Proposal Writer - Pacific Time Zone

“Create a Lasting Competitive Advantage”

Shipley Associates is a global professional services firm that focuses on helping companies win business. Founded in 1972, we provide a comprehensive suite of services including business development consulting, training programs, and AI enablement to improve clients' abilities to compete for and win contracts.

To learn more, visit Shipleywins.com.

Job Summary

The Proposal Writer is a crucial member of the proposal creation team, responsible for developing compelling, compliant, and client-focused narrative responses and other written materials for high-value proposals. Working collaboratively with Sales teams and various internal departments, the Proposal Writer will craft persuasive content that clearly articulates the Client’s value proposition. This role also involves developing and maintaining boilerplate content and ensuring all written deliverables adhere to style guidelines and high standards of quality.

Job Duties/Responsibilities

Proposal Development & Content Execution

• Technical Proposal Writing: Focus on writing technical sections of high-value proposals, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and persuasive messaging.  
• Content Development: Develop proposal content that is fully compliant with solicitation requirements, compelling to the client, strategically focused, and persuasive in its presentation of capabilities and solutions.  
• Solicitation Analysis: Analyze solicitation documents to identify requirements, evaluation criteria, win themes, and discriminators that should shape compliant and persuasive proposal responses.  
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate effectively across Marketing, Sales, IT, Technical Services, Architecture, and Delivery departments to gather accurate and up-to-date information for proposal content, ensuring alignment with company positioning.
• Proposal Process Participation: Participate in and contribute to proposal kickoffs, status meetings, and review sessions across distributed teams, supporting alignment, momentum, and timely content development throughout the pursuit lifecycle.  
• Client-Focused Writing: Craft strong, client-centric content that clearly presents the Client’s proposed solution, emphasizing key experience, differentiators, and selling points by incorporating operational and sales input from internal stakeholders and senior management.  
• Win Theme and Differentiator Development: Develop and refine win themes, value propositions, and competitor-differentiating proof points throughout the pursuit lifecycle to strengthen the overall proposal narrative and align content with evaluator priorities.  
• Non-Technical Writing & Integration: Write non-technical portions of proposals in close coordination with other departments to ensure seamless integration of all sections, consistent language, and a unified "one-voice" throughout all submitted documents.  

Quality, Compliance & Final Delivery

• Style Guide Adherence: Strictly adhere to client’s Writing Style Guide in all written deliverables.  
• Copyediting & Quality Assurance: Thoroughly copyedit draft and final proposal responses, utilizing tools such as PerfectIt to perform comprehensive checks for spelling, grammar, consistency, and adherence to style guidelines.  
• Technical Input Editing: Coordinate and edit technical inputs provided by other departments for grammar, clarity, and conciseness.  
• Technical Content Revision: Revise and improve technical content prepared by other departments for proposals to enhance readability and ensure compliance without altering the original technical intent.  
• Format Standards Compliance: Ensure all proposal documents adhere to company format standards for professional presentation.  

Operations, Innovation & Professional Development

• Document Flow Management: Track and monitor the flow of all proposal-related documents from initial creation to the distribution of final copies.  
• Concurrent Pursuit Management: Manage multiple concurrent pursuits with overlapping deadlines while maintaining quality, compliance, and responsiveness to changing priorities.  
• Technical Research & Communication: Conduct thorough research on complex technical topics and articulate them in a clear and understandable manner for both technical and non-technical audiences.  
• Subject Matter Expert Collaboration: Research unfamiliar subject matter as needed to communicate and collaborate effectively with subject matter experts, conduct structured interviews to capture accurate and relevant technical content, and coach contributors on storyboarding, outlining, and content development best practices.  
• Proposal Production Support: Perform proposal production activities as needed, including printing, binding, and coordinating with administrative staff for overnight deliveries.  
• Graphic Development Support: Support Graphic Designers as needed during development of proposal graphics, slide decks, diagrams, and illustrations to promote consistency and strengthen visual communication.  
• Quality Program Participation: Actively participate in quality programs and initiatives designed to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of deliverables for customers.  
• Color Team Review Participation: Facilitate and participate in Pink, Red, and Gold reviews, incorporating reviewer feedback into final content to improve clarity, compliance, and overall proposal quality.  
• Lessons Learned & Review Participation: Participate in lessons learned activities and review processes that support individual accountability, continuous improvement, and stronger team performance. Contribute thoughtful feedback during structured check-ins and half-year review cycles, helping identify recurring themes, improve processes, and support leadership visibility into patterns, opportunities, and areas for growth across the team.
• Team Integration: Participate in workshops, synthesize outputs, and develop cohesive statements and executive summary outlines that resonate with the client.  
• Shipley Best Practice Application: Apply and adhere to Shipley best practices across the proposal lifecycle to support compliant, persuasive, and well-coordinated deliverables.  
• Content Library Support: Support efforts to identify, refine, and archive reusable content to a centralized proposal content library for future pursuits.  
• AI Application for Writing: Explore and apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and methodologies to improve writing activities, enhancing efficiency, quality, and the overall effectiveness of proposal content.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (BS/BA) or equivalent professional experience.  
• APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) certification is preferred. Obtain APMP Foundation certification within the first 6 months of employment.
• Minimum of 5 years of professional proposal writing experience with a demonstrated ability in proposal, technical, or report writing, corporate communications, business development, or a similar field.  
• Excellent English written and verbal communication skills.  
• Excellent organization and time management skills
• Strong research, writing, proofreading, formatting, and editing skills with meticulous attention to detail.  
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, including Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Excel.  
• Familiarity or comfort with editing and quality assurance tools such as Visible Thread and PerfectIt is preferred.
• Desktop publishing (DTP) skills are preferred.
• Experience using one or more generative AI solutions to support proposal writing work.
• Ability to travel as needed, both domestically and internationally, up to 10% of the time.

Contract End Date

December 31st, 2026 with possibility to renew