Proposal Writer - AI Enablement

Description

Leidos is seeking a highly skilled Proposal Writer to join our Health Mission Solutions Proposal Development team. In this role, you will use your expertise in artificial intelligence, large language models (LLMs), and generative AI tools to help develop compliant, compelling, and high-quality proposal and pre-proposal responses.

Working closely with Capture Managers, Solution Architects, Program Managers, and Technical SMEs, you will translate solicitation requirements into structured outlines, annotated storyboards, and draft narrative content using AI-enabled workflows while maintaining strict compliance, accuracy, and quality standards. You will also research and write responses to RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, SOWs, PWSs, as well as contribute to proposal content including executive summaries, technical approaches, management volumes, past performance sections, and resumes.

The ideal candidate brings strong proposal writing experience along with a practical understanding of AI and LLM capabilities, limitations, and best practices. This individual will play a key role in accelerating content development, improving proposal responsiveness, and helping teams apply AI responsibly and effectively across the proposal lifecycle.

Success in this role requires the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment, adapt quickly to changing priorities, and maintain exceptional attention to detail. Candidates should be proactive, resourceful, and collaborative, with a willingness to support both virtual and in-person proposal activities.

This position is based in Reston, VA. In-person support in the DMV area, including Reston, VA and Gaithersburg, MD, is required as needed for reviews, wall walks, and development sessions.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, SOWs, PWSs, and evaluation criteria to develop compliant proposal outlines, section structures, and annotated storyboards aligned to solicitation instructions and win strategy.

• Use in-house and approved AI and LLM tools to accelerate drafting of proposal content, including executive summaries, management approaches, technical narratives, past performance summaries, and other response sections.

• Refine AI-generated content into client-ready proposal material that is accurate, persuasive, compliant, and tailored to customer needs.

• Build and maintain prompt libraries, content templates, style guides, and reusable AI-assisted workflows for proposal development.

• Partner with capture managers, solution architects, SMEs, pricing, and proposal managers to gather information and convert technical input into clear, compelling prose.

• Ensure all drafts meet compliance requirements, page allocation constraints, formatting instructions, and proposal quality standards.

• Perform content gap analysis, review remediation support, and iterative draft improvement under tight deadlines.

• Validate AI-assisted outputs for factual accuracy, consistency, tone, responsiveness, and alignment with approved solution strategies.

• Recommend best practices for secure, ethical, and effective use of AI in proposal environments, including protection of sensitive, proprietary, and customer information.

• Support continuous improvement of proposal operations through automation, workflow optimization, and knowledge management.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in English, Communications, Journalism, Business, Marketing, Technical Writing, Computer Science, or related field; equivalent experience may be considered.

• 5+ years of experience in proposal writing, proposal management support, technical writing, or business development content development.

• Demonstrated success developing compliant proposal content in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments.

• Strong expertise in AI, generative AI, and LLM platforms for proposal development content, including practical experience using them to draft, refine, summarize, and organize complex written material.

• Strong understanding of prompt engineering, LLM strengths and limitations, hallucination risk, and human-in-the-loop review practices.

• Exceptional writing, editing, and rewriting skills with the ability to tailor content to different audiences and evaluation criteria.

• Proven ability to interpret solicitation requirements and convert them into structured outlines and responsive proposal content.

• Experience working with SMEs and cross-functional teams to synthesize technical concepts into persuasive written responses.

• High attention to detail, especially in compliance, quality control, grammar, and consistency.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools and common proposal collaboration platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal, health, defense, aerospace, public sector, or regulated industry proposals.

• Familiarity with formal proposal development methodologies, e.g. Shipley.

• Experience creating compliance matrices, storyboards, and content plans.

• Ability to design or optimize AI-enabled proposal workflows, including prompt libraries, retrieval-assisted drafting, and content reuse strategies.

• Experience evaluating or implementing governance for AI use in business development or proposal operations.

• Familiarity with knowledge management, content libraries, and proposal automation tools.

• Experience supporting large, complex, or multi-volume proposal responses.

What Success Looks Like

• Rapid creation of compliant proposal outlines and first drafts with reduced cycle time leveraging in-house AI-enabled tools and proposal archives

• Higher-quality early drafts that require less rework from proposal teams and SMEs

• Consistent use of AI tools in a secure, ethical, and controlled manner

• Improved proposal team efficiency and content reuse across pursuits

Additional Notes

This role requires sound judgment in the use of AI-generated content. The selected candidate must be able to distinguish between acceleration and automation, ensuring all outputs are reviewed, validated, and tailored before submission. The Proposal Writer will be expected to champion responsible AI adoption while preserving confidentiality, compliance, and proposal integrity.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos' name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system - never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com.

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.