Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Bid and Program Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Bid and Program Manager leads capture management, bid execution, and transition-to-delivery for complex commercial and government opportunities. This role combines strategic pursuit planning, cross-functional proposal orchestration, pricing and risk analysis, and program oversight to secure contracts and ensure profitable, compliant program delivery. Key responsibilities include RFP/RFQ analysis, go/no-go decisions, developing win strategies, coordinating subject-matter experts, building bottoms-up cost and pricing models, negotiating terms, and managing program performance against schedule, budget, and quality targets.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Proposal Coordinator / Proposal Writer
Capture Analyst / Capture Coordinator
Project Manager or Contracts Administrator

Advancement To:

Senior Program Manager / Program Director
Head of Capture & Proposals / Director of Bids
VP of Business Development or Chief Growth Officer

Lateral Moves:

Commercial Contracts Manager
Strategic Capture Manager
Product Line Program Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end bid and proposal efforts for medium to large opportunities, acting as the single point of accountability for capture strategy, win themes, solution positioning, and proposal delivery to meet RFP/RFQ requirements and submission deadlines.
Develop and execute capture plans and competitive intelligence analyses, including customer pain-point mapping, decision-maker identification, competitor profiling, and win/loss criteria to maximize award probability.
Facilitate go/no-go and bid/no-bid decision-making by building business cases, risk assessments, and opportunity valuation models that integrate technical feasibility, margin analysis, and strategic alignment.
Coordinate multidisciplinary proposal teams (engineering, finance, legal, operations, HR, subcontractors) to produce compliant, compelling, and technically credible proposals, ensuring alignment with bid strategy and client requirements.
Prepare and manage detailed bottoms-up cost estimates, labor models, resource plans, and pricing strategies that optimize profitability while remaining competitive and compliant with procurement rules (FAR/DFARS or commercial terms).
Draft, review, and approve key commercial proposal sections including pricing narratives, terms & conditions responses, exceptions registers, and contract deliverables to mitigate risk and preserve company interests.
Lead proposal writing and editing efforts to craft executive summaries, management approaches, technical narratives, staffing plans, and past performance write-ups that highlight differentiation and win themes.
Manage proposal schedules, milestones, and integrated master plans using MS Project, Primavera, or similar tools to ensure timely deliverables, quality reviews, color teams, and red-team assessments.
Orchestrate color team reviews and senior leadership briefings (pink, green, red team reviews), collect and implement feedback, and ensure compliance with RFP instructions and evaluation criteria.
Build and maintain strong executive-level relationships with customers, capture leads, and key stakeholders to influence requirements, clarify scope, and negotiate commercial terms pre-award.
Lead commercial negotiations and contract discussions during bid defense and post-selection, including scope negotiation, change control, liquidated damages, payment terms, and service level agreements (SLAs).
Conduct risk identification, mitigation planning, and contingency development across technical, commercial, schedule, and supply chain domains to protect margin and delivery commitments.
Develop staffing and retention plans for proposed programs, secure internal resource commitments, and coordinate subcontractor and partner selection, evaluation, and management to ensure delivery capability.
Transition won bids into program execution by creating program baselines, governance structures, kickoff plans, onboarding of delivery teams, and aligning project managers and functional leads to contractual obligations.
Oversee program performance with metrics-driven reporting (KPIs, earned value management, schedule variance, budget performance) and lead corrective actions, status reviews, and executive reporting.
Ensure compliance with regulatory, security, and contractual requirements such as NIST, ITAR, GDPR, ISO, or industry-specific standards, and coordinate with legal and compliance teams on contract obligations.
Manage supplier and subcontractor relationships including statements of work, pricing negotiations, performance metrics, and risk-sharing arrangements to secure supply chain reliability.
Lead continuous improvement for bid processes, bid/no-bid frameworks, proposal templates, capture toolkits, lessons learned, and playbooks to increase win rates and margin performance.
Create persuasive bid presentations, client briefings, and oral proposal defense materials; coach subject-matter experts and executives on effective pitch and negotiation techniques.
Maintain and leverage CRM and capture tools (Salesforce, Deltek, SharePoint) to track opportunities, pipeline health, proposal artifacts, and post-bid knowledgebase for future pursuits.
Prepare post-award activities including contract kickoffs, baseline adjustments, staffing ramp, invoicing setup, and initial project controls implementation to enable smooth program start.
Drive stakeholder alignment across finance, legal, operations, and delivery to ensure solutions are executable, financially sound, and defensible in audits and inquiries.

