Senior Bid & Capture Manager

We are an outcomes-focused learning company with a steadfast focus on improving learning environments, one classroom at a time. Working with us means joining a remote team of diverse, committed, mission-driven employees who are inspired by our vision, dedicated to our customers, and ready to roll up their sleeves. Guardians put their heads together to solve problems, learn together from experiments that fail, and stand together by their work with full accountability. We balance our diligence with an inclusive culture that invites everyone to bring their whole self to work. Join us and learn why “I love the people here” is one of the most frequent comments we hear from Guardians.

The Role

Most competitive K-12 deals are decided before anyone reads the proposal - by whether the district can fund the purchase, and whether we're already on a contract vehicle they can buy from. We're looking for a Senior Bid & Capture Manager to own both halves of that equation: the bid work that wins the pursuit, and the capture work that shapes the odds before it starts.

Bid means owning proposals end to end, from intake and bid/no-bid recommendation through submission and award. It also means building the AI-forward operation that makes the next hundred pursuits faster and more winnable: automated portal monitoring, opportunity-to-catalog matching, and assisted drafting against a content library you own.

Capture means tracking the federal, state, and local funding streams districts can spend on our solutions, and owning our portfolio of cooperative and state contract vehicles like Sourcewell, TIPS, BuyBoard, and the regional education service agencies that act as lead agencies.

This position sits on the Sales Enablement team. The ideal candidate has won business in a competitive EdTech or public sector market, knows K-12 funding mechanics, has worked with at least one major contract vehicle from some side of the table, and is equally credible with a cooperative's contract administrator, our General Counsel, and a rep who just wants to know whether they can close the deal.

What You'll Do

Proposals and Bids

• Own end-to-end proposal development - intake, bid/no-bid recommendation, compliance, writing, and submission - across RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, catalog bids, renewals, and sole-source justifications, meeting K-12, SLED, and state procurement requirements
• Analyze solicitations to identify the evaluator's real scoring logic and build the response strategy around it, coordinating contributions from sales, curriculum, product, engineering, legal, security, and privacy against deadlines you set
• Partner with sales, finance, and product marketing on competitive pricing and offer positioning, including price-to-win analysis, bundle and term construction, discount and multi-year structures, and the cost narrative
• Build competitive intelligence systematically, including public records requests on lost bids, and feed it back into pricing, content, and bid/no-bid judgment
• Own the proposal content library, customer reference bench, and presentation library - including finalist and orals decks, template standards, version control, and the master narrative
• Produce enterprise proposals and quote paperwork outside the formal RFP path - executive proposals, pricing quotes, order forms, and renewal packages - working with deal desk, finance, and legal
• Design and own an AI-forward bid and capture operation including portal monitoring, opportunity-to-catalog matching, and assisted drafting, implementing tooling such as Responsive or Starbridge and setting the quality bar including human verification of every claim

Capture and Funding

• Track federal, state, and local funding streams relevant to our category - Titles I through IV, IDEA, state technology and safety allocations, E-Rate, and private and foundation sources - and map them to specific districts and prospects before the buying window opens
• Build and maintain the enablement layer the field uses: eligibility, deadlines, language that positions us as an allowable use, and practical guidance for the conversation, delivered by state, region, or segment with sales training
• Own the roadmap for our contract vehicle portfolio - which to pursue, in what order, and which to let go - with the business case and the math attached
• Lead our responses to cooperative and consortium solicitations, and build relationships with lead agencies and contract administrators ahead of solicitations so we understand where scope is heading
• Own vendor lists, buying lists, security and technical questionnaires, and recurring regulatory filings, tracking every term, expiry, and renewal date in one place
• Report monthly on both halves of the function: submissions, win rate, cycle time, and revenue influenced, alongside vehicles held, utilization, and coverage against pipeline

Who You Are

• 7-10 years across proposal writing, bid management, public sector capture, contract vehicle or vendor list management, or SLED contract management, with wins in a competitive market you can walk us through in detail
• Fluent with AI tooling and opinionated about where it helps a writing-and-compliance function and where it introduces risk
• Strong commercial judgment: you can read a pricing model, build a multi-year offer, defend value against a cheaper competitor, and read an administrative fee schedule against a member base to say whether an award is worth having
• Familiar with at least one major cooperative or state contract vehicle from any side of the table - supplier, cooperative staff, or public agency buyer
• Skilled at translating funding and procurement complexity into something a salesperson can act on immediately, and energized rather than drained by being the person the field comes to
• Comfortable owning a broad function alone: prioritizing across competing deadlines, declining low-probability bids, and chasing subject matter experts who have competing priorities
• Able to build process and systems
• Strong understanding of the K-12 buyer and district procurement cycle; working knowledge of public procurement practice - competitive solicitation standards, sole source justification, threshold rules - strongly preferred
• APMP, NIGP-CPP, CPPO, CPPB, or CPSM certification are all a plus
• Eager to take initiative in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment
• Fueled by the opportunity to truly impact the education landscape
• Something else? Tell us! We want to learn more about you…

 What We Offer

• Competitive pay, complete health insurance, 401(k) matching, employee equity plan.
• Flexible time off, paid holidays, paid parental leave, and a paid year-end holiday break.
• A robust catalog of benefits that support your professional growth and personal wellbeing, including work from home funds, fertility & adoption reimbursement, and more…

Plus the intangible:

• A varied and challenging role in an innovative, global company.
• Supportive, driven colleagues who have your back and share your passion.

The typical base salary range for this position is $140,000 - $150,000 per year. The range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire base pay for this position and your pay will be determined by a variety of factors, including your primary work location, skills, qualifications and experience. Additional benefits information is listed on our careers page.

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