Proposal Manager - Study Design

RDI

$95K — $115K *
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5-7 years of experience in proposal development or a similar project-based role
  • Strong analytical skills with a proficiency in Excel
  • Ability to interpret and synthesize complex clinical information
  • Experience in negotiating and clarifying ambiguous project scopes
  • Familiarity with diagnostic studies, IVD, or clinical operations
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Proven problem-solving skills and the ability to challenge assumptions

Responsibilities

  • Read and analyze client-provided materials to determine actionable steps
  • Identify and resolve missing information to facilitate proposal progress
  • Develop study models, timelines, budgets, and pricing in collaboration with internal teams
  • Test and validate study plans with Clinical Operations, finance, and other departments
  • Streamline and innovate study execution approaches
  • Communicate economics of proposals clearly to clients and stakeholders
  • Manage the proposal lifecycle from initial draft to client signature

Benefits

  • Opportunity to directly influence study proposals and outcomes
  • Collaboration with study execution teams and senior leadership
  • Robust feedback loop from proposal outcomes to improve future proposals
  • Hands-on involvement in real clinical studies
  • Relocation assistance for candidates moving to Los Angeles area.
Full Job Description
The Role

A client sends a protocol, a spreadsheet, three emails, several unanswered questions, and asks for a proposal.

Can you turn that into a study we can actually sell and deliver?

That is the job.

RDI designs and runs diagnostic clinical studies. Many of the opportunities we receive are not neatly packaged RFQs. The requirements can be incomplete, assumptions can conflict, and the obvious study design is not always the best one.

We need someone to own the path from client request to executable proposal.

This is not proposal coordination. It is not formatting documents or collecting inputs from other departments.

You are expected to understand the study, find what is missing, work out how it should operate, build the economics, and move it forward.
The Work

You will:
  • Read protocols, RFQs, emails, specifications, and client notes and determine what actually needs to be done.
  • Identify missing information and get answers rather than letting unanswered questions stall the proposal.
  • Build study assumptions, site models, recruitment plans, sample flows, timelines, budgets, and pricing.
  • Pressure-test the plan with Clinical Operations, laboratory, data, regulatory, and finance.
  • Find simpler or better ways to execute the study when the obvious approach does not make sense.
  • Understand the economics for RDI, the sponsor, the sites, and the patients.
  • Write proposals that are clear enough that the client understands what they are buying and the operating team understands what it must deliver.
  • Own revisions, follow-up, and client questions through signature.
  • Make the proposal process faster and more repeatable without turning it into bureaucracy.
Who We Are Looking For

You like ambiguous problems.

You are comfortable with both words and numbers. You can build a model in Excel, understand a clinical workflow, and explain the answer in plain English.

You may come from CRO proposals, clinical operations, project management, diagnostics, research sites, consulting, or another project-based business.

IVD experience is a major advantage. Curiosity and judgment matter more.

The strongest candidate is likely someone who has repeatedly found themselves doing more than their formal job: fixing scopes, rebuilding budgets, challenging assumptions, or turning somebody else's vague idea into an actual plan.
What We Are Not Looking For
  • A proposal coordinator who primarily moves documents between reviewers.
  • Someone who needs every requirement defined before starting.
  • Someone who forwards questions instead of trying to answer them.
  • Someone uncomfortable challenging a bad assumption.
  • Someone who can write but cannot work with numbers.
  • Someone who can build a spreadsheet but cannot explain what it means.

If your instinct when information is incomplete is "I cannot proceed," this role will be miserable.
Why Join

Because you want to own the thinking behind the proposal, not just produce the document.

You will work directly with the people running the studies and with senior leadership. You will see which assumptions were right, which were wrong, and what happened after the client signed.

Very few proposal roles give you that feedback loop.

Your work becomes real clinical studies.

This role is in person at our Los Angeles / Van Nuys office, five days a week. Relocation assistance is available.

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