitiveness with target margins; recommend strategic pricing based on opportunity value, competitive landscape, capacity, and risk.
• Build cost estimates, pricing models, and bills of materials/labor in coordination with finance and engineering & program management, aligned to the appropriate contract type (FFP, T&M, CPFF).
• Identify and mitigate commercial and technical risks early; document assumptions and constraints so awarded work transitions cleanly into program execution.
• Provide clear pipeline metrics and forecast visibility to leadership (quote volume, win/loss, aging, projected book value, and margin outlook).

Customer Interface & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as the primary point of contact for customers on quote-related questions, clarifications, revisions, and status updates building trust and reducing friction.
• Partner daily with engineering, program management, operations, supply chain, and finance to ensure quotes are technically sound, commercially viable, and executable.
• Support clean handoff of won quotes into order entry, program kickoff, and production planning.

Process Improvement

• Continuously improve quoting processes, templates, tools, data hygiene, and cycle time as the company scales production and customer volume.

Program Coordination

• Support program managers with scheduling, milestone tracking, and status reporting across active drone software programs.
• Coordinate cross-functional meetings across engineering, QA, customers, and subcontractors; maintain action-item logs and drive items to closure.
• Assist in preparing and maintaining program documentation: statements of work, deliverable trackers, risk registers, and change orders.
• Monitor program budgets and hours versus plan, and flag schedule or cost variances to program leadership early.
• Serve as the connective tissue between business development, engineering, and program management, ensuring a clean handoff from proposal and contract award into program execution.
• Support customer-facing communications, including status updates, meeting minutes, and follow-up on open action items.

Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of direct experience managing complex technical quotes, proposals, or estimates in a manufacturing, aerospace, electronics, or defense environment.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in a high-velocity, resource-constrained, start-up or small-company setting with shifting priorities.
• Demonstrated success coordinating cross-functional teams (engineering, operations, supply chain, finance) without direct authority.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to build and defend cost models, identify cost drivers, and communicate commercial implications clearly.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills—able to distill technical complexity into customer-ready language and internal action plans.
• High attention to detail and comfort managing multiple concurrent deadlines under pressure.

Preferred

• Direct experience quoting or proposing power electronics, motor controllers, avionics, embedded systems, or similar complex electromechanical products.
• Familiarity with aerospace/defense contracting practices, FAR/DFARS considerations, ITAR, or export compliance as they affect quoting and pricing.
• Experience with ERP/MRP systems, CRM tools, or quote management platforms.
• Understanding of New Product Introduction (NPI) cost structures, NRE estimation, and staged design milestones.
• Prior work in a small or mid-sized growth company where process ownership and pragmatism matter more than large-team bureaucracy.
• PMP or formal proposal/estimating training a plus.

Key Attributes

• Strategic commercial partner who protects margin, schedule, and engineering bandwidth rather than simply processing quotes.
• Comfortable operating in a small, agile team with short decision cycles and real flight hardware.
• Detail-oriented with high standards for documentation, assumptions, risk registers, and pricing integrity.
• Collaborative communicator who earns the trust of engineering, operations, and leadership.
• Excited by the opportunity to help professionalize quoting and proposal processes as the company scales.

What Success Looks Like in the First Year

• Active quote pipeline is fully visible, prioritized, and managed with clear aging and forecast metrics.
• Quote cycle time improves and win rate strengthens through better pricing discipline and technical accuracy.
• Engineering and operations view you as a force-multiplier who shortens the path from opportunity to executable order.
• Margin integrity and risk documentation become consistent across all submitted proposals.
• Customers experience faster, clearer, and more professional quote responses.
• Your work directly supports Allocor.tech’s rapid growth trajectory and production scale-up.

This position may require prolonged periods of sitting, standing, walking, computer work, and occasional exposure to moderate levels of noise, dust, and fumes in production and lab areas.

Level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience. Base salary is just one component of our total rewards package. Employees may receive equity opportunities and/or cash bonus, and have access to a robust benefits package including: top tier medical HMO, PPO & a 100% company-sponsored HSA plan option, dental and vision coverage, unlimited PTO, 11 paid holidays per year, flexible spending and dependent care savings accounts, paid parental leave, disability insurance, life insurance, and access to a 401(k) retirement plan with company match. Eligibility for benefits may vary based on employment status; please check with your recruiter for a comprehensive list of the benefits available for this role. Benefit programs are subject to change at the company’s discretion.

Important Information

FOR CANDIDATES SEEKING TO WORK IN US OFFICES ONLY: To conform to U.S. Government technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Allocor.Tech Employees must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce, as applicable.

Allocor.tech provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment at Allocor.Tech, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

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