Find similar career opportunities

Director - Proposal & Pursuit Lead

Category: Leadership and Management Roles

Main location: United States, California, Sacramento

Position ID:J0926-1245

Employment Type: Full Time

Position Description:

Lead Strategic Pursuits That Drive CGI's Growth

CGI is seeking an experienced Director - Proposal & Pursuit Lead to lead complex, strategic proposal and pursuit efforts supporting CGI's growth objectives. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role for an accomplished proposal and pursuit professional who can operate strategically with executives while remaining actively engaged in proposal development and execution.

In this role, you will own the pursuit and proposal process from early qualification and strategy through RFP response, submission, Best and Final Offer (BAFO), oral presentations, negotiations, and transition to delivery. You will establish the operating rhythm, compliance discipline, schedules, review processes, and accountability needed to deliver compelling, compliant, and high-quality proposals.

You will partner with Opportunity Pursuit Leaders, account leaders, solution architects, pricing and finance teams, legal, HR, delivery leaders, government relations, partners, and executives to develop differentiated and evaluator-focused responses for strategic commercial and public sector opportunities.

This is not a proposal coordination role. The successful candidate will be a strategic pursuit leader, proposal operator, and process owner who is comfortable personally writing, editing, reviewing, resolving blockers, driving compliance, and protecting critical deadlines when needed.

You will also lead and mentor a team of proposal and pursuit support professionals while helping CGI continuously strengthen its pursuit and proposal capabilities.

Location: This position is based in our CGI Sacramento, CA office and requires four days per week onsite. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are required in-office days, with flexibility on the fourth onsite day.

Your future duties and responsibilities:

How you'll make an impact

Lead the End-to-End Proposal and Pursuit Process
• Lead complex pursuits from qualification and mobilization through RFP response, submission, BAFO, oral presentations, negotiation support, closeout, and Sales-to-Delivery handoff.
• Establish and manage pursuit governance, proposal cadence, milestones, workplans, ownership, decision logs, risk and issue tracking, and executive reporting.
• Create disciplined pursuit operating rhythms, including kickoffs, stand-ups, status reviews, leadership checkpoints, color reviews, and executive readiness reviews.
• Establish and maintain pursuit tools and trackers, including proposal calendars, Proposal Response Matrices (PRMs), compliance matrices, decision and risk logs, addenda trackers, and submission checklists.

Drive Proposal Compliance, Quality, and Submission Readiness
• Own RFP intake and analysis, including solicitation document control, RFP reviews, addenda tracking, bidder communications, conferences, and question management.
• Translate procurement requirements into clear response plans, compliance matrices, writer assignments, review plans, and production schedules.
• Identify mandatory requirements and potential disqualification risks, including forms, signatures, bonds, insurance, certifications, page limits, file requirements, submission instructions, redactions, and addenda acknowledgments.
• Establish proposal templates, response shells, qualification matrices, resume templates, graphics logs, and corporate qualification trackers early in the pursuit.
• Lead final compliance audits, production checks, approvals, submission readiness, receipt confirmation, and proposal archiving.
• Challenge proposal content to ensure responses are persuasive, client-centered, cohesive, compliant, and supported by relevant proof points.
• Ensure executive summaries, technical and management approaches, staffing plans, qualifications, resumes, references, and pricing narratives communicate one integrated story.
• Coach writers and reviewers on responding directly to requirements, incorporating win themes, substantiating claims, and clearly communicating client value.
• Personally write, edit, reframe, or recover proposal content when necessary to protect quality and schedule.

Shape Pursuit Strategy and Competitive Positioning
• Partner with Opportunity Pursuit Leaders and account leadership to translate client priorities, evaluation criteria, buyer values, competitive intelligence, and price-to-win considerations into an actionable pursuit strategy.
• Facilitate development of win themes, differentiators, proof points, competitive positioning, Black Hat sessions, stakeholder strategies, and evaluation/scoring approaches.
• Help pursuit teams connect solution capabilities and CGI differentiators to measurable client outcomes.

Coordinate Solution, Pricing, Legal, Staffing, and Risk Workstreams
• Partner with Solution Leaders to align proposal requirements with the solution, work breakdown structure, level of effort, implementation approach, architecture, assumptions, dependencies, and risks.
• Coordinate with Pricing and Finance to align cost models, price-to-win strategy, financial inputs, and executive approvals with proposal commitments.
• Work with Legal and Contracts to manage terms and conditions, exceptions, confidentiality requirements, teaming agreements, subcontracts, and other contractual considerations.
• Coordinate with HR, Delivery, and pursuit leadership to develop staffing strategies, qualification matrices, resumes, certifications, and corporate qualification evidence.
• Track solution, pricing, legal, finance, staffing, delivery, privacy, security, cloud, and third-party reviews to ensure requirements and risks are addressed before submission.

Lead Color Reviews and Proposal Recovery
• Establish and manage the proposal review process, including Pink, Red, Gold, executive, and final compliance reviews.
• Prepare review packages, brief reviewers, facilitate review sessions, capture feedback, prioritize recovery actions, assign ownership, and drive closure.
• Ensure proposal maturity progresses appropriately from strategic direction at Pink to substantive completeness at Red, executive readiness at Gold, and final compliance at submission.
• Manage review feedback to improve proposal quality without creating unnecessary churn, duplication, or conflicting direction.

