Founding Proposal Manager

About Schemata

At Schemata, we are transforming the $400 B virtual‑training and simulation market by fusing 3D computer vision, neural rendering and large multimodal models inside highly regulated industries. Our platform delivers photorealistic, intelligent 3D experiences, demanding robust spatial reasoning, high‑performance data pipelines and seamless integration between traditional graphics and AI‑driven perception.

About the Role

We submit a lot of federal proposals for a company our size: SBIR and STTR topics, CSO and sBAA white papers, OTA prototype proposals, consortium submissions, and RFI responses. Today that work is carried by our CEO, VP of Business Development, and outside consultants. It gets done, but it pulls our senior people away from customers and new markets, and consultant first drafts still need heavy rewriting before they sound like us.

We are hiring a Founding Proposal Manager to own the writing and the machinery of getting proposals out the door. This is a writing-first role. About 70% of your time goes to drafting and running proposals. About 30% goes to capture support: screening opportunities, shaping early documents, and making sure our bid decisions are made on evidence.

Our sales team owns customer relationships and win strategy. Your job is to turn that strategy into compliant, persuasive, on-time submissions, and to make each one faster and better than the last. This is an individual contributor role. "Manager" refers to managing the proposal, not managing people.

What You'll Own

Proposal writing and management (about 70%)

• Write proposals. Draft technical and management volumes, executive summaries, white papers, solution briefs, and quad charts from engineering and customer input. You are the primary author, not just the editor.

• Turn engineering explanations into prose a technical evaluator can score, and push back when a section is talking past the reader.

• Run every proposal from kickoff to submission: shred the solicitation, build the compliance matrix and outline, set the schedule, name section owners, and hold people (including leadership) to their dates.

• Size the review process to the bid. A SBIR Phase I does not need the same gates as an OTA prototype proposal.

• Coordinate cost volumes and supporting documents with finance and leadership, and verify every required form, certification, and attachment is present.

• Own membership profiles and submission mechanics across DSIP, SAM.gov, and service and consortium portals, including formatting rules and page limits.

• Build and maintain a reusable content library in Google Drive: past performance write-ups, resumes, boilerplate, graphics, and approved capability language.

Capture support (about 30%)

• Screen opportunities from SAM.gov, DSIP topic releases, CSOs and BAAs, OTA consortia, and partner referrals. Score them against our qualification criteria and recommend kills as readily as pursuits.

• Prepare bid and no-bid packets so leadership can make a fast, defensible call: fit, competition, past awards, customer intent, and effort required.

• Draft early shaping documents: RFI responses, capability statements, and white papers that put our language in front of the customer before the requirement is written.

• Research the competitive field and past awards (SBIR.gov, USAspending, FPDS) and summarize what it tells us about each pursuit.

• Keep the Solicitations tracker: every active pursuit has a stage, due date, owner, and next step.

• Request and run debriefs on every loss, and feed the lessons back into the content library and our qualification criteria.

Your First 90 Days

By day 30. You own the Solicitations tracker end to end and can tell us what is due in the next 60 days, who owns each piece, and what is at risk. You have been the lead writer on at least one live submission.

By day 60. You have run at least one proposal on your own from kickoff through submission, with our VP of Business Development as a reviewer rather than an author.

By day 90. A working content library exists. Standard submissions (SBIR Phase I proposals, CSO white papers, RFI responses) no longer need an outside first draft. You have told us at least one thing about our proposal process that we were wrong about.

What We're Looking For

Required

• Four to seven years in federal proposal writing or proposal management, including at least two years as the lead writer or responsible owner on DoW proposals.

• Direct experience with DoW solicitation types: SBIR and STTR, OTAs, CSOs and BAAs, RFPs, and RFIs.

• Excellent writing and editing. You can take a subject matter expert's notes and produce something clear, specific, and scoreable. We will ask for samples.

• Command of compliance: you have built compliance matrices and caught the requirement everyone else missed.

• Comfort owning a schedule and holding senior people to their deadlines.

• Working fluency with modern writing tools, including AI drafting tools, and the judgment to know where they help and where they make writing generic.

• U.S. person, able to obtain and maintain a DoW Secret clearance.

Preferred

• Capture exposure: you have helped shape an opportunity before the solicitation dropped.

• Experience with SBIR and STTR Phase II, TACFI or STRATFI, and Phase III transition.

• Familiarity with training, readiness, sustainment, or maintenance programs in the Air Force, Army, Navy, or Marine Corps.

• APMP certification, Shipley training, or equivalent.

• Working knowledge of FAR and DFARS as they touch proposals and representations. Contracting experience is a plus but not required.

• Experience at a company under 50 people, where the process you inherit is the process you build.

How We Measure Success

Specific targets get calibrated with you in the first 30 days.

• On-time, compliant submission rate. This one is not negotiable.

• Proposals submitted per quarter, and the hours our senior team spends per proposal (we want that second number to fall).

• Win rate on committed bids, and the ratio of opportunities screened to opportunities bid.

• Reuse rate from the content library.

• Debriefs requested and completed on losses, and what changed as a result.

How We Work

• No zombie bids. Every pursuit clears a real bid or no-bid gate. We would rather submit fewer, stronger proposals.

• Lean, not bureaucratic. Enough process to be reliable and not one step more. If a gate is not earning its place, say so.

• Plain language wins. We write for technical evaluators, lead with the outcome instead of the technology, and do not stack buzzwords.

• Specific beats generic. A proposal that could have been submitted by any company is a proposal that loses.

How to Apply

Send your resume, a short cover letter, and a writing sample you authored. A proposal section is ideal if you're permitted to share it (redacted is fine), but any professional writing works: a white paper, a published SBIR abstract, a report, or an article. Tell us in one line what you personally wrote. Please don't send anything proprietary, CUI, export-controlled, or written by someone else.

Why Join Us?

• Meaningful equity stake in a high-growth, venture-backed defense tech startup, so you share in the upside you help create

• Comprehensive health coverage : medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Competitive salary that reflects your experience and track record

• 401(k) plan

• Paid parental leave

• High visibility and real impact: Collaborate with world-class engineers and researchers in a high-ownership environment.