Pursuit and Proposal Manager

Employment Type: Full-Time
Department: Business Development Unit (BDU)
Reports To: Business Development Unit Lead
Direct Reports: None (This role manages the proposal process, not staff.)

About Frontieri

Frontieri Consult PLC is a development consulting, research, advisory, evaluation, technical assistance, data collection and multi-country field delivery firm headquartered in Addis Ababa. Frontieri works across Ethiopia and the wider East Africa region, supporting donors, governments, development partners and institutions with evidence, policy insight, programme learning and practical advisory solutions.

Position Summary

The Pursuit and Proposal Manager helps Frontieri convert opportunities into high-quality, compliant, submission-ready proposals. The role combines end-to-end coordination of assigned live pursuits — from opportunity registration and qualification through bid/no-bid preparation, proposal development, submission and post-submission follow-up — with production control of the proposal package: workplan, section ownership, version control, review closure, the compliance matrix and final package readiness. The successful candidate will be highly organized, deadline-driven and detail-oriented, with excellent writing and editing skills and advanced Microsoft Word and report-formatting capability.

The Pursuit and Proposal Manager is the single coordination owner for each pursuit assigned by the BDU Lead and prepares the final bid package for release, which is approved by the BDU Lead.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate assigned pursuits’ end-to-end registration, qualification, bid/no-bid preparation, bid calendars, workplans, and cross-team coordination with timely escalation of risks and delays.
• Manage proposal production: schedules, section ownership, drafts, review comments, version control, annexes and assembly of complete technical, financial and administrative packages for formal release.
• Draft and edit proposal content, and apply advanced Microsoft Word formatting to deliver clean, consistent, publication-ready documents.
• Build and maintain the compliance matrix for each bid, and coordinate technical, pricing and compliance sign-offs ahead of submission.
• Coordinate expert CVs, partner inputs and country-office inputs; maintain bid trackers, action logs and submission calendars.
• Maintain proposal archives, templates and bid-library content; prepare status updates and capture lessons learned.
• Support post-submission clarifications and best-and-final-offer processes, and prepare bid-to-delivery handover records for won bids.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Management, Development Studies, International Development, Public Policy, Communications, English, Journalism, Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Research or a related field.
• Master’s degree or relevant professional certification is an advantage.
• 7 years of progressively responsible experience in proposal management, bid coordination, business development support, consulting operations, project coordination, client-funded programming, development consulting, research, evaluation, advisory services or professional services.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating competitive proposals for governments, INGOs, multilaterals, foundations, consulting clients or private-sector clients.
• Experience managing proposal timelines, contributors, CVs, annexes, compliance matrices, review comments, version control and final submission packages.
• Experience in development consulting, research, evaluation, data collection, technical assistance or multi-country field assignments is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with East African or international development-sector clients is an advantage.
• Prior experience using donor templates, procurement portals, electronic submission systems and structured proposal review processes is an advantage.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong proposal management and bid coordination skills.
• Excellent writing, editing, proofreading and document-quality control ability.
• Advanced Microsoft Word skills, including styles, templates, section breaks, numbering, tables, figures, headers/footers, page setup, table of contents, track changes, comments and PDF-ready formatting.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills for trackers, dashboards, data cleaning, filters, formulas and status reporting.
• Strong understanding of donor/client proposal requirements, compliance checklists, annexes and submission instructions.
• Excellent coordination, follow-up, prioritization and deadline-management skills.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple deadlines without losing quality.
• Strong communication and internal service orientation.
• High level of confidentiality, integrity, judgement and professionalism.