Proposal Manager, Strategic Pursuits

Overview

HDR is seeking a highly motivated individual to partner with our Transportation Business Group Strategic Pursuit Leaders. Your primary responsibilities will be to support highly visible, complex and game changing opportunities by producing winning, professional, competitive proposals.

At HDR, our employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, a place where everyone is empowered to bring their authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. Read further to learn how you could help make great things possible not only in your community, but around the world.

Proposal Management & Coordination

• Foster a self-directed, accountable team culture by delivering high-quality, review- and client-ready materials.
• Lead the full proposal lifecycle, from kickoff through final production and interview, owning all deliverables and driving a smooth, efficient process.
• Develop and manage pursuit organization tools, including schedules, compliance matrices, templates, and assignment dashboards, using collaborative online platforms. Includes capturing meeting notes and action items, translating key themes and client priorities into a focused capture plan.
• Review and interpret RFPs to create clear, actionable compliance matrices that guide proposal development.
• Coordinate input from internal teams and external subconsultants, maintaining alignment and clear communication throughout.
• Track and communicate progress, manage deadlines, and adjust priorities to keep the team and deliverables on schedule.
• Support content development by preparing early drafts, capturing meeting notes, and distilling key themes and differentiators into a focused capture plan.
• Proactively communicate workload needs and availability

Content Development & Quality

• Write, edit, and format non-technical proposal content to ensure clarity and consistency.
• Work closely with specialized experts to write and visualize technical approaches and project understanding information.
• Work closely with staff to develop qualifications, bios, data, forms, and terms to be accurate and compliant.
• Support the creation of storyboarding, benefit statements, message development, project profiles, and additional data and materials to demonstrate our aligned qualifications and differentiators.
• Research project background and tailor content accordingly.
• Author and review draft proposal text for consistency, brand voice, and grammar to remove errors and redundancy.
• Integrate risks/issues identified by the pursuit team and translate them into the PSOE (problem, solution, outcome, evidence) table. Work with graphic designer(s) to produce visuals that represent this technical information in a reader-friendly format.
• Identify gaps in draft proposal text that need to be addressed/written, based on capture planning, PSOE exercises, RFP requirements and other resources.

Visual & Layout Skills

• Compose and format documents with strong reader-friendly graphic/layout skills. Expect an intermediate level of InDesign skills with an interest in training up to an advanced level of use.
• Effectively engage marketing resources, including coordinating with graphic designers, market sector and business class data keepers, and layout artists as needed. Communicate progress with the Strategic Pursuit Leader assigned the pursuit
• Collaborate with technical leads to develop draft presentation materials then work with graphic designers to transform complex technical content into clear, engaging, and easy-to-understand visuals.
• Provide clear direction and timely communication to achieve high-quality deliverables.
• Develop materials, such as interactive presentations, leave-behinds, and other brand-specific deliverables to help communicate key messages and differentiators.

Quality Control & Compliance Checks

• Create schedules and time blocks to conduct appropriate reviews of content and graphics throughout the production period.
• Monitor progress of the proposal process, with timely follow-up, to ensure internal proposal deadlines and quality processes are being met
• Work with Strategic Pursuit leaders to meet expectations of quality-driven materials, including graphics and format of proposal elements
• Take the initiative to perform or request support for technical editing and compliance reviews to obtain grammatical accuracy and alignment with RFP requirements.
• Consistently improve and evolve efficient processes for producing high-quality materials.

Pre-positioning, Collateral & Material Management

• Research project background, news articles and Board/Council meetings and keep collected data organized in a collaborative online platform or tool.
• Gather and refine resumes, project information, histories, photographs, and other information and data so all materials are current and effectively support key differentiating sections of the proposal.
• Develop materials, such as interactive presentations, leave-behinds, and other brand-specific…