Proposal Writer (U.S. Federal & State Government)
Location: Remote/Hybrid (Preference: Virginia)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Work Authorization: Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.
Position Overview
We are seeking a highly motivated, detail-oriented, and collaborative Proposal Writer to join our growing Business Development and Capture team. This role is responsible for developing compelling, compliant, and customer-focused proposals in response to U.S. Federal and State government solicitations.
The successful candidate will work closely with Capture Managers, Business Development professionals, Solution Architects, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Program Managers, Pricing, Contracts, and executive leadership to develop persuasive proposal content that aligns with customer requirements, evaluation criteria, and organizational win strategies.
The ideal candidate possesses exceptional writing and editing skills, understands the U.S. government acquisition process, and thrives in a fast-paced, deadline-driven proposal environment.
Key ResponsibilitiesProposal Development
- Analyze and interpret Federal and State solicitations, including RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, Sources Sought Notices, ITBs, and BPA Task Orders.
- Review solicitation documents to identify compliance requirements, evaluation criteria, submission instructions, and contractual obligations.
- Develop clear, compliant, persuasive, and customer-focused proposal content for technical, management, staffing, transition, quality assurance, executive summary, and past performance volumes.
- Translate complex technical solutions into clear business language tailored to government evaluators.
- Develop compelling win themes, discriminators, ghosting strategies, and value propositions that clearly differentiate the organization from competitors.
- Ensure proposal messaging remains consistent across all proposal volumes.
Proposal Planning & Compliance
- Develop compliance matrices, annotated outlines, proposal outlines, writing plans, page allocations, and section templates.
- Ensure all proposal content complies with solicitation instructions, page limitations, formatting requirements, Section L instructions, and Section M evaluation criteria.
- Participate in proposal kickoffs, solution workshops, storyboard sessions, and daily proposal status meetings.
- Maintain proposal schedules and support proposal milestones.
Collaboration
- Collaborate with Capture Managers, Business Development, Solution Architects, SMEs, Program Managers, Contracts, Pricing, and Executive Leadership throughout the proposal lifecycle.
- Conduct interviews with SMEs to gather technical information and transform it into compelling proposal narratives.
- Coordinate with graphic designers to develop process flows, organizational charts, infographics, technical illustrations, and solution diagrams that strengthen proposal messaging.
- Work closely with proposal managers to ensure cross-volume consistency and compliance.
Proposal Reviews
- Participate in proposal color team reviews, including:
- Pink Team
- Red Team
- Gold Team
- White Team
- Executive Reviews
- Incorporate reviewer feedback while maintaining proposal quality, consistency, and customer focus.
- Perform detailed editing, proofreading, and quality assurance reviews to ensure technical accuracy, readability, branding consistency, grammar, and formatting compliance.
Research & Strategy
- Conduct customer, competitor, incumbent, market, and agency research to support capture and proposal strategies.
- Support development of win strategies by identifying customer pain points, procurement history, agency priorities, and competitive differentiators.
- Research Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) guidance and agency procurement trends to improve proposal quality.
Knowledge Management
- Maintain reusable proposal content libraries, resumes, project descriptions, capability statements, templates, and past performance databases.
- Support continuous improvement initiatives by documenting lessons learned and updating proposal assets following submissions.
- Assist with capability statements, white papers, marketing collateral, and business development materials.
Proposal Production
- Support proposal production activities, including formatting, final quality assurance, electronic file preparation, and submission through government portals.
- Manage multiple concurrent proposal efforts while consistently meeting aggressive submission deadlines.
- Work extended hours during active proposal periods as needed.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in English, Communications, Journalism, Technical Writing, Business, Public Administration, Marketing, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience).
- 2–5 years of experience in U.S. Federal and/or State government proposal development.
- Demonstrated experience responding to Federal and State solicitations.
- Excellent technical writing, editing, proofreading, and verbal communication skills.
- Strong understanding of government procurement processes and solicitation structures.
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Adobe Acrobat Pro.
- Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple simultaneous deadlines.
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to producing compliant, high-quality deliverables.
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), DFARS, and agency acquisition practices.
- Experience supporting proposals for civilian, defense, healthcare, or state government agencies.
- Experience developing compliance matrices, proposal outlines, executive summaries, management approaches, staffing plans, and technical narratives.
- Experience participating in Shipley-based proposal processes and color team reviews.
- Familiarity with APMP proposal best practices.
- Experience with proposal management and collaboration tools such as SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Loopio, Responsive (RFPIO), GovWin IQ, Salesforce, Jira, or Confluence.
- Understanding of proposal graphics development and visual storytelling.
- Ability to synthesize complex technical information into persuasive, evaluator-focused content.
