Senior Proposal Manager

POSITION DETAILS 

Position Title: Senior Proposal Manager (Sr. PM) 

Location: US Remote  

Department: Development (DEV) 

POSITION SUMMARY 

Position Purpose: The Senior Proposal Manager position is an experienced and highly visible core member of the DEV team, leveraging their business development expertise as positioning and proposal manager on high priority new business opportunities across Winrock’s portfolio. The position will report to the Director of Development and will collaborate with staff across projects, programs, and operational teams.

Position Overview: The Sr. PM role will support the strategic pursuit of donor-funded new business opportunities, fulfilling key functions in the end-to-end new business life cycle, with a primary focus on capture and proposal management of competitive, solicitation-based opportunities of significant scale and complexity, across Winrock’s sectors. Leveraging a strong background in positioning and proposal management, this position will directly fulfill this function on a diverse range of priority opportunities, managing proposal teams and the bid-specific processes for proposal planning, design, development, and quality control. In addition to contributing to the ongoing improvement of Winrock’s standard business development norms and resources, the Sr. PM will build the capacity of others (drawn from DEV, program staff, and/or consultants) fulfilling the proposal manager and/or other proposal team roles (e.g., partner liaison). The responsibilities of this role are subject to modifications as required by the needs of the organization.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES 

Perform positioning/proposal manager role for opportunities of high priority, scale, and/or complexity, with responsibility for compliance, completeness, and consistency of proposal content (est. LOE 75%) 

• Ensure full coverage and execution of proposal team assignments, confirming all parties understand the responsibilities and expectations associated with their proposal team role. 

• Participate in capture planning and outreach. 

• Contribute to strategic/competitive analyses and facilitation of program design and strategy activities. 

• Establish teaming arrangements with potential prime and sub-recipient partners. 

• Develop proposal management plan, as well as ensuring creation of compliant guidance documents, outlines, and templates.  

• Manage proposal process and timeline, ensuring scheduling of and adherence to milestone deadlines and following up on all assignments to ensure timely progress.  

• Manage proposal team communications and facilitate discussions, decision making, and feedback mechanisms, ensuring that outcomes are documented and appropriately shared.  

• Prepare and submit donor communications related to the opportunity.  

• Conduct appropriate due diligence (e.g., Lexis/Nexis check) for proposed partners and conditional new hires. 

• Facilitate communication with partners as needed to ensure timely guidance and opportunities for engagement are provided and inputs are received as needed (may do this in coordination with a partner liaison). 

• Support proposal recruiter and hiring manager(s) with key personnel recruitment activities and presentation of staffing content in the proposal.  

• Ensure information sharing on emerging issues with relevant program, operational, financial, and human resources staff, as needed. 

• Conduct quality control of all proposal components at appropriate milestones, focusing on consistency, persuasiveness, and compliance to the donor requirements.  

• Schedule and facilitate reviews/approvals in line with Winrock policies and practices.  

• Oversee editing, production, and submission activities, ensuring completeness and compliance checks for all final proposal content.  

• Coordinate post-submission activities.   

• Ensure Winrock’s quality controls are employed throughout the process.  

• Maintain knowledge management platforms for the bid, ensuring accuracy and timeliness of content uploads and updates.  

Provide ad hoc business development support to proposal teams, as needed (est. LOE 10%) 

• Mentor proposal team members.  

• Prepare (create, edit, and/or format) specific proposal content (e.g., executive summary text, PPRs, staffing matrices, key personnel candidate documentation). 

• Participate in quality assurance milestones. 

• Lead proposal production and submission. 

• Coordinate and facilitate after action reviews and/or donor debriefs. 

• Contribute to donor, partner, and opportunity identification and analysis. 

• Cultivate relationships with priority partner organizations. 

Contribute to achievement of business development best practices through refinement of the organization’s business development processes, standardized milestones and resources, job aides and other tools and templates, and skill building activities, including training development and delivery.  (est. LOE 10%) 

Contribute to Development activities and related efforts, as required. (est. LOE 5%) 

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS 

Education: Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience, required. 

Experience: A minimum of 8 years of experience in international and/or domestic development in the non-profit sector is required, including 4 years of experience fulfilling positioning/proposal manager role. Prior experience with Winrock is preferred. 

Computer/Technical Skills: Strong experience with MS Office and Sharepoint.  

Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills required. Strong group facilitation skills a must. 

Language: English required: English speaking and written communication is required. 

Required Travel: Minimal travel anticipated, based on positioning and proposal management requirements 

Position-Specific Skills:  

• Proven track record of success in competitive business development in Winrock’s sectors 

• Extensive experience with, but not limited to, business development for US Government and other bilateral and multilateral donors 

• Deep understanding of end-to-end business development processes in line with industry standards 

• Strong attention to detail and compliance requirements 

• Proactive, inclusive, and collaborative interpersonal and communication skills 

• Ability to achieve results through both independent effort and as a team member/leader 

• Ability to effectively prioritize time-bound demands and manage a robust workload 

• Ability to efficiently facilitate strategic decision-making 

• Experience building capacity of individuals and/or groups in business development 

Physical Demands: Typical office environment with continual sitting or standing required 

Winrock is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by law. 
At Winrock we have a clear mission: Empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources through unwavering dedication to accountability, equity, innovation, integrity and transformation.