Senior Proposal Writer

Senior Proposal Writer

Brillient HQ: Reston, VA - Reston, VA 20190
Overview

Level Experienced
Description

Brillient is seeking an exceptional Senior Proposal Writer who doesn't just produce compliant responses — they produce winning ones. This individual will serve as the cornerstone of our proposal development effort, partnering with capture managers, technical SMEs, and leadership to craft compelling, evaluator-focused narratives that differentiate Brillient in competitive federal procurements. This is a hands-on, high-impact role for a practitioner who thrives in deadline-driven environments, can rapidly absorb complex technical solutions, and knows how to translate dense technical content into prose that scores. You will own proposal volumes end-to-end — from strategy and outline through final production — across FedCiv, Health, DoD, and product/software sales opportunities.
This position follows a hybrid schedule, candidates must be local to the National Capital Region.
Job Duties:
Proposal Leadership & Writing
Lead end-to-end development of proposal volumes including Technical, Management, Past Performance, and Executive Summaries for competitive federal procurements
Translate complex technical solutions — often developed by engineers, architects, and subject matter experts — into clear, compelling, and evaluator-friendly narrative
Drive proposal strategy sessions, storyboards, and win theme workshops to ensure every response tells a coherent, differentiated story from cover to cover
Write, edit, and red-team proposal content to maximize compliance, quality, and discriminating score potential
Develop and maintain reusable content libraries: boilerplate, past performance write-ups, executive bios, capability statements, and standard proposal sections
Experience utilizing a myriad of proposal development tools, including AI, as a force multiplier
Collaboration & Solutioning
Partner closely with technical leads, architects, and program managers to extract solution details and shape them into proposal-ready content under time pressure
Facilitate structured interviews and working sessions with SMEs who may not be experienced proposal contributors — you know how to draw out the gold
Support capture strategy by contributing to competitive analysis, win theme development, teaming strategy narratives, and color team preparation
Collaborate with Contracts, Pricing, and BD leadership to ensure proposal coherence across all volumes and attachments Product & Software Proposals
Develop compelling value propositions and narrative for proposals involving Brillient software products and SaaS/platform solutions sold into the federal market
Articulate software capabilities, implementation approaches, and ROI in terms that resonate with both technical evaluators and contracting officers
Support responses to RFIs, Sources Sought, and capability-based market engagements for product lines
Process & Quality
Enforce proposal development best practices including compliance matrices, schedule management, annotation, and color review milestones
Identify and flag proposal risks — staffing gaps, unclear requirements, solution weaknesses — early and constructively
Conduct post-submission lessons-learned reviews and debrief analysis to continuously sharpen Brillient's proposal quality
Mentor junior writers and proposal coordinators; help build a culture of proposal excellence across the BD team
Qualifications

Required Education and Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in Communications, English, Journalism, Business, Marketing, Technical Writing, or a related field. Equivalent combination of education and relevant federal proposal experience will also be considered.
Seven (7) to ten (10) years of federal proposal writing experience with a demonstrated track record of wins across competitive procurements
U.S. Citizenship required; ability to obtain and maintain a government security clearance required
Direct, hands-on writing experience across FedCiv, Federal Health (HHS, CMS, NIH, VA, etc.), and DoD customers — not just team support, but volume ownership
Proven ability to work with highly technical solution teams (software engineers, cloud architects, data scientists) and distill complex approaches into high-scoring proposal prose
Deep familiarity with FAR-based acquisitions, LPTA and Best Value trade-off source selections, and the mechanics of federal evaluation criteria
Proficiency with the Shipley proposal development process or equivalent methodology
Strong command of proposal compliance: RFP decomposition, compliance matrices, and PWS/SOW cross-referencing
Ability to manage multiple concurrent proposals with competing deadlines — without sacrificing quality
Exceptional written English: clear, active-voice, discriminating prose that evaluators want to read