Job Description

Role Description

The Senior Proposal Consultant brings federal acquisition fluency, proposal writing craft, proposal graphic design experience, and applied AI expertise to support our subject matter experts (SMEs) in developing winning healthcare proposals. This is not a health SME position. A Senior Proposal Consultant who knows federal proposals well and can engage productively with health SMEs will succeed here without a public health degree.

Primary Responsibilities

• Interprets Section L instructions and Section M evaluation criteria for each pursuit.
• Advises the Solution Lead on the FAR and contract vehicle requirements (VHA IHT 2.0, NIH, broader HHS).
• Contributes win themes, discriminators, and methods to connect the Solution Lead’s overall approach to the evaluation criteria clearly.

Proposal Development

• Leads technical research gathering and drafts the bulk of the technical volume.
• Works to support and implement the Solution Lead’s vision.
• Active thought partnership with the Solution Lead to develop innovative health solutions.
• Emphasis on Aptive’s differentiators, evaluator-aligned framing, compelling graphics, and compliance review.
• Converts the Solution Lead’s sketches and concepts into production-ready proposal visuals.
• Coordinates with the pricing team to produce the bid’s staffing level of effort.
• Applies AI context engineering expertise to perform virtually all tasks.
• Keeps current with evolving AI tooling and best practices.

Qualifications

• Seven years of demonstrated experience supporting federal proposals in a dedicated capture, proposal, or solutioning role, with leadership or principal-author contributions on 25+ proposals.
• Working knowledge of the federal acquisition lifecycle, FAR Section L and M analysis, and Shipley (or equivalent) capture and proposal frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to interpret evaluation criteria, develop win themes, manage compliance matrices, address color team review feedback, create staffing plans, and lead production through submission.
• Expertise applying LLMs and other AI tools to proposal work: research, drafting, editing, compliance checking, graphics ideation.
• Practical command of context engineering for proposal writing.
• Familiarity with federal health programs sufficient to converse credibly with health SMEs.
• Extremely strong writing, editing, and visual thinking.
• Capacity to support three to five concurrent pursuits at different stages of the lifecycle.

Requirements

• APMP certification (Foundation, Practitioner, or Professional).
• Experience supporting VA proposals, particularly under VHA IHT 2.0 or predecessor task order vehicles.
• Experience supporting NIH or other HHS proposals.
• Background as a Shipley-trained technical writer, capture manager, or proposal manager.
• Experience at a federal contractor, federal capture organization, or dedicated proposal-services firm.
• Familiarity with proposal platforms and current AI tooling.
• Proposal graphic design experience in PowerPoint, Adobe Creative Suite, or Figma.

Company Description

Aptive partners with federal agencies to achieve their missions through improved performance, streamlined operations and enhanced service delivery. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, we support more than a dozen agencies including Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation. We specialize in applying technology, creativity and human-centered services to optimize mission delivery and improve experiences for millions of people who count on government services every day. Founded: 2012. Employees: 300+ nationwide.

EEO Statement

Aptive is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, parental status, veteran status, age, disability, or any other protected class. Veterans, members of the Reserve and National Guard, and transitioning active-duty service members are highly encouraged to apply.

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