Proposal Manager

About Le'fant

Le’fant is a rapidly growing CVE Certified, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business specializing in management consulting for the federal government. Our compensation and benefits plans are designed to attract and retain the industry's best talent to provide the highest quality services to the Federal Government. We offer 40lK matching, customized health plans, dental and vision insurance, life insurance, short and long term disability coverage, an incentives program to recognize exceptional behavior and competitive base salaries. We hire the best to provide the best service.

Role: Overview

Location: Washington, DC / Maryland/Northern Virginia (Remote/ Hybrid/Flexible)

Location Details: Preferred location DMV (Washington, DC / Virginia / Maryland) area, willing to attend in-person meetings.
Reports to: Director of Contracting
Works closely with: C-Suite, Business Development Manager, Operations Leadership, SMEs

Le’Fant is seeking a Proposal Manager to own end-to-end proposal development and production for new and existing federal opportunities. This role serves as the single-threaded owner for proposal execution, ensuring compliance, high-quality, and on-time submissions.

Building on a year of strong growth and proposal success, this position represents a continued investment in strengthening our proposal production capabilities. The Proposal Manager will play a key role in refining processes, improving efficiency, and shaping how proposal operations are executed both now and in the future.

This is a hands-on role combining senior proposal writing with proposal operations leadership. The Proposal Manager coordinates closely with SMEs, partners, and leadership to deliver clear, compelling, and compliant federal proposals. This role is primarily remote, with some in-person work performed at headquarters in Dumfries, VA, and occasional work meetings or sessions in the greater DMV area.

What you’ll get to do

Proposal Management & Execution

• Manage proposals from receipt of RFI, RFQ/RFP, sources sought through final submission.
• Develop and maintain proposal schedules, compliance matrices, outlines, and review plans.
• Ensure all proposals comply with solicitation requirements, evaluation criteria, and submission instructions.
• Coordinate proposal reviews and incorporate leadership feedback through final submission.
• Identify and coordinate the support personnel needed for each proposal, including SMEs, graphic resources, editors, and other contributors, ensuring all tasks are assigned and completed on schedule.

Proposal Writing & Content Development

• Write and edit proposal sections across Technical, Management, and Past Performance volumes.
• Conduct color team reviews including a white glove review.
• Create and update capabilities statements.
• Develop compelling narratives that clearly articulate win themes, discriminators, features/benefits, and risk mitigations.
• Tailor resumes and past performance narratives to solicitation requirements.
• Synthesize content from SMEs, interviews, proposal libraries, and project documentation.
• Create, maintain, and update a proposal repository and identify reusable contents.

SME, Partner, and Data Call Coordination

• Issue and manage data calls to internal teams and external partners.
• Review and edit SME- and partner-provided content for clarity, compliance, and consistency.
• Ensure partner submissions align with proposal strategy and deadlines

Proposal Production & Operations

• Own proposal production activities, including document formatting, graphics coordination, spreadsheet integration, and final proposal assembly, leveraging shared or ad hoc resources as available.
• Leverage and maintain proposal content repositories and knowledge management tools.
• Support continuous improvement of proposal processes, templates, and libraries.

Strategic Alignment & Reporting

• Work closely with the BD Manager to ensure capture strategy and win themes are reflected consistently throughout proposals.
• Track proposal status, risks, and dependencies, providing regular updates to leadership and core team members throughout the proposal lifecycle.
• Provide after action reviews on all proposals, conducting lessons learned meetings and maintaining a log.

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated experience owning the full proposal lifecycle.
• Strong knowledge of federal solicitations (RFPs, RFQs, task orders).
• Exceptional written communication, organization, and attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple proposals under tight deadlines.
• Formal proposal training and/or industry-recognized certification (e.g., Shipley, CF APMP – Certified Foundation Associate of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals or similar).
• Ability to successfully complete a company background check.
• Ability to provide professional references.
• Ability to attend meeting and work sessions.
• Pre-qualified candidates will be asked to complete and present a written exercise during the advanced interview process.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8 years of federal proposal writing and management experience.
• DMV (Washington, DC / Virginia / Maryland) metropolitan area location preferred; remote candidates may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Experience writing winning competitive federal proposals.
• Experience supporting both prime and subcontractor proposals.
• Graphics coordination experience (hands-on or managed).
• Comfortable working with geographically distributed teams and shared SMEs.
• Veterans are encouraged to apply and will be given preference, where applicable

Desired Quantifiers

• Has managed 10–30+ federal proposals end-to-end, including multiple concurrent submissions.
• Experience supporting proposals valued at $25M–$100M+.
• Demonstrated history of contributing to competitive win rates (e.g., 25–40%+)

EEO Statement:

It has been and will continue to be a fundamental philosophy and policy of Le’fant not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, sexual gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, parental status, marital status, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military status, veteran status or any other protected category with respect to recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment.

Pay Transparency

There are many factors that can influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, the individual’s particular combination of education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, expected quality and quantity of work, required travel (if any), external market and internal value analysis as well as contract-specific affordability and organizational requirements. Annual salary is just one component of Le'fant's total compensation package. Le'fant provides a variety of benefits to employees, including but not limited to, health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, a 401k plan, paid holidays and paid time off. Compensation ranges may differ based on contract value but will be commensurate with job duties and relevant work experience. An applicant's salary history will not be used in determining compensation. Le’Fant maintains compliance with all federal, state, and regional labor laws and regulations for the workforce lifecycle, for all candidates and employees, regardless of employment status. This commitment applies across temporary, part-time, full-time, and salaried positions, complying with regulatory minimum wage rates and exempt salary thresholds. We accept applications on an on-going basis and there is no fixed deadline to apply. Since this position can be worked in more than one location, the range shown is the national average for the position.

A reasonable estimate of the current range is $80,000 to $110,000