Proposal Manager

The Role

We're hiring for a Proposal Manager to drive world-class proposal execution across Scout AI's portfolio of government and commercial opportunities. You'll own the end-to-end proposal lifecycle, coordinating cross-functional teams to produce compliant, compelling responses to RFPs, RFIs, SBIRs, BAAs, and commercial bids. Think of this as the connective tissue between BD, Sales, Programs, Product, Engineering, Legal, and Finance: you'll keep teams aligned, on schedule, and focused on winning narratives. You'll report into Scout's growth organization and work daily with domain managers, engineering leadership, and the CEO to ensure proposals are technically sharp, strategically positioned, and submitted on time.

Responsibilities

• Own proposal strategy and execution across all active pursuits: establish win themes, align technical approach, coordinate compliance review, and drive proposals to on-time submission
• Serve as Proposal Lead on active opportunities: facilitate kickoffs, assign writing tasks, set detailed milestones, manage proposal schedules, and surface blockers early
• Build and maintain a proposal asset library of reusable, high-quality templates including cover letters, SOWs, compliance matrices, cost volumes, organizational capability narratives, and past performance summaries
• Translate technical concepts into evaluator-focused narratives: work with Engineering, Product, and Program teams to distill complex capabilities into clear, persuasive proposal language that resonates with government and commercial evaluators
• Coordinate cross-functional reviews to stress-test win themes, validate compliance, confirm cost realism, and ensure all sections support a cohesive, differentiated story before submission
• Manage proposal schedules and status tracking, including risk reporting, milestone tracking, and resource coordination across functions
• Drive proposal operations and process improvement: establish scorecards, checklists, and workflows that enable consistent, scalable proposal execution as the company grows
• Lead pricing and cost volume coordination between technical teams and Finance to ensure credible, competitive cost narratives that align with technical scope
• Manage multiple concurrent proposals at varying stages of maturity, maintaining organized documentation, compliance artifacts, and version control
• Ensure compliant submissions across government portals (SAM.gov, agency-specific systems) in partnership with BD and Sales

Qualifications

• 8+ years in proposal management, program management, or government contracting within defense tech, space, dual-use, or equivalent professional experience
• Proven track record leading proposals from kickoff through submission for SBIRs, RFPs, BAAs, or similar government solicitations
• Strong technical communication skills: ability to distill engineering and product concepts into clear, evaluator-friendly narratives without over-simplifying
• Foundational understanding of engineering, product development, and systems architecture to support credible technical scoping and writing
• CRM and pipeline tool proficiency for deal tracking, reporting, and workflow management