Glossary

Personnel & Roles

Every role involved in a federal pursuit, on both sides of the table: government roles like contracting officer and COR, and contractor roles like capture manager, proposal manager, and volume lead. Useful for anyone new to government contracting who needs to know who does what, and who to talk to.

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Acquisition Planning
AI Fundamentals & AI for Proposals
Capture & Business Development
Contract Administration
Contract Types & Pricing
Contract Vehicles
Federal Agencies
Federal Procurement & Regulations
Personnel & Roles
Professional Associations
Proposal Management
Security & Compliance
Shipley Proposal Process
Small Business Programs
Solicitations
Capture Manager
Person who leads the capture process — responsible for budget, capture plan, customer engagement, teaming decisions, and handoff to the proposal manager.
Personnel & Roles
Chief Information Officer
The senior agency executive accountable for IT strategy, systems, and acquisition oversight; frequently a key stakeholder or evaluator on IT-related pursuits.
Personnel & Roles
Contract Administrator
The role that reviews solicitation requirements and proposal commitments during preparation, assists with contract negotiations, and later confirms delivered work conforms to what was contracted.
Personnel & Roles
Contracting Officer
Government official with legal authority to enter into, administer, and terminate contracts.
Personnel & Roles
Contracting Officer's Representative
Individual designated by the CO to monitor contractor performance.
Personnel & Roles
Contracting Officer's Technical Representative
A legacy term, now generally replaced by Contracting Officer's Representative, for the government employee designated to monitor a contractor's technical performance without authority to change price, scope, or terms.
Personnel & Roles
Contracts Manager
The role responsible for a pursuit's contractual risk: reviewing solicitation terms and clauses, negotiating teaming and subcontract agreements, and managing contract administration after award.
Personnel & Roles
Cost Volume Manager
The role responsible for ensuring a proposal's cost volume complies with the solicitation and conforms to the organization's proposal process, outline, and compliance matrix.
Personnel & Roles
Desktop Publisher
The role responsible for formatting text, data, charts, and images within a consistent style sheet to produce a cohesive, easy-to-evaluate proposal document.
Personnel & Roles
Executive Sponsor
A senior leader who champions a pursuit internally and with the customer, holds bid/no-bid and resourcing authority, and participates in gate and color-team reviews without running day-to-day capture or proposal work.
Personnel & Roles
Graphics Specialist
The role responsible for developing, modifying, and coordinating proposal graphics for visual consistency and clarity, including setting graphic software standards across the team.
Personnel & Roles
IMP/IMS Specialist
The role that manages preparation of the Integrated Master Plan and Integrated Master Schedule, ensuring a program can be completed within schedule and cost constraints.
Personnel & Roles
Orals Coach
The role responsible for preparing a briefing team to deliver a winning oral proposal or finals presentation, guiding development of the presentation and coaching individuals and the team on delivery.
Personnel & Roles
Program Executive Officer
A senior DoD acquisition official who oversees a portfolio of major defense programs within a service branch, setting priorities and resourcing across that portfolio.
Personnel & Roles
Program/Project Manager (Government)
The government official with authority and accountability for a specific program's cost, schedule, and performance, and typically the technical decision-maker a contractor's team works with day to day.
Personnel & Roles
Proposal Coordinator
The role that supports a Proposal Manager by coordinating administrative tasks that maintain the integrity and security of proposal information, inputs, and outputs.
Personnel & Roles
Proposal Editor
The role responsible for improving the clarity, organization, and persuasiveness of proposal writing, focused on making text clear, concise, and correct rather than on strategy or compliance.
Personnel & Roles
Proposal Manager
Person who manages the proposal process: schedule, reviews, writing assignments, format, and team coordination.
Personnel & Roles
Proposal Writer
An individual contributor who produces a compliant, responsive, customer-focused proposal section, organizing and presenting persuasive content from personal knowledge or subject matter expert input.
Personnel & Roles
Service Acquisition Executive
The senior civilian official within a DoD component responsible for all service acquisition matters, setting acquisition strategy and approving major service acquisitions.
Personnel & Roles
Solution Architect
The role responsible for the technical design of a proposed solution, working with subject matter experts to make sure the architecture responds to the requirement and supports the proposal's win themes.
Personnel & Roles
Volume Lead
The role responsible for a single proposal volume, coaching section writers and contributors to produce compliant, responsive content on schedule that conforms to the proposal outline and compliance matrix.
Personnel & Roles