Manager II - Sales Support

Role description

Role Summary

The Proposal Management Lead is responsible for leading a distributed team of proposal writers and managing end-to-end proposal operations for strategic bids. This role oversees intake, evaluation, assignment, development, and quality assurance of proposals to ensure timely, high-quality responses that align with customer needs and UST’s value proposition. The ideal candidate is a structured, collaborative leader with strong stakeholder management, business insight, and a track record in complex proposals.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Operations

Lead and manage a high-performing team of proposal writers and coordinators across distributed locations.

Set clear expectations, allocate workloads, and track delivery timelines to ensure on-time responses.

Establish and maintain SOPs, templates, and best practices for consistent proposal development.

Provide hands-on coaching, training, and mentorship to uplift team capability and performance.

Proposal Intake & Management

Review and triage incoming RFPs/RFIs/RFQs to assess scope, requirements, risk, and win potential.

Assign the right Point of Contact (POC) for each deal based on domain expertise and capacity.

Develop and manage proposal plans, schedules, compliance matrices, and content outlines.

Coordinate cross-functional inputs from Sales, Solution Architects, Delivery, Legal, Finance, and Marketing.

Strategic Proposal Handling

Own large and high-impact proposals, ensuring alignment to customer needs, buying drivers, and evaluation criteria.

Articulate UST’s differentiated value proposition, case studies, and proof points in compelling narratives.

Lead storyboarding, theming, and executive reviews to drive win strategy and message consistency.

Support deal-level governance: gates, reviews, executive sign-offs, and risk/commercial considerations.

Quality Assurance & Compliance

Enforce consistency, accuracy, and compliance with customer instructions and organizational standards.

Implement quality checkpoints (editing, formatting, pricing validation, legal/commercial compliance).

Maintain a content library and ensure reusability of approved content, templates, and graphics.

Stakeholder Management

Act as the central facilitator between sales teams and delivery/solution teams.

Manage expectations, negotiate timelines, and resolve issues to keep proposals on track.

Present status, risks, and outcomes to leadership with clear, data-driven reporting.

Required Qualifications

12+ years of experience in Bid/Proposal Management, with 3–5 years in team leadership.

Proven experience handling large, complex, multi-stakeholder proposals in IT services or consulting.

Strong understanding of RFP/RFI lifecycles, compliance, and proposal best practices.

Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to craft persuasive, customer-centric content.

Proficiency with proposal tools (e.g., Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, Word, PowerPoint, Excel), content libraries, and collaboration platforms.

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Communications, or related field; APMP certification is a plus.

Core Skills

Bid Management | Proposal Writing & Storytelling | Stakeholder Management

Distributed Team Management | Project Planning & Scheduling | Quality Assurance

Value Proposition & Differentiation | Risk & Compliance | Executive Communication

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

On-time proposal delivery rate (% of proposals delivered by deadline).

Win rate and qualification-to-win conversion for targeted deals.

Compliance score (formatting, instructions adherence, mandatory requirements).

Proposal quality scores (internal/executive reviews; customer feedback where available).

Cycle time reduction and efficiency metrics (e.g., reuse rate of approved content).

Team capability uplift (training completion, content quality improvement, peer reviews).

Location: Trivandrum,Chennai,Kochi,Bangalore

Skills

About UST

UST is a global digital transformation solutions provider. For more than 20 years, UST has worked side by side with the world’s best companies to make a real impact through transformation. Powered by technology, inspired by people and led by purpose, UST partners with their clients from design to operation. With deep domain expertise and a future-proof philosophy, UST embeds innovation and agility into their clients’ organizations. With over 30,000 employees in 30 countries, UST builds for boundless impact - touching billions of lives in the process.