Proposal & Capture Manager
Proposal and Capture Managers lead the end-to-end lifecycle of federal and international government opportunities for AI defense companies, managing competitive intelligence, customer engagement with defense and intelligence agencies, and proposal strategy from early qualification through award. They distinguish themselves from quota-carrying Account Executives by focusing on pursuit operations, capture planning, and bid execution rather than direct revenue targets, and from internal Program Managers by owning the external business development process. These roles typically sit within dedicated Business Development Operations or Capture teams, coordinating cross-functionally across sales, engineering, legal, and security to navigate complex procurement vehicles like GSA schedules, IDIQs, and OTAs while building institutional knowledge that compounds across multiple pursuits.
Measured across 21 of 22 open postings.
This role is advertised at one level, so a single figure for the role would describe none of them. Experience and pay are the midpoints for each level on its own.
| Level | Share | Median years | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | 62%(13) | — | — |
A dash means too few postings stated it to report a midpoint at any level. Most companies do not publish a salary band, so pay is indicative rather than a market rate. 3 levels with fewer than 10 open postings are not shown.
“Direct Agentic Solutioning: Work in the weeds with technical teams and end-users to co-design Agentic AI workflows”
“you use AI fluently in your own work, you've shipped internal tooling or workflows”
“Identify where AI-enabled capabilities can improve cyber mission planning, targeting, intelligence production, defensive operations, vulnerability analysis”
Skills
What companies are looking for in this role.
Proposal and bid management
Public sector capture management
Deal structuring and negotiation
Public sector contracting
Complex enterprise deal management
Program and project management
Process design and improvement
Discovery and opportunity qualification
Technical solution advisory
Go-to-market strategy
Technical narrative translation
Technical pre-sales solution design
Market and competitive intelligence
GTM systems and CRM operations
Contract negotiation
Proof-of-concept and pilot execution
Partner and channel ecosystem development
AI capability positioning
Change management consulting
Enterprise AI solution architecture
Cross-functional collaboration
Technical communication
Executive relationship building
Customer-facing technical delivery
Technology
The tools and technologies that define this role.
Open Jobs
22 open Proposal & Capture Manager jobs across 11 companies.
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