{"id":3120099,"url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-director-proposals-r6263","title":"Director, Proposals (R6263)","company":{"id":50,"name":"Shield AI","domain":"shield.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/shield-ai","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":74,"open_postings":83,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.843,"repost_share":0.012,"time_to_fill_p50_days":65,"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"}},"role":"Sales","role_family":"Sales","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Washington, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":200000,"max":300000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":300000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-22T21:58:50Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-30T14:27:45Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":7,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":7},"description":"Job Description:\nShield AI is seeking a Director of Proposals to lead our Business Proposals organization and turn complex deal strategies into compelling, compliant, and timely customer submissions. Reporting to the Sr. Director of Deal Strategy and Execution, you will build the team, standards of excellence, and execution discipline that help Shield AI win domestic and international business.\nYou will lead proposal Sr. Managers and proposal professionals supporting the Americas, international markets, and emerging products. Working closely with account teams, Regional Deal Strategists, and functional leaders, you will translate customer mission needs, technical capabilities, and approved commercial approaches into clear, persuasive proposals that earn customer confidence.\nYou will develop strong methodologies, processes and systems that raise the quality of written persuasion, allocate resources across competing opportunities, and establish repeatable practices that increase speed and consistency as proposal volume and complexity grow.\nWhat you'll do:\nProposal Organization and Talent\nLead, coach, and develop proposal managers and their teams, establishing clear expectations for quality, accountability, collaboration, and professional growth. \nBuild workforce and capacity plans aligned with the opportunity pipeline, regional demand, pursuit complexity, and emerging product requirements. \nAssign proposal leadership and resources across concurrent pursuits, making prioritization recommendations to the Sr. Director of Deal Strategy and Execution when demand exceeds capacity. \nEstablish a team culture grounded in candid feedback, excellent writing, sound judgment, and shared ownership of results. \nProposal Strategy and Customer Persuasion\nPartner with account teams and Regional Deal Strategists early in pursuits to shape proposal strategy, win themes, discriminators, and supporting evidence around customer priorities and evaluation criteria. \nTranslate complex offerings spanning autonomous platforms, software, payloads, integration, training, services, and sustainment into clear customer value narratives. \nSet the standard for executive summaries, technical and management narratives, graphics, and integrated proposal storytelling. Personally write, edit, and challenge critical content on priority pursuits. \nEnsure proposal claims are accurate, substantiated, and consistent with approved capabilities, configurations, scope, and delivery assumptions. \nProposal Execution and Compliance\nOwn the proposal lifecycle from intake and solicitation analysis through planning, development, reviews, production, and submission, including customer clarifications and revisions. \nEstablish proposal schedules, compliance matrices, content plans, contributor assignments, and review milestones tailored to the size and complexity of each pursuit. \nLead disciplined color team reviews that test compliance, persuasiveness, technical accuracy, and alignment with the approved deal strategy. Ensure findings are resolved before release. \nHold teams accountable for complete, accurate, and timely submissions, with rigorous version control, production checks, and confirmation of delivery. \nSupport both strategic pursuits and the broader portfolio of written responses, including requests for information, requests for proposals, and other customer submissions. \nFunctional Alignment and Risk Management\nCoordinate contributions from Sales, Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Contracts, Delivery, Partnerships, and other subject matter experts, with clear owners and deadlines. \nEnsure proposed scope, pricing, terms, partner responsibilities, and delivery commitments reflect decisions approved by the appropriate functional owners. \nSurface missing inputs, unsupported claims, unresolved decisions, and submission risks early. Escalate with clear recommendations, required decisions, and schedule implications. \nIntegrate proposal milestones with established Opportunity Review and Management Review processes while reducing duplicate work and unnecessary meetings. \nMaintain an accurate record of submitted commitments, assumptions, exclusions, and approved revisions to support contracting and delivery handoffs. \nScalable Processes and Continuous Improvement\nBuild and maintain a searchable library of approved proposal content, templates, proof points, graphics, and reusable response modules, with named owners and review cadences. \nConnect proposal content to approved capability definitions and deal frameworks so teams can reuse validated material with confidence. \nPartner with GTM systems and tools leaders to improve proposal workflows, collaboration, content retrieval, and reporting. \nLead proposal retrospectives and incorporate customer feedback, evaluation results, and lessons from wins and losses into team practices and reusable content. \nMeasure submission timeliness, compliance, response cycle time, rework, content reuse, and win rate on submitted proposals. Use results to improve execution and inform resource decisions. \nHow you will work:\nThe Director of Proposals owns the proposal organization, proposal strategy and execution plans, contributor coordination, written quality, compliance, and submission readiness. Regional Deal Strategists lead deal strategy and commercial construction on assigned pursuits, partnering with proposal teams to keep the submission aligned with the agreed approach.\nAccount teams retain ownership of customer relationships and the close. Functional leaders retain authority over their respective technical, financial, contractual, export, and delivery decisions. You will ensure those decisions are accurately reflected in the proposal and escalate unresolved issues through the Sr. Director of Deal Strategy and Execution.\nRequired qualifications:\nSignificant progressive experience leading proposals for complex defense, aerospace, national security, or government technology opportunities, with a demonstrated record of delivering competitive, compliant submissions. \nExperience leading proposal managers and multidisciplinary proposal teams, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and resource allocation across concurrent pursuits. \nDemonstrated ability to develop winning proposal strategies and translate technical capabilities into clear, credible customer value. \nStrong command of solicitation analysis, compliance matrices, proposal planning, color team reviews, content development, and submission production. \nDetailed oriented with exceptional writing and editing skills, with the ability to improve executive narratives and technical content under demanding deadlines. \nExperience coordinating contributions and securing decisions across Sales, Engineering, Product, Finance, Legal, Contracts, and delivery organizations. \nFamiliarity with government acquisition and contracting requirements, including the ability to identify proposal obligations and engage the appropriate experts. \nSound judgment in handling sensitive information, managing competing priorities, and escalating risks with clear recommendations. \nA record of building practical processes and reusable content that improve quality and speed in a growing organization. \nPreferred qualifications:\nExperience supporting both U.S. government and international defense proposals, including partner contributions and coordination of export and contracting reviews. \nExperience with offerings that combine hardware, software, integration, training, field services, and sustainment. \nExperience supporting autonomous systems, aviation, defense software, or emerging technology pursuits. \nExperience establishing or scaling a centralized proposals function while preserving responsiveness to regional account teams. \nFamiliarity with Shipley methods, APMP certification, or comparable proposal management training. \nExperience applying approved automation and AI tools to proposal workflows with appropriate information protection and human review. \nWhat success looks like:\nRepeatable onboarding and performance standards established that challenge and uplevel the Deal Strategy & Execution org. \nProposals are compelling, compliant, delivered on time, and aligned with approved deal strategy and executable commitments. \nProposal managers and contributors operate with clear ownership, realistic plans, and earlier visibility into decisions and risks. \nAccount teams receive responsive proposal support across strategic opportunities and the broader submission portfolio. \nReusable content and consistent practices reduce avoidable rework and improve response speed. \nProposal quality, team capability, and pursuit outcomes improve through measurable feedback and continuous learning.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8763,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Military Drones","Defense Manufacturing","Defense AI","Drone AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-23T00:02:26Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-10-28T06:04:29Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-10-28T23:22:02Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 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