Director, Proposal Operations

Key Responsibilities

Operational Oversight

Lead the strategic direction, continuous improvement, and day-to-day operations of AHP's Proposal Operations function, ensuring the organization consistently delivers high-quality, compliant, and competitive proposals.
Implement, and continuously refine proposal operations policies, standard operating procedures, templates, tools, and governance that create a Shipley-aligned, scalable, repeatable proposal development process across the enterprise.
Lead proposal reviews and quality assurance processes, including compliance, color team, executive, and final production reviews, ensuring proposals meet the highest standards of quality and responsiveness.
In partnership with the Data Office, monitor proposal performance metrics, including win rates, proposal quality, cycle times, resource utilization, and lessons learned, using data to drive continuous improvement across the proposal function.
In partnership with Digital Solutions, evaluate and implement emerging technologies, including AI-enabled proposal tools and automation, to improve proposal quality, efficiency, knowledge management, and organizational competitiveness.
Pricing Strategy

Partner with Strategic Development, Finance, Executive Leadership, and technical leadership to develop pricing strategies that balance competitiveness, profitability, and long-term business objectives, and ensure those strategies are consistently applied across proposal efforts.
Staff Development & Organizational Leadership

Develop, mentor, and manage a high-performing team of Proposal Managers by maintaining clear expectations, fostering professional growth, promoting collaboration, and building organizational proposal expertise.
Serve as a trusted advisor to capture managers, proposal managers, and subject matter experts by facilitating proposal strategy sessions, identifying discriminators and win themes, strengthening proposal messaging, and ensuring technical solutions are translated into compelling, customer-focused narratives.
Oversee proposal planning and execution from pre-proposal through submission, ensuring effective resource allocation, schedule management, compliance, quality assurance, and risk mitigation across the proposal portfolio.
Partner closely with Strategic Development leadership to strengthen the connection between capture planning, proposal strategy, pricing, and proposal execution, increasing AHP's overall probability of win, using Shipley methodology.
Foster a culture of trust, respect, and professional growth.
Qualifications

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Communications, English, Public Administration, Public Health, Healthcare Administration, Human Services, or a related field required. Master’s degree in business administration, public administration, public health, social work or a related discipline strongly preferred; extensive experience may be considered in place of formal education.
Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) or Project Management Professional (PMP) preferred
Experience:

Required: A minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience in proposal management within a business-to-government consulting firm serving federal and/or state health, behavioral health, healthcare, or human services agencies. Candidates without direct proposal management experience in this market will not be considered.
Demonstrated experience redesigning or significantly improving proposal operations across an organization producing high volumes of government proposals.
Track record of success in leveraging Shipley methodology to lead complex, winning proposals for agencies such as SAMHSA, HRSA, CMS, CDC, ACL, ACF, state Medicaid agencies, behavioral health authorities, or other health and human services agencies.
Strong preference for candidates who have led or managed a proposal operations, proposal management, or proposal excellence function within a government consulting firm.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate proposal operations against industry best practices and successfully implement improvements.
Strong preference for experience with nationally recognized government consulting firms that compete regularly for federal health and human services contracts and cooperative agreements.
Demonstrated expertise applying Shipley methodology, developing proposal strategy and win themes, facilitating color team reviews, and leading cross-functional proposal teams.
Skills & Competencies

Proficiency with Shipley Proposal Methodology
Exceptional strategic thinking with the ability to translate technical solutions into compelling, customer-focused proposal narratives.
Strong facilitation skills with the ability to build consensus among executives, business developers, finance professionals, proposal managers, and subject matter experts.
Ability to evaluate opportunities, identify proposal risks, and recommend strategies to improve probability of win.
Ability to develop a strategic business plan that identifies goals, metrics and strategies to achieve
Deep understanding of government, nonprofit, and healthcare sectors.