Director of Capture and Proposal - Mission Command and Assurance

By Light Professional IT Services LLC readies warfighters and federal agencies with technology and systems engineered to connect, protect, and prepare individuals and teams for whatever comes next. Headquartered in McLean, VA, By Light supports defense, civilian, and commercial IT customers worldwide.

Position Overview

The Director of Capture and Proposals for Mission Command and Assurance leads strategic growth initiatives and oversees the end-to-end lifecycle of critical bids. This is a critical hybrid leadership role that bridges the gap between deep market intelligence and rigorous proposal execution. The Director acts as a visionary thought leader who drives competitive research, shapes capture strategies and manages complex proposal deliverables. While strategic research and content development are vital, the core of this position remains steadfastly rooted in proactive proposal management. The Director must actively manage the deal, enforce schedules, oversee tasking, and ensure the delivery of winning proposals.

Hybrid, based in McLean, VA or Hanover, MD, with a preferred minimum of one-two (1-2) days per week onsite. Periodic onsite presence at priority industry trade shows and critical Business Development meetings is expected.

This position is carried on Business Development's headcount and reports primarily (solid line) to the Proposals function within BD, where most of the work sits. The 30% capture allocation runs on a functional line to the opportunity owners for Mission Command and Assurance.

Responsibilities

Proposal Leadership & Execution (primary, ~70%):

• Own end-to-end proposal development for highly complex, competitive procurements - including written volumes, oral presentations, and demonstration components - with particular focus on the strategic corporate top opportunities.
• Develop and enforce proposal schedules, outlines, compliance matrices, resource plans, and annotated templates.
• Lead, organize, and motivate diverse proposal teams - writers, technical contributors, graphic artists, pricing analysts, partners/subcontractors, and reviewers - toward on-time, high-quality submissions.
• Conduct and manage structured color reviews (Pink, Red, Gold, White Glove) to drive continuous quality improvement from draft to final.
• Translate win strategy and capture intelligence into compelling proposal narratives that differentiate the company and directly address evaluator criteria.
• Stand up the proposal motion for a new division - establishing reusable past-performance narratives, win-theme language, and templates where none yet exist.
• Manage post-submittal deliverables including oral presentation preparation, clarification responses, final proposal revisions (FPRs), and debrief preparation.
• Coordinate with contracts, pricing, and legal teams to ensure fully compliant, responsive submissions.
• Serve as the central point of contact for proposal status, risk, and escalation; provide clear reporting to leadership and stakeholders.

Capture Management (~30%):

• Assist the Business Development (BD) and Capture teams in identifying, qualifying, and advancing opportunities through the business development pipeline.
• Conduct comprehensive market research and competitive intelligence gathering using industry-standard tools (e.g., GovWin IQ, SAM.gov, FPDS) to inform capture strategies.
• Support the development and refinement of win themes, discriminators, and value propositions during the early stages of the capture lifecycle to ensure seamless transition into the proposal phase.
• Participate in and help facilitate strategy sessions, Black Hat reviews, and competitive ghosting exercises to anticipate competitor approaches and strengthen the company's positioning.
• Prepare, organize, and maintain capture artifacts, including call plans, capability matrices, and gap analyses.
• Assist in the preparation of materials for internal Gate Reviews (e.g., Bid/No-Bid presentations) to secure executive approval and resources.
• Draft preliminary executive summaries and white papers to engage potential government clients during the Request for Information (RFI) or Sources Sought phases.

Process, Tools & Infrastructure:

• Define, document, and continuously improve proposal management policies, procedures, workflows, and toolsets across the organization.
• Champion adoption of AI-enabled proposal tools (e.g., AwardedAI or similar), including automated compliance checking, content curation, graphics generation, and predictive pricing support.
• Evaluate and implement new tools and technologies that improve proposal quality, velocity, and team efficiency.
• Maintain and grow a structured proposal content library (past performance, resumes, boilerplate, graphics) for rapid, accurate reuse.
• Use Salesforce (or equivalent CRM) for tracking opportunity records, proposal milestones, and performance metrics.
• Ensure all proposal activities comply with company policy and ethical standards throughout every pursuit.

Required Experience/Qualifications

• Proven proposal management capability across complex, competitive government pursuits - compliance matrices, outlines, color-review cycles, and configuration/version control.
• Ability to lead and coordinate cross-functional proposal teams to on-time, compliant submissions.
• Strong business writing and editing; able to translate technical content into clear, persuasive, on-brand narrative.
• Advanced Microsoft Word (styles/templates/formatting); proficiency with SharePoint/Teams, PDF tools, Wordpress, and Salesforce or equivalent CRM.
• Discipline to protect a defined marketing allocation alongside proposal work, including periodic onsite event support.

Preferred Experience/Qualifications

• Knowledge of how to translate capture-phase intelligence into actionable proposal strategies and compelling narratives.
• Communications, content, or events experience - a strength the role draws on, brought from a communications background.
• IT, cybersecurity, and/or autonomous-systems proposal exposure; because the Autonomous Systems division is new, deep autonomy proposal content will be built in-role.
• AI-enabled proposal tools such as AwardedAI; APMP certification (Foundation/Practitioner/Professional) or active pursuit.
• DoD or IC customer experience and/or IDIQ/task-order environments; support of oral presentations, demonstrations, and/or FPRs.

Special Requirements/Security Clearance

• Requires a security clearance (Secret or higher) is strongly preferred and may be required for access to specific pursuits.