Proposal Manager – Federal Health

Description

Location
:
Columbia, MD (Hybrid)

Residency Requirement
:
Candidates must have lived in the U.S. for at least 3 of the past 5 years and be authorized to work in the U.S. (Citizen, Permanent Resident, or EAD).

Sponsorship
:
This position does not offer sponsorship.

Cogent People Inc. is seeking an experienced, results-oriented Proposal Manager to lead and manage the development of high-quality, compliant, and compelling proposals in support of the company’s federal health IT growth strategy. This role is responsible for managing proposal efforts from solicitation release through final submission, coordinating cross-functional proposal teams, establishing schedules and assignments, driving content development and reviews, and ensuring all responses meet customer requirements and Cogent People quality standards.

The Proposal Manager leads the proposal team to translate capture strategy, customer requirements, solution concepts, win themes, and differentiators into clear and persuasive proposal responses. Success in this role requires exceptional organization, strong federal proposal management experience, excellent writing and communication skills, attention to detail, and the ability to lead diverse teams under compressed deadlines while maintaining accountability for the quality and compliance of the final submission.

• Lead the end-to-end development and submission of federal proposals, RFIs, Sources Sought Notices (SSNs), RFQs, task order responses, and other government procurement responses.
• Support and participate in pre-proposal activities, including capture planning, solutioning, strategy development, and proposal readiness efforts.
• Analyze solicitation documents, including RFPs/RFQs, PWS/SOW/SOOs, evaluation criteria, amendments, Q&As, and submission instructions to identify requirements and develop the proposal response strategy.
• Develop and maintain proposal schedules, compliance matrices, outlines, assignments, calendars, and other proposal management artifacts.
• Conduct proposal kickoffs and lead recurring status meetings, working sessions, and other proposal-related meetings throughout the response lifecycle.
• Assign and manage writing responsibilities across technical SMEs, solution architects, delivery personnel, corporate resources, and teaming partners.
• Track proposal activities, dependencies, action items, risks, and deadlines to ensure the team remains on schedule.
• Maintain accountability across the proposal team and proactively elevate schedule, content, staffing, or quality risks when necessary.
• Establish and enforce disciplined proposal processes, templates, artifacts, and quality standards while contributing to the continuous improvement of proposal SOPs and workflows

• Translate capture strategy, customer priorities, win themes, discriminators, and solution concepts into clear, compelling proposal content.
• Write, edit, and refine proposal sections, including executive summaries, management approaches, staffing approaches, transition plans, past performance, corporate experience, and other response content as needed.
• Work closely with technical and operational SMEs to transform complex technical concepts into concise, customer-focused narratives.
• Ensure proposal content directly addresses solicitation requirements, evaluation criteria, customer objectives, and identified pain points.
• Review proposal sections for clarity, consistency, responsiveness, persuasiveness, and appropriate use of supporting evidence and metrics.
• Integrate content developed by multiple authors into a cohesive response with a consistent voice, structure, terminology, and messaging.
• Coordinate development of graphics,…