Proposal Manager

POSITION PROFILE

Position Title:

Proposal Manager

Reports To:

Director of Compliance

The Proposal Manager is responsible for leading and coordinating Iris Technology Corporation’s proposal development process across both the Tactical and Space business areas. This position manages proposals from initial requirements review and kickoff through development, Basis of Estimate (BOE), leadership review, approval, submission, and post-submission activities.

The Proposal Manager works cross-functionally with Business Development, Engineering, Program Management, Operations, Supply Chain, Contracts, Finance, Product, and senior leadership to develop proposals that are responsive to customer requirements, competitively positioned, appropriately priced, and executable upon award. A key responsibility of this role is ensuring that the employees and functional leaders who will ultimately perform the proposed work are actively involved in developing estimates, schedules, assumptions, and technical inputs.

• Lead the end-to-end proposal development process for Tactical and Space opportunities, from receipt of a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quote (RFQ), or other customer request through final submission.
• Review and analyze customer solicitations, statements of work, specifications, proposal instructions, evaluation criteria, contractual requirements, and other applicable documents to identify proposal requirements, deliverables, risks, and deadlines.
• Develop and maintain proposal schedules, compliance matrices, action-item trackers, content assignments, review milestones, and submission requirements.
• Plan and facilitate proposal kickoff meetings to communicate customer requirements, proposal strategy, schedule, responsibilities, deliverables, assumptions, and key decision points to the proposal team.
• Coordinate with Business Development and senior leadership to understand the opportunity strategy, customer objectives, competitive environment, and desired proposal positioning.
• Develop, coordinate, and maintain proposal Basis of Estimate (BOE) documentation, including labor hours, labor categories, material requirements, subcontractor costs, non-recurring engineering, testing, tooling, travel, schedule assumptions, and other applicable cost elements.
• Work directly with Engineering, Program Management, Operations, Supply Chain, and other employees who will perform the proposed work to develop realistic labor estimates, material requirements, schedules, technical approaches, assumptions, and execution plans.
• Challenge and validate proposal estimates by ensuring proposed hours, resources, schedules, and assumptions are adequately supported and consistent with the proposed scope of work.
• Utilize historical program performance, actual costs, prior proposals, lessons learned, and other available data to improve the quality and accuracy of future estimates.
• Partner with Finance and Contracts to support pricing development and ensure consistency between the technical proposal, BOE, pricing, contractual requirements, and customer deliverables.
• Coordinate make/buy inputs, supplier and subcontractor quotations, material estimates, lead times, and other external cost inputs with Supply Chain and Operations, as applicable.
• Identify proposal risks, exclusions, dependencies, assumptions, and areas requiring management decisions and ensure they are clearly documented and addressed prior to submission.
• Facilitate structured proposal reviews with senior leadership and key stakeholders, including technical, pricing, compliance, and final approval reviews.
• Prepare proposal packages for management review and approval, clearly identifying key assumptions, pricing…