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Salary: USD 97,750 - 132,250 / annual
inquirED is an educational publishing company that develops high-quality instructional materials for pre-K through elementary students, including curricula focused on early literacy, integrated ELA and social studies, and inquiry-based social studies. The company seeks a Senior Proposal Manager to own the full lifecycle of state and district RFP responses and instructional materials adoption submissions across three curriculum areas: pre-K/TK, elementary social studies, and elementary core ELA.
In this role, you will serve as the primary owner and writer for complex competitive submissions. You will interpret solicitation requirements and develop comprehensive response plans, build compliance matrices that capture eligibility criteria, required responses, supporting evidence, forms, submission rules, and deadlines. You will develop detailed project plans with clear owners, milestones, and internal deadlines while managing multiple submissions simultaneously.
As the primary writer, you will craft persuasive, evidence-backed narratives including executive summaries, curriculum descriptions, implementation plans, and other substantive responses. You will tailor each response to the state or district's specific priorities, evaluation criteria, and scoring rubrics. You will translate complex input from curriculum and product experts into clear explanations of instructional design, standards alignment, research foundations, assessment approaches, differentiation strategies, and implementation support. You will verify all claims and supporting evidence, adapting existing content to each solicitation rather than relying on generic templates.
You will coordinate contributors across Sales, Marketing, Curriculum, Product, Partner Experience, and Operations, providing focused requests that identify the question, required evidence, response format, and deadline. You will review and edit contributor materials, conduct final compliance checks for completeness, accuracy, consistency, signatures, file naming, page limits, formatting, and addendum acknowledgments. You will manage portal uploads and coordinate electronic or physical delivery, retaining submission records and confirming receipt before deadlines.
You will also maintain a calendar of relevant state adoption windows and district RFP opportunities, partner with Sales to assess eligibility and submission readiness, and provide bid/no-bid recommendations. You will maintain an organized library of approved narratives, evidence, and standards documentation across all three curriculum areas, track submission outcomes, request evaluator feedback when available, and use findings to strengthen future responses. You will identify potential disqualifiers and resource constraints early, prepare clarification questions, and escalate decisions requiring leadership input.
This role requires exceptional attention to detail, strong writing skills, independent judgment, and the ability to manage complex submissions with minimal guidance. You will work remotely and must be U.S. based.
Requirements:
- Typically 4–7 years of related experience in proposal writing and management, with demonstrated ownership of complex competitive submissions
- Experience managing state or district education RFPs, instructional materials adoption submissions, or comparable public-sector procurements
- Excellent writing and editing skills, including experience serving as the primary writer of persuasive, evidence-backed proposals
- Demonstrated ability to interpret detailed solicitation requirements, build compliance matrices, and write to formal evaluation criteria
- Strong project management skills and a record of coordinating contributors and meeting overlapping deadlines
- Exceptional attention to detail and accountability for the accuracy and completeness of final submissions
- Ability to work independently, determine an effective approach to new assignments, resolve problems, and improve processes
- Ability to learn and clearly explain pre-K/TK, elementary social studies, and elementary core ELA curricula, including their instructional approaches and implementation requirements
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with educational publishing, curriculum procurement, or state instructional materials reviews
- Familiarity with early childhood instruction, inquiry-based social studies, knowledge-building ELA, and the science of reading
- Experience preparing standards alignment documentation or coordinating curriculum evidence for formal reviews
- APMP certification or training in an established proposal methodology
