Principal Proposal Manager

Position Summary

Are you looking for an exciting career opportunity where you can make a direct impact on cutting‑edge research and innovation? The University of Dayton Research Institute is seeking a dynamic and experienced Principal Proposal Manager to join our UDRI – Research Administration division. UDRI is a national leader in scientific and engineering research, serving government, industry, and nonprofit customers. Established as the research arm of the University of Dayton in 1956, UDRI achieved $2.75 billion in cumulative sponsored research in 2020 and exceeded $230 million in sponsored research for 2023.

UDRI is ranked first in the nation among all colleges and universities for sponsored materials research by the National Science Foundation and is number one in Ohio for contracts and grants from the Department of Defense. With a commitment to research excellence and ethical standards, UDRI expects full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

The Principal Proposal Manager is responsible for leading the development and writing of best‑in‑class proposals and coordinating all aspects of the proposal process for major, multi‑divisional proposals within UDRI. This role serves as the primary interface for proposals with internal and external contacts and provides leadership and direction to diverse, cross‑functional teams. The manager will develop compliant, compelling, and competitive proposals and ensure they are completed and delivered to the government within prescribed times.

Responsibilities include collaborating with technical and business development leads to develop strategy, customer solutions, and win themes; establishing the proposal development timeline; building proposal templates, outlines, and data calls; leading storyboarding team meetings; scheduling and leading color team reviews and compliance reviews; providing detailed guidance to writers, contributors, and teammates; and managing all proposal documents.

• Bachelor's degree plus a minimum of 10 years of experience, OR a master's degree plus a minimum of nine years of experience is required.
• Five (5) years of successful experience leading academic, small business, and DOD contractor proposal teams in a dynamic, fast‑paced environment on highly complex proposals.
• Excellent leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills, including the ability to lead in a team environment and effectively interface with other team members.
• Self‑motivated, with the ability to exercise a high degree of independent judgment in resolving complex management and technical problems and to interpret and explain unusually complex issues.
• Thorough comprehension of the proposal leadership, management, and development lifecycle, including organizing, planning, scheduling, and coordinating workloads to meet established deadlines or milestones.
• Must demonstrate extensive and detailed knowledge in the development, coordination, and application of proposal principles, concepts, regulations, and practices; comprehensive project leadership skills including organizing and planning.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to author and edit proposal content.
• Experience with Microsoft Word, including outlines, headers, footers, TOCs, styles, etc.
• Due to the requirements of our research contracts with the U.S. federal government, candidates must be a U.S. person (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee).
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.

• Master’s degree plus a minimum of 15 years of experience.
• Ten (10) years of experience leading successful DoD proposal management teams.
• Demonstrated successful win rate of proposals that the candidate has managed in the past.
• Deep understanding of Government procurement policies related to Requests for Proposals, Request for Information, and other solicitation documents to develop solicitation‑compliant outlines, compliance matrices, and writing plans.
• Knowledge of Other Transactional Agencies and their solicitation and selection processes.
• Experience with GovWinIQ, SAM.gov, and…