Secondary Functions

Support post-bid lessons learned and win/loss analysis to refine capture strategies and update proposal playbooks and templates.
Assist in ad-hoc commercial, financial, and resource queries from senior leadership and contribute to monthly pipeline and backlog reviews.
Facilitate onboarding and training for junior proposal staff, capture analysts, and program coordinators to build organizational capability.
Maintain and update the company’s proposal repository, standardized templates, and compliance checklists to speed proposal development and ensure consistency.
Partner with marketing and corporate communications to produce client-facing collateral, capability statements, and tailored RFP responses.
Participate in strategic pursuit councils and cross-functional pursuit reviews to align bids with corporate growth objectives and capacity constraints.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Capture Management & Strategy: Proven experience developing and executing capture plans, customer insights, win strategies, and competitive positioning for complex procurements.
Bid & Proposal Development: Advanced proposal writing, RFP compliance, requirements matrixing, proposal scheduling, and color-team review execution.
Pricing, Estimating & Cost Modeling: Bottoms-up cost estimating, labor rate modeling, indirect cost allocation, pricing strategies, margin protection, and bid-to-win pricing optimization.
Contract Review & Negotiation: Commercial terms negotiation, contract drafting oversight, change management clauses, SLA structuring, and indemnity/liability management.
Program Planning & Scheduling: Program baseline creation, resource-loaded schedules, MS Project/Primavera proficiency, and earned value management (EVM) fundamentals.
Financial Acumen & P&L Management: Forecasting, budgeting, variance analysis, and linking bid assumptions to program financial performance.
Risk Management: Risk identification, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, mitigation planning, and contingency budgeting.
Regulatory & Compliance Knowledge: Familiarity with government procurement (FAR/DFARS), ITAR, NIST, ISO standards, GDPR, and industry-specific compliance needs.
Tools & Systems: Proficient with Salesforce/CRM, Deltek Costpoint, Microsoft Office suite (Excel modeling, PowerPoint storytelling), SharePoint/document control, and proposal automation tools.
Supplier/Subcontractor Management: RFP/RFQ for subcontractors, SOW development, qualification, performance monitoring, and dispute resolution.

Soft Skills

Executive Communication: Clear, persuasive written and verbal communication tailored to executives, technical SMEs, and customers.
Leadership & Team Orchestration: Ability to lead cross-functional teams, influence without authority, and drive consensus under tight timelines.
Negotiation & Influence: Strong negotiating skills in commercial and contractual contexts, with focus on protecting margin and minimizing risk.
Analytical Thinking: Ability to synthesize financial, technical, and market inputs into defensible bid decisions and program plans.
Attention to Detail & Compliance Orientation: Rigor in proposal compliance, contractual terms, and program execution to avoid scope creep and disputes.
Time Management & Prioritization: Skilled at managing competing deadlines, multiple bids, and complex stakeholder demands.
Customer-Focused Mindset: Deep understanding of customer drivers, procurement cycles, and how to tailor value propositions to client needs.
Resilience & Adaptability: Thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments; adjust capture and program approaches as new information emerges.
Coaching & Mentoring: Develop junior bid and program staff through feedback, structured training, and hands-on guidance.
Problem Solving & Decision Making: Rapidly assess trade-offs, make go/no-go recommendations, and implement corrective program actions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Finance, Project Management, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree (MBA, MS Engineering Management) or advanced business/technical degree.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration / Management
Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Systems)
Finance / Accounting
Project Management / Operations Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

5 to 12+ years of combined bid, capture, commercial, and program management experience.

Preferred:

8+ years with demonstrated track record of winning and transitioning complex bids in commercial or government markets, experience managing multi-million dollar programs, and familiarity with FAR/DFARS or equivalent procurement frameworks.
Certifications such as APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals), PMP/Prince2, Certified Capture Manager, or relevant industry credentials are highly desirable.