Proposal Manager

Cavalry Consulting is seeking an experienced and detail-oriented Proposal Manager who excels at turning complex challenges into winning solutions. In this role, you will lead the development and submission of competitive, compelling, high-quality proposals for federal, state, and local government contracts across industries such as construction, engineering, technology and more. You will be responsible for managing the proposal lifecycle, ensuring compliance with solicitation requirements, and collaborating with multiple stakeholders and subject matter experts to craft persuasive, well-articulated responses that meet/exceed the RFP evaluation criteria.

The ideal candidate possesses strong leadership, analytical, communication, and project management skills, paired with a strategic mindset and a deep understanding of how proposals are evaluated. They are familiar with the Shipley Proposal Methodology, but don’t need to follow every step if it doesn’t suit a particular client or proposal. They are naturally curious, ask the right questions, hold teams accountable, and ensure proposal responses align with evaluation criteria—not just what contributors want to write. This candidate thrives in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment and excels at guiding teams through complex proposal efforts.

In addition, the ideal candidate has exceptional technical skills with Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Pro. Experience in government contracting, construction, engineering, or adjacent industries is desired.

What You Will Do:

Oversee the full proposal lifecycle, ensuring compliance, quality, and strategic alignment with solicitation requirements.
Lead proposal kick-offs and color-team reviews.
Develop and oversee proposal schedules, ensuring on-time submission.
Analyze RFPs, RFIs, and market research documents to develop clear, structured, and compliant responses.
Develop and refine proposal content, addressing all mandatory requirements, technical specifications, and evaluation criteria.
Identify competitive differentiators and unique approaches to enhance quality and win probability.
Conduct interviews and research to enhance proposals with compelling, evidence-based narratives that align with evaluation criteria.
Manage proposal team assignments, coordinating contributions from writers, reviewers, client SMEs, subcontractors, and client executives.
Ensure document version control and compliance with all RFP requirements, deliverables, and deadlines with 100% accuracy.
Continuously improve proposal development processes, tools, and best practices, staying current on industry trends and government procurement updates.
Maintain an organized proposal content repository for each client, properly closing out each proposal after submission.
Occasionally travel for work-related meetings and team-building events.

Who You Are:

A natural leader who understands the importance of accountability, putting people first, and building and maintaining a cohesive team.
Self-motivated and proactive, with a passion for delivering high quality results and driving continuous process improvement.
A strong communicator who can break down complex ideas, keep teams organized, and build great working relationships in a remote environment.
A strategic thinker who can balance multiple proposals, shifting priorities, and tight deadlines.
An experienced proposal manager who wants to work on meaningful proposals where your input matters, with the support of a great team and the flexibility of remote work.

What You Have:

Bachelor’s degree in English, Communications, Marketing, Business, or a related field (preferred).
5+ years of proposal management experience, including at least 2 years of federal proposal experience (required).
Proven ability to lead proposal teams, ensuring tasks are completed on time while maintaining high morale and engagement.
Strong understanding of the federal acquisition process, including FAR/DFARS compliance requirements.
Proven track record of managing winning proposals for government contractors.
Exceptional organizational and time-management skills, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, with expertise in Word styles, themes, and formatting for professional documents.
Expertise in Adobe Acrobat Pro, including creating, formatting, and optimizing PDFs for professional proposal submissions.
Strong attention to detail and the ability to ensure compliance and quality across all proposal documents.
A proactive, solutions-oriented mindset to handle the stress of moving parts and changing timelines.
A client-first mindset, committed to ensuring success in the development of large-scale proposals across a diverse range of industries and business sizes.

What Cavalry Offers:

Competitive wages (Experience incentivized)
A 100% remote work environment
Generous PTO to support work-life balance
Access to industry-leading expertise, allowing you to learn and grow in your career
A winning team with a 90% success rate
An inclusive, diverse, and collaborative work environment
Paid parental leave
Unlimited growth potential and supportive leadership that invests in your success.

Proposal Writer

Cavalry Consulting is looking for a talented Proposal Writer to transform technical information into compelling and compliant proposal content. In this role, you’ll be responsible for writing clear, concise, and winning proposals for federal, state, and local government contracts across industries such as construction, engineering, technology, and more. You will collaborate closely with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and other contributors to develop high-quality content that aligns with RFP requirements and evaluation criteria.

The ideal candidate is an exceptional writer with a strong understanding of federal contracting, government RFPs, and proposal development best practices. Your approach to anticipate challenges and bring solutions. You are comfortable with performing research to fill gaps, and you are generally successful in finding data on government websites such as SAM.gov and USAspending.gov.

What You Will Do:

Write persuasive, high-quality proposal content that is clear, compliant, and tailored to evaluation criteria.
Analyze and review RFPs and solicitation documents to understand requirements, compliance factors, and evaluation criteria.
Develop technical narratives, management approaches, past performance sections, and SF330s.
Collaborate with SMEs to extract key information and translate technical concepts into compelling narratives.
Tailor resumes and project descriptions to meet proposal requirements and highlight client qualifications.
Conduct research and interviews to ensure responses accurately reflect the client’s capabilities and competitive differentiators.
Participate in proposal reviews (Pink, Red, Gold Teams) and incorporate feedback for improvement.
Ensure compliance with formatting, style guides, and proposal best practices.
Maintain version control and ensure document accuracy throughout the process.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of proposal content by maintaining client content libraries and templates.
Occasionally travel for work-related meetings and team-building events.