Support Executive Governance and Decision-Making
• Support Opportunity Pursuit Leaders in preparing executive approval materials, pursuit updates, Step Review inputs, and management decision packages.
• Ensure executive materials accurately reflect pursuit status, solution positioning, pricing posture, compliance and delivery risks, legal considerations, staffing gaps, assumptions, and outstanding decisions.
• Track approval conditions and ensure required actions are completed before submission or client presentations.
• Surface risks early and facilitate timely decisions under demanding deadlines.

Lead Post-Submission Activities
• Manage clarifications, BAFO responses, oral presentations, demonstrations, competitive interviews, and negotiation support materials.
• Develop presentation storylines, slides, scripts, evaluator-focused messaging, dry-run schedules, and coaching plans.
• Ensure post-submission responses remain consistent with the original proposal, pricing strategy, legal position, and delivery commitments.
• Maintain final proposal, BAFO, oral/demo, approval, and closeout materials for effective
Sales-to-Delivery transition.

Build and Strengthen the Pursuit Function
• Continuously improve CGI's proposal and pursuit capabilities by refining templates, schedules, checklists, review processes, compliance tools, writer guidance, and reusable content.
• Capture lessons learned, evaluator feedback, win/loss insights, and reusable assets following major pursuits.
• Mentor Proposal Managers, Pursuit Support professionals, writers, reviewers, subject matter experts, and emerging pursuit leaders.
• Foster a culture of accountability, quality, compliance, responsiveness, and strategic thinking across pursuit teams.

Required qualifications to be successful in this role:

What you'll bring
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, Marketing, English, Public Administration, Information Technology, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in proposal management, pursuit management, capture management, business development, or related roles within technology, consulting, systems integration, public sector, or professional services environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading large, complex, strategic proposals or pursuits involving multiple workstreams, stakeholders, solution components, partners, pricing models, legal considerations, and executive decision-makers.
• Strong understanding of state and local government procurement, including RFP structures, evaluation criteria, mandatory requirements, administrative documentation, compliance risks, and submission requirements.
• Proven ability to own both pursuit strategy/process and hands-on proposal execution, including compliance matrices, proposal schedules, PRMs, writing plans, writer coordination, color reviews, production, and submission.
• Exceptional writing, editing, facilitation, communication, and executive presentation skills.
• Ability to translate technical, delivery, legal, pricing, and staffing inputs into clear, compelling, evaluator-focused proposal content.
• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional teams in matrixed environments and driving accountability among senior stakeholders, SMEs, writers, reviewers, and support resources.
• Strong ability to identify compliance risks, schedule risks, content gaps, staffing concerns, and unresolved decisions early enough to take corrective action.
• Strong project management discipline, including management of schedules, dependencies, priorities, risks, actions, and decisions.
• Executive presence and sound judgment, with the ability to challenge assumptions, escalate appropriately, and facilitate decisions under tight deadlines.
• Hands-on proficiency with Microsoft Office, Teams, SharePoint, Excel-based trackers, proposal repositories, PDF tools, and proposal collaboration platforms.
• Willingness to remain hands-on during critical pursuit periods, including writing, editing, formatting, compliance reviews, production, and submission support.

Desired Qualifications
• Experience leading California state government technology, consulting, systems integration, managed services, modernization, cloud, ERP, data, Salesforce, MuleSoft, cybersecurity, or business transformation pursuits.
• Familiarity with Shipley, APMP, or comparable capture and proposal management methodologies.
• APMP certification or a similar proposal, capture, or business development credential.
• Experience managing and mentoring Proposal Managers, Pursuit Support professionals, writers, and other proposal contributors.
• Experience supporting oral presentations, demonstrations, competitive interviews, BAFO responses, and executive coaching.
• Experience managing RFPs involving complex administrative compliance requirements, including resumes, staff and bidder qualification matrices, references, certifications, degrees, insurance, bonds, subcontractors, and partner documentation.
• Experience partnering with pricing and finance, legal and contracts, HR, delivery leadership, solution architects, security/privacy teams, and executive approvers.
• Ability to use AI-enabled tools responsibly to accelerate RFP analysis, compliance reviews, outline development, content analysis, and proposal quality assurance while maintaining appropriate human oversight, confidentiality, and judgment.

Other Information:
CGI is required by law in some jurisdictions to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role. The determination of this range includes various factors not limited to skill set, level, experience, relevant training, and licensure and certifications. To support the ability to reward for merit based performance, CGI typically does not hire individuals at or near the top of the range for their role. Compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range for this role in the U.S. is $140,300.00 $245,500.00.
CGI's benefits are offered to eligible professionals on their first day of employment to include:
. Competitive compensation
. Comprehensive insurance options
. Matching contributions through the 401(k) plan and the share purchase plan
. Paid time off for vacation, holidays, and sick time
. Paid parental leave
.Learning opportunities and tuition assistance
. Wellness and Well being programs

#LI-RS2

Skills:

• Business Development
• Business Process Management
• Client management
• Proposal Writing
• Sales