Role Overview
The Proposal Manager will lead and manage the overall proposal development process for government funding opportunities, including coordinating timelines, partner inputs, technical content, compliance requirements, budgets, supporting documentation, and final submission packages. This role will work closely with HydroGraph's business development, technical, finance, and executive teams to help identify, organize, and submit high-quality proposals that support the company's growth across defense, government, advanced materials, and dual-use technology programs. In addition to proposal management, the successful candidate will provide administrative and coordination support to the sales and business development teams, including supporting NDA and MTA processes, scheduling meetings with proposal partners and customers, assisting with case study development, maintaining proposal and opportunity documentation, and handling other general administrative activities that help keep customer engagement and funding pursuits moving forward efficiently.
Key Responsibilities
- Manage the end-to-end proposal development process for government funding opportunities, including proposal schedules, requirements tracking, compliance reviews, content coordination, partner inputs, and final submission packages.
- Coordinate with business development, technical, finance, legal, and executive stakeholders to gather required information, align proposal strategy, and ensure timely completion of proposal deliverables.
- Review government funding solicitations, grant opportunities, requests for information, and related program materials to summarize requirements, deadlines, eligibility criteria, submission instructions, and compliance obligations.
- Develop and maintain proposal calendars, checklists, responsibility matrices, document repositories, version control processes, and status trackers to keep proposal activity organized and on schedule.
- Draft, edit, format, and assemble proposal content, including executive summaries, company descriptions, technical narratives, commercialization plans, past performance summaries, resumes, letters of support, and required attachments.
- Support proposal partner coordination by scheduling meetings, preparing agendas, capturing action items, tracking partner deliverables, and following up to ensure timely completion of required inputs.
- Assist the sales and business development teams with administrative support related to NDAs, MTAs, customer documentation, opportunity records, meeting coordination, and internal follow-up activities.
- Maintain organized records of proposal submissions, funding opportunities, customer and partner communications, templates, boilerplate language, case studies, and supporting sales materials.
- Support the development of customer case studies, capability summaries, application briefs, and other materials that strengthen HydroGraph's business development and funding proposal efforts.
- Prepare regular updates for sales, business development, and leadership teams on proposal status, upcoming deadlines, partner deliverables, funding opportunities, and administrative action items.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Materials Science, Engineering, Business, or related field required; advanced technical degree preferred
- 10+ years proven experience in customer-facing technical support roles in advanced materials, chemicals, or industrial sectors
- Experience with technical support involving materials science or nanotechnology applications
- Strong technical comprehension of materials science and advanced manufacturing technologies
- Excellent negotiation, communication, and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to translate complex technical value propositions into solutions that meet the needs of the US military and individual warfighter.
- Capability in identifying and evaluating market opportunities across diverse industries for new technologies
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)
- Self-motivated with ability to work independently
- Good organizational skills with ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines
- U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. Government security clearance
- Experience operating in regulated, security-sensitive environments
Preferred Experience
- Active Top Secret clearance
- Experience with advanced materials, composites, nanomaterials, clean energy, or dual-use technologies
- Prior military service or DoD civilian experience
- Experience transitioning technologies from R&D into operational defense programs
- Established network within the U.S. defense or government procurement ecosystem
Work Environment
- U.S.-based role - remote with travel to Austin, TX as needed
- Ability to travel 30-50% as required
- Attendance at trade shows, conferences, and customer sites required
Why Join HydroGraph
- Help scale one of the world's highest-purity graphene platforms into defense and industrial markets
- Work at the intersection of advanced materials, clean power, and national security
- Partner with leading OEMs, government agencies, and global advisors
- Competitive compensation, equity participation, and meaningful growth opportunity as the company scales
