Proposal specialist Jobs in Raleigh, NC

Proposal Manager

Oak Grove Technologies, LLC, a dynamic and fast-growing federal contractor, is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Proposal Manager to support proposal development, capture, and business development operations across the organization.

Reports To: Vice President, Growth Location: Raleigh, NC (Hybrid) or Fully Remote within the Continental United States

Oak Grove Technologies is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business based in Raleigh, NC, with a Test and Training Center located near Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall. With over 20 years of expertise in training, consulting, technology, and operational support, the company provides services to the military, government, and law enforcement. Committed to excellence, innovation, and national security, Oak Grove Technologies fulfills federal defense contracts and actively supports veterans through sponsorships and events. Driven by its mission-focused approach, the company seeks top talent to develop impactful solutions.

Oak Grove Technologies offers a competitive compensation and benefits package.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Proposal Leadership and Lifecycle Management

• Lead the end-to-end development of compliant, compelling proposals across Requests for Proposal (RFP), Requests for Quote (RFQ), Requests for Information (RFI), Sources Sought responses, white papers, Broad Agency Announcements, and unsolicited proposals.
• Serve as the single point of accountability for proposal execution from RFP release (or earlier, at Draft RFP) through submission, clarifications, Evaluation Notices, Final Proposal Revisions, and debriefs.
• Develop and maintain detailed proposal management plans, including compliance matrices, annotated outlines, writing assignments, storyboards, data calls, and milestone schedules built backward from the submission deadline.
• Facilitate proposal kickoff, daily/weekly stand-ups, and status meetings; assign tasks with clear owners and due dates; and drive contributors to on-time, on-quality delivery.
• Plan and run color team reviews (Pink, Red, Gold, White Glove), recruit qualified reviewers, prepare reviewer packages and evaluation criteria, adjudicate comments, and ensure recovery actions are implemented and verified.
• Manage production and submission - assembly, page-count and formatting checks, file naming, redaction, PDF preparation, and electronic upload through SAM.gov, PIEE, eBuy, agency portals, or partner-designated systems - including submission dry runs well ahead of the deadline.
• Track and enforce the proposal schedule, escalating risks, resource shortfalls, and slipping deliverables early and through the capture manager rather than at the point of failure.
• Lead structured after action reviews following each submission and debrief, capturing lessons learned, reusable content, and process corrections.

Compliance and Quality Assurance

• Build and maintain the compliance matrix mapping every Section L instruction, Section M evaluation factor, Section C/SOW/PWS requirement, and applicable FAR/DFARS clause to a specific proposal response location.
• Perform continuous compliance and quality reviews throughout development - not only at color teams - verifying page limits, font and margin requirements, volume structure, cross-references, acronym usage, and required forms and certifications.
• Identify and resolve quality, compliance, and consistency issues prior to submission; escalate unresolvable risks to capture and executive leadership with recommended courses of action.
• Coordinate and track questions to the Contracting Officer, monitor amendments, and rapidly assess and communicate the downstream impact of amendments on outline, schedule, and content.
• Ensure proper handling and marking of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), proprietary teammate data, and competition-sensitive material in accordance with DFARS 252.204-7012, OGT policy, and non-disclosure agreements.
• Verify that resumes, past performance citations, letters of commitment, and corporate data submitted in proposals are accurate, current, and consistent across volumes.

Strategy, Writing, and Messaging

• Partner with capture managers to identify, validate, and instrument win themes, discriminators, ghosting strategies, and customer hot buttons into the proposal narrative - ensuring themes appear where evaluators will actually score them.
• Translate technical, training, and operational concepts into clear, benefit-driven, evaluator-friendly prose that connects OGT's operator credibility to customer outcomes.
• Write and rewrite proposal sections directly as needed, including executive summaries, management approach, staffing and phase-in, quality control, transition, and risk mitigation content.
• Develop draft RFP-based sections and pre-positioning content so that the team enters the live procurement with substantially mature material rather than a blank page.
• Direct graphics development - action captions, concept sketches, process visuals, and org charts - working with desktop publishing and graphic support to ensure visuals carry the message rather than decorate the page.
• Enforce a consistent voice, tone, and style across contributors and teammates through a proposal style guide and disciplined editing.

Cross-Functional and Teammate Coordination

• Coordinate proposal inputs from Contracts, Finance, Pricing, Legal, Human Resources, Recruiting, Security, IT, and operational subject matter experts, translating requirements into specific, time-bound asks.
• Serve as the primary proposal interface for teaming partners, subcontractors, mentor-protg partners, and joint venture members - issuing data calls, tracking deliverables, and integrating partner content into a single unified voice.
• Support joint venture and Mentor-Protg pursuits by ensuring narrative alignment with the approved workshare, management structure, and performance-of-work requirements under SBA regulations, in coordination with Contracts and Legal.
• Partner with Pricing and Contracts to ensure the technical, management, and cost volumes tell the same story - that staffing described in the narrative matches the Basis of Estimate and the price volume.
• Coordinate with Recruiting on key personnel identification, resume tailoring, contingent hire letters, and staffing approach substantiation.
• Manage the schedule and activities of assigned proposal resources - proposal coordinators, desktop publishers, graphic artists, technical writers, consultants, and SMEs - including onboarding surge consultant support during peak periods.

Tools, Content, and Process Improvement

• Create and administer Microsoft Teams and SharePoint proposal workspaces to centralize requirements, contributor inputs, version control, and archived submissions.
• Administer and champion proposal tools and workflows, including SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Adobe Acrobat/Creative Cloud, and collaborative review platforms such as PleaseReview, Responsive, or equivalent.
• Build and maintain the corporate content library - boilerplate, past performance write-ups, resumes, certifications, standard graphics, and reusable technical narratives - keeping it current, tagged, and retrievable.
• Identify content gaps and improvement opportunities across pursuits and partner with growth leadership to close them ahead of the next procurement cycle.
• Maintain proposal metrics and reporting - submission volume, on-time rate, compliance findings, win/loss, and debrief themes - and contribute to the corporate capture and proposal tracker.
• Refine and document OGT proposal processes, templates, and checklists; mentor junior proposal operations personnel and coach first-time SME contributors on how to write to evaluation criteria.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in English, Communications, Business, Journalism, Technical Writing, or a related field. Equivalent professional experience or military service will be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Six (6) or more years of proposal management experience supporting federal government pursuits, with a demonstrated track record of compliant, on-time submissions and documented wins.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of the federal acquisition lifecycle and the ability to read, interpret, and operationalize solicitation Sections B through M, PWS/SOW/SOO documents, and CDRLs.
• Proven ability to independently manage multiple concurrent proposals of varying size, complexity, and deadline pressure without loss of quality or compliance.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Word (styles, templates, section breaks, automated TOCs, and cross-references), Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint, plus working proficiency with Adobe Acrobat and desktop publishing fundamentals.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to give and receive direct editorial feedback and to communicate requirements and deadlines clearly to contributors at every level of seniority.
• Demonstrated ability to influence without authority - driving executives, operators, and partner personnel to meet deadlines they did not set.
• Willingness to work extended or non-standard hours during critical submission windows.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting DoD training and education services pursuits, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM/USASOC), Department of Homeland Security, FLETC, or