Proposal Manager

Overview

Vaughn is a regional commercial construction company operating throughout Texas. We are focused on building higher education, healthcare, and research buildings for commercial clients. As a sophisticated construction manager, we utilize the latest technology (including drones, laser scanners, 3D modeling, and 3D printing) to plan and build high-quality, enduring facilities.

Further, we treat all employees like family in a family-like environment where our people are proud to work. Our family is committed to safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and work ethic. Vaughn's leaders link our strategic priorities and resulting work activities to our core values, and we believe this drives excellence.

Vaughn aims to retain and develop individuals who are aligned with our core values by providing life-changing opportunities.

Vaughn Construction is seeking a Proposal Manager to lead all aspects of proposal development efforts for the company. Vaughn is one of the largest construction companies in Texas, focused on building higher education, healthcare, and research buildings for key clients. We are a sophisticated construction manager utilizing the latest technology (including drones, laser scanners, 3-D modeling, and 3-D printing) to plan and build high-quality, enduring facilities. We employ over 1,200 people, including 450+ craft workers, in eight offices across the state. The marketing department is responsible for developing RFQs and RFPs, shortlist interview presentations, award submissions, internal marketing collateral, and external marketing and communication materials, including website and social media.

The Proposal Manager is responsible for leading all proposal generation and interview presentation efforts to win new work. The position reports to the Marketing Manager and works collaboratively with the Director of Client Solutions to assist the company with securing new work and supporting its growth. This individual will be responsible for leading/mentoring less experienced proposal staff and contributing to proposal development and writing efforts when required.

The ideal candidate is a self-starter with hands-on experience developing and executing proposals and interview presentations. Responsibilities include planning, project management, execution, and measuring their team's work. The candidate should be highly collaborative, have strong influence management skills, be able to follow processes and be the 'go-to' person for proposals and presentations. In addition, this individual should excel at conceiving ideas, developing strategies, successfully executing plans, measuring results, and making recommendations to improve future proposals and presentations.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Direct proposal activities across eight offices, including managing proposal schedules and deadlines, monitoring progress, tracking, and directing proposal personnel.

• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the proposal team, distributing the workload among the staff and ensuring motivation and performance levels are maintained.

• Follow up on the operations team's implementation of go/no-go processes and assess each potential pursuit regarding its ability to meet the company's business development goals.

• Receive and analyze RFQ/Ps to develop schedule and task assignments using established proposal workflow processes and proposal checklists.

• Collaborate with proposal staff on best strategies to produce high-quality SOQs, proposals, and shortlist interviews highlighting the company's unique benefits.

• Lead the development of competitive proposals from teaming and pre-proposal meetings through the delivery of the submissions.

• Develop persuasive text and infographics for competitive resumes, project descriptions, and proposal boilerplate.

• Review proposal drafts and custom response content to ensure the responses are on-message, on-brand, and compliant with their respective RFQ/Ps.

• Implement the quality control process for proposals before delivery to the clients.

• Evaluate proposal deliverables for compliance, accuracy, efficiency, and quality; refine processes and implement process improvement.

• Conduct post-presentation follow-up internally and with the prospective client.

• Gather and analyze research data on past, current, and future pursuits and relevant corporate experience.

• Research potential clients in support of the Company's designated market sectors.

• Maintain Unanet/Cosential activities calendar (production schedule) of proposals and presentations.

• Enter approved and verified data into Unanet/Cosential.

• Learn and maintain department archiving systems for posting and sharing proposals and corporate material for use in future proposals and presentations.

• Prepare and develop materials for meetings, interviews, and presentations.

• Manage prequalification efforts for city, state, and federal agencies, apart from those inherent to specific proposals.

• Mentor and grow proposal coordinators to reach their creative and technical potential.

• Evaluate staffing, hardware, and software needs.

• Regularly communicate with Business Unit Leaders (BUL) to stay current on their people, projects, strategies, and expectations.

• Work collaboratively with the BULs to aid in the creation of a shared vision of the company's proposal needs.

• Meet with the Marketing Manager regarding proposal progress and report on volume/section status, schedule, and action items.

• Field various support and information requests from other offices and departments.

Strategic Knowledge and Professional Abilities:

• Well organized, capable of prioritizing multiple assignments, and responding to constantly changing needs and varying workloads and schedules.

• Excellent ability to work under tight deadlines.

• Effective, professional verbal and technical written communication skills, with excellent writing and editing abilities.

• Detail-oriented, able to plan, manage, and oversee the production of proposal materials, taking ideas from concept to completion.

• Able to research, learn, and understand the A/E/C industry clients and markets the company serves, staying abreast of industry changes that impact our business and marketing approach.

• Focuses on steering communications in alignment with the brand voice.

• Stays abreast of changes in the marketing environment and adjusts plans as needed to best serve the company's objectives.

• Open to learning and adopting new marketing concepts, processes, and technologies to help advance the company and specific long-range strategies.

• Go-getter/self-starter to identify new opportunities and initiatives.

• Able to apply education and professional experience to achieve outstanding results.

• Demonstrates the highest technical and cognitive abilities to ensure accuracy, precision, and projects completed on time and on budget.

• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office and Adobe InDesign is a must and working knowledge of Unanet/Cosential or similar CRM is a plus.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in English, Journalism, Marketing, Communications, or a related field.

• 5+ years of professional experience in writing, editing, preparing proposals, and coaching a team for a shortlist interview, preferably in the A/E/C industry.

• 3+ years of professional experience in construction, architecture, or related field.

• 2+ years of professional experience managing employees preferred.

To Apply:

Add to your application portfolio samples (writing sample, graphic design sample, and any other marketing collateral sample)