Proposal Lead (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in Washington DC or Alameda, United States

Salary: $80K–$190K annually, plus equity

Company

Builds and operates full-size autonomous cargo aircraft designed to carry two tons of payload over more than a thousand nautical miles.

What you will do

• Lead government proposal responses end-to-end as primary author, project manager, and final reviewer.
• Write proposals, white papers, quad charts, and concept briefs for Government customers.
• Run color team reviews, manage schedules, and deliver compliant submission packages on time.
• Build proposal infrastructure from scratch, including content libraries, writing schedules, reusable prose, and documentation standards.
• Develop and refine the company narrative for Government customers.
• Work with engineering and flight operations teams to translate technical content for Government audiences.

Requirements

• Experience personally leading proposal submissions across multiple government contracting efforts from RFP release through delivery.
• Strong technical writing skills and the ability to translate complex engineering into clear, specific narrative.
• Working knowledge of FAR, DFARS, and proposal compliance requirements.
• Experience developing compliance matrices, managing submission schedules, and owning document configuration.
• Technical literacy in aerospace, autonomy, aviation, or adjacent engineering domains.
• US citizenship and eligibility for TS/SCI are required.

Nice to have

• Experience with OTA, SBIR, fixed-price, or other non-standard contracting vehicles.
• 3–8 years of experience in contracting or proposals, ideally at a defense company or government contractor.
• Experience solving proposal challenges involving contracting structure, not only narrative development.
• Experience working under unusual time pressure or building proposal infrastructure from scratch.
• Active TS/SCI clearance.

Culture & Benefits

• Meaningful early-stage equity.
• Relocation support where applicable.
• Employee health benefit plans.
• 6% retirement matching and flexible PTO.
• Free lunches, snacks, and stocked office fridges.
• AI tools and subscriptions.