Full Job Description
Street Level is hiring a Proposal Specialist in Pasadena, CA or Sacramento, CA
Position Summary
Street Level Strategy is a growing public affairs firm, with a high volume of proposal opportunities. In this role, youll prepare proposals that describe the features and benefits of Street Levels constantly evolving services. Youll edit, rewrite, and write technical and nontechnical text as necessary to prepare the most compelling possible proposals that highlight Street Levels services. Youll also be responsible for the creation of clear, visually persuasive graphics and for the timely delivery of a clean, error-free final product.
Reporting directly to the Managing Partner and coordinating with Client Team Leads, this role will play a critical part in designing and defining SLSs business strategy.
This position is ideal for someone who has initiative, flexibility, and dependability to produce documents that reflect Street Levels commitment to engaging and outreaching to communities.
What You Will Achieve
Pipeline Sourcing & Opportunity Assessment
Build and develop a pipeline across federal, state, local, and private sources, establishing the tools and routines that surface relevant solicitations early
Perform detailed analysis of RFI/RFQ/RFP documents - evaluation criteria and applicable state or agency procurement rules - to identify requirements, constraints, and discriminators
Provide leadership with honest bid/no-bid recommendations, including recommending which RFPS to pursue and have a chance to win
Draft and submit questions to the contracting officer or procurement contact to resolve ambiguity before the response is built
Capture & Pre- RFP Positioning
Track priority business pursuits from client team leads, as well as build a tracking mechanism to monitor all public business sites for federal, local, and state RFPs.
Develop working knowledge of target local, state, and federal agencies priorities and procurement history, and translate it into positioning SLS can act on
Identify and recommend structures that close capability gaps for specific RFP pursuits
Produce capture plans for the firms highest-value business pursuits, defining win strategy, discriminators, and gaps to close
Proposal Management & Schedule Ownership
Own the proposal schedule end to end, with milestones, reviews, and author deadlines
Coordinate input from teaming partners and subcontractors on the process, ensuring deadlines and milestones are met.
Compliance & Solicitation Discipline
Build and maintain the compliance matrix or checklist for each submission, ensuring every requirement is addressed,
Enforce all format constraints - page counts, fonts, margins, volume structure, file naming and size - as hard limits
Fact-check content and flag technical errors, unsupported claims, and inconsistencies before submission
Hold final documents to firm editorial standards, drawing on shared editorial support for line-level proofing
Content Development & Narrative
Write high-quality, responsive, persuasive content that answers what was asked and scores against how it will be evaluated
Develop win themes and executive summaries that lead with outcomes that position SLS capabilities, services, and skills
Synthesize complex technical and policy input from subject matter experts into coherent, readable narrative
Edit and rewrite for clarity, logic, and argument structure, not just correctness
Identify graphics needs and partner with Design to produce visuals that carry argument rather than decorate the page
Review, Production & Submission
Run internal review cycles with defined purposes and reviewers, ensuring comments are adjudicated and reconciled rather than accumulated
Coordinate with the client team on the budget, ensuring it is compliant, complete, and reconciled against the technical volumes stated approach, labor, and assumptions
Assemble the final compliant package and manage submission through the required portal or channel, with time built in for portal failure
Ensure the submitted package is complete, correctly assembled, and matches the approved version
Function Building & Continuous Improvement
Stand up SLSs proposal function from the ground up: templates, style standards, review protocols, and a documented development process
Build the reusable content library - past performance, resumes, capability boilerplate, graphics - so each pursuit starts from assets rather than a blank page
Request and document debriefs, track outcomes, and translate customer feedback into changes in how SLS proposes
Who You Are
You have 3 to 5+ years of experience in proposal or grant writing, preparing documents for publication, writing captions or headlines, and following editorial style guidelines
You have led or played a central role in leading efforts with multiple senior team members in executing a project from inception to completion.
You have knowledge of the government or commercial proposal process
You have proven ability to work under the pressure of long- and short-term deadlines, while balancing both short- and long-term projects
You are confident in executing and implementing decisions made by leadership
You have a track record of successfully planning and completing projects with a high degree of attention to detail, in an organized fashion.
You communicate clearly, document decisions well, and can bring structure without unnecessary bureaucracy.
You are confident partnering directly with senior leadership and navigating trade-offs.
Must be able to have predictable and reliable attendance.
Working at Street Level Strategy
Compensation
The pay scale for this position is $80,000-$95,000 per year.
Core Benefits
32 days of paid time off: 10 vacation days, 9 sick days, 13 holidays
Bereavement leave
Paid parental leave
Street Level pays 75% contribution toward Medical, Dental, and Vision
401K with 4% company match
Perks
Hybrid in office schedule - 3 days remote and 2 days in office each week.
Firm wide social events including summer outing, winter mountain trip, and annual off-site retreat.
To Apply
Please visit https://www.slstrategy.com/work-with-us/ and list the position title as the subject line.