Manager, Public Sector Proposal Development

McLean, Virginia, USA | Work Model: Onsite

Lead a high-performing team of proposal strategists to orchestrate winning, high-stakes narratives that secure global enterprise accounts and drive market share.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Appian Proposal Team is a high-impact, global function dedicated to fueling our corporate growth within the AI-Powered Process Automation market. We act as the critical bridge between our cutting-edge technology and global enterprise clients, ensuring our value proposition is clearly articulated in competitive bidding scenarios. By partnering closely with Sales, Legal, and Technical teams, we turn complex technical capabilities into winning business solutions.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As the Manager of the Public Sector Proposal Team at Appian, you step into a pivotal leadership role where your people management skills directly accelerate our enterprise sales velocity. This is your opportunity to build, mentor, and scale a world-class regional proposal team while acting as a strategic advisor to regional sales executives on multi-million dollar deals. At Appian, you will have the autonomy to drive operational process improvements, shape content strategy, and directly impact revenue generation within the high-growth Enterprise-Grade Orchestration space.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Lead, coach, and mentor a regional team of proposal professionals through active performance management, career mapping, hiring, and continuous enablement.

Manage regional team workloads, staffing assignments, and resource allocation to ensure balanced utilization and flawless proposal execution across the region.

Collaborate closely with regional sales leadership and stakeholders to anticipate proposal-support needs and align on regional revenue targets.

Directly manage complex or high-value proposal efforts when workload capacity demands or deal complexity requires executive-level intervention.

Govern internal content- and knowledge-management repositories, ensuring the creation, maintenance, and strategic improvement of reusable proposal collateral and boilerplate materials.

Drive organizational planning, workforce development, and strategic initiatives related to proposal processes, compliance, and tool adoption.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree (degrees in writing-intensive fields such as English, Communications, or Business are preferred).

8+ years of direct proposal development experience in a fast-paced corporate environment.

5+ years of direct public sector proposal development experience

1–2 years of formal people-management or team leadership experience.

Possess a thorough understanding of the U.S. federal and state/local government procurement processes.

Demonstrated ability to motivate, lead, and develop high-performing teams while executing rigorous RFP/Proposal lifecycle best practices.

Exceptional skills in professional writing, editing, document formatting, and executive stakeholder communication.

High level of proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Experience with Google Suite, enterprise CRM systems, and dedicated Proposal Management Systems (e.g., Ombud, Loopio, Responsive/RFPIO).

Experience working complex deal captures.

Proven experience leading strategic change management, technology adoption, or process optimization within a sales operations ecosystem.

We value experience with enterprise SaaS platforms or Federal Systems Integrators.

#ProposalManagement#RFPOperations#GovernmentContracting#SalesOperations#EnterpriseSoftware

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The base salary range per provided represents a good faith and reasonable estimate of the range at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be dependent on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant work experience, qualifications, internal peer equity, and market and business conditions that exist when extending an offer. Sales roles may be eligible to participate in a commission plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies.

In addition, Appian provides generous benefits offerings that include a 401(k) plan with company match, flexible time off, paid parental leave, medical, dental, and vision plans, life insurance, disability insurance, wellness programs, flexible spending accounts, health savings account contributions, an employee referral bonus program, and learning and development resources. Certain positions may be eligible for equity awards.

Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation, commission, bonus, or benefit plans.

Base Salary Range

$100,000—$200,000 USD