Who You Are:

A strong writer who can simplify complex topics into persuasive, concise, and easy-to-understand content.
A detail-oriented professional with a commitment to accuracy and compliance in proposal writing.
A team player who collaborates effectively in a deadline-driven, high-pressure environment.
A critical thinker who can analyze requirements, identify gaps, and craft strategic responses.
A self-starter who takes ownership of assignments and drives quality in every aspect of proposal development.
Curious, adaptable, and driven to win.

What You Have:

Bachelor’s degree in English, Communications, Journalism, Marketing, Business, or a related field (preferred).
2+ years of experience federal proposal writing experience (required).
Proven experience writing for federal proposals, including IDIQs and SF330s.
Understanding of the federal procurement process, including FAR/DFARS compliance.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, with expertise in Word styles, themes, and formatting for professional documents.
Expertise in Adobe Acrobat Pro, including creating, formatting, and optimizing PDFs for professional proposal submissions.
Familiarity with the Shipley Methodology, including color team review processes.
Exceptional research, interviewing, and analytical skills to extract key details from SMEs and shape compelling proposal narratives.
Ability to manage multiple writing assignments with shifting priorities under tight deadlines.

What Cavalry Offers:

Competitive wages (Experience incentivized)
A 100% remote work environment
Generous PTO to support work-life balance
Access to industry-leading expertise, allowing you to learn and grow in your career
A winning team with a 90% success rate
An inclusive, diverse, and collaborative work environment
Paid parental leave
Unlimited growth potential and supportive leadership that invests in your success.

Working with a company on their first proposal takes patience and resilience. We owe all our success in submitting our bid to the team at Cavalry. Bri and Kara exhibited professionalism and expertise at every step of the process. They kept us organized, motivated, and on schedule. We look forward to our next opportunity to work with the Cavalry team.

Dr. Vic Baker, CEO, EquitiFy, LLC

Cavalry Consulting always does an amazing job for us. It was really nothing short of a miracle when they helped put our last proposal together. We only had a couple of weeks to pull our team together and get a very detailed USACE proposal submitted. Although it was certainly not ideal, Michele and her team of experts jumped right in with us and made it happen. It was the best proposal we had ever submitted. I can’t imagine them doing a better job even if we had given them a reasonable amount of time!

Bryan Butler, P.E., MBA, President, Ballard CLC, Inc.

It’s been so easy working with you, thank you for your diligence and follow up to help us turn in what I think is a really good proposal. We’ll definitely work with you again.

Gypsy Holman, President, Walker River Construction, Inc.

Our company has worked with other proposal assistance firms and Cavalry is by far the best, most professional firm we’ve hired. They have become an extension of our team. They are thorough in their research of the solicitations and meticulous in ensuring our proposals meet every requirement. The results have been outstanding, successful proposals. Michele and her entire staff are fully vested in our success.

Erik M. Sell, P.E., Construction Executive, Tribal One Construction

Michele and her team at Cavalry Consulting have worked with us for a few years now, helping us with building our social media presence, recruiting media, ghost writing, and award proposals. As a fourth-generation family owned construction company, we found ourselves a little behind the ball in the digital realm – and Cavalry has guided us in making our social media viable, allowing us to better tell the stories of our project successes while painting a picture of our company’s culture. Cavalry’s understanding of our business enabled us to become more productive quickly, without having to spend much time getting them up to speed on our industry.

Chris Hawkins, COO, Hawkins Construction Company

STG Inc. was referred to Cavalry Consulting back in 2016 for a proposal to the National Park Service. Michele and Cavalry Consulting kept our team organized on deliverables and deadlines. Her vast experience with federal contracting pursuits and requirements was evident as she helped guide STG through a seamless proposal process. In addition to the National Park Service proposal, STG has had multiple successful solicitations while working with Cavalry Consulting. Michele excels at diving into the details and quickly becomes part of the team. We look forward to finding the next project to chase with Cavalry.

Brennan Walsh, President, STG Incorporated

Cavalry Consulting’s staff worked exceptionally well with the Colas Construction USA (CCUSA) proposal team in drafting and completing our recent (MATOC) proposal to the United States Corps of Engineers. Cavalry rode in and took charge immediately, organizing through a proposal compliance matrix, and shepherding the process from the beginning to a final proposal product ready to be submitted on time. In particular, CCUSA recognizes the talent and perseverance of Elisa Howard, Cavalry Consulting’s Senior Proposal Manager. We look forward to another opportunity to work with Cavalry Consulting to assist with compiling our next proposal. Well done Cavalry Consulting!

Dustin Darby, VP for Operations, Colas Construction USA

Open Positions

Proposal Manager