Senior Manager, Business Development Operations

Description

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Business Development Operations ensures that qualified opportunities become high-quality, well-scoped, well-priced proposals that win, as efficiently and consistently as possible.

This role owns each proposal from intake to submission: understanding the requester’s needs, positioning West Cary Group as the right solution, and getting the response written, reviewed, approved and submitted on time. It also owns the operational side of business development: identifying opportunities, coordinating RFP responses, facilitating scoping and pricing, and continuously improving the systems, tools and processes that support agency growth.

The role works closely with Account Management, Creative, Strategy, Project Management, Finance, agency leadership and other subject-matter experts. It has no direct reports.

This is not a quota-carrying sales role and does not own client relationships. It is a hands-on role for someone with business development experience who enjoys turning complex opportunities into organized, compelling, well-coordinated proposals that win more business.

Key Responsibilities

Own Proposal & RFP Development

• Own the process for qualified new-business opportunities, including proposals, RFP responses, Statements of Work (SOWs) and Task Orders, from intake through final submission.
• Study each opportunity’s requirements and the requester’s underlying business need, and shape the response so it presents West Cary Group as the right solution.
• Review each RFP for ambiguities, gaps and risks, decide which clarifying questions to ask, and manage the Q&A process and its deadlines.
• Coordinate timelines, contributor assignments, reviews, approvals and deliverables.
• Ensure final submissions are accurate, compliant, on brand, polished and delivered on time.

Identify & Evaluate Opportunities

• Monitor and track qualified opportunities from agency relationships, referrals, marketing efforts, RFP intake, procurement marketplaces and other business development channels, across both commercial and government clients.
• Review sources such as SAM.gov, eVA and other opportunity channels to identify opportunities aligned with agency capabilities and growth priorities.
• Prepare the information leadership needs to make bid/no-bid decisions.
• Maintain visibility into active opportunities, submissions, outcomes and next steps.

Coordinate Scoping, Estimation & Pricing

• Work with Account Management to understand business goals, client requirements and desired outcomes.
• Work with Creative, Strategy, Project Management, Production, Technology and other subject-matter experts to define scope, deliverables, timelines, effort estimates, staffing requirements, assumptions and dependencies.
• Identify gaps, risks, conflicting assumptions and unresolved questions before proposals are finalized.
• Use rate cards, pricing models, prior proposals, historical estimates and comparable work as starting points. Pricing is set by the Account Management leadership team and approved by agency leadership; this role coordinates inputs and keeps the proposal consistent with the approved price.
• Coordinate updates as scope, timing, staffing or pricing assumptions change, and obtain required reviews and approvals before submission.

Develop Proposals, SOWs & Task Orders

• Draft, assemble, edit and coordinate proposals, RFP responses, SOWs, Task Orders and related business development documents.
• Translate input from agency leaders and subject-matter experts into clear, compelling client-facing materials.
• Apply a consistent way of thinking about scope, pricing, assumptions, deliverables and timelines wherever it makes sense, while tailoring every proposal to its opportunity.
• Coordinate required commercial, contractual, procurement and security reviews.

Maintain Proposal Resources & Drive Continuous Improvement

• Maintain and improve proposal and SOW templates, workflows, checklists and approval processes.
• Maintain reusable proposal content: agency credentials, team resumes, case studies, past-performance examples and standard response language.
• Keep an organized library of prior proposals, scopes, estimates, pricing approaches and awarded work.
• Identify ways to improve win rate by tracking outcomes, learning from awarded and lost opportunities, and applying what works to future proposals.
• Continuously improve how effectively and efficiently proposals get done, improving the tools, processes and content behind each one so the agency can respond faster and better.

Run & Improve AI and Automation Workflows

• Operate and continuously improve the agency’s AI-enabled and automated workflows for proposal development, RFP responses and SOW creation.
• Help maintain and expand the proposal knowledge base and reusable content resources.
• Apply sound judgment and quality control to AI-assisted work products.

What Success Looks Like

• Qualified opportunities become high-quality proposals efficiently and consistently, and those proposals turn into wins, not just submissions.
• Proposals, RFP responses, SOWs and Task Orders are submitted on time and to a high standard.
• Scope, staffing assumptions, pricing inputs and proposal content are aligned before submission.
• Proposal development becomes faster, more consistent and less dependent on manual effort.
• AI and automation measurably improve proposal quality, consistency and turnaround time.
• Win rate improves over time, and West Cary Group grows as a result of winning more of the opportunities it pursues. Results matter.
• The agency pursues more qualified opportunities without a proportional increase in administrative effort.

About West Cary Group

West Cary Group is a full-service, digital marketing and technology agency based in Richmond, Virginia, serving mid-sized local and Fortune 500 clients across a wide range of industries. We are a team of people and capabilities brought together under one roof, in a dynamic, fast-growing environment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

West Cary Group is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Department: Operations

Reports To: Chief Operating Officer

FLSA Status: Exempt (salaried)

Location: Richmond, VA preferred; hybrid, with a minimum of 2-3 days per week in the office

Annual Salary Range: $114,400 to $125,800

Requirements

Qualifications

Required

• 5 or more years of experience in business development operations, growth operations, proposal management, capture management, sales operations or a similar role.
• Experience writing and managing proposals, RFP responses, SOWs, Task Orders or other complex client-facing business documents, and seeing them through to submission.
• Ability to understand a requester’s business needs and present a clear case for why West Cary Group is the right solution.
• Strong project-management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple opportunities and deadlines at once.
• Strong written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Ability to coordinate cross-functional contributors and drive work to completion without direct authority.
• Demonstrated attention to detail and commitment to quality: you catch the inconsistent number, the missed requirement and the wrong client name before it goes out.
• Ability to identify missing information, challenge assumptions and resolve issues quickly.
• Comfort working in a small organization with home-grown tools and building structure where little exists.

Preferred

• Experience in an advertising, marketing, consulting, professional-services or other project-based organization.
• Familiarity with government procurement and solicitation platforms such as SAM.gov and eVA.
• Experience with rate cards, staffing models, project estimates or proposal pricing.