Join Axon and be a Force for Good.
At Axon, we’re on a mission to Protect Life. We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software. Like our products, we work better together. We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other.
Life at Axon is fast-paced, challenging and meaningful. Here, you’ll take ownership and drive real change. Constantly grow as you work hard for a mission that matters at a company where you matter.
Your Impact
As a Senior Proposal Manager, you will lead the development of complex RFP and tender responses, proposals, and other selling documents to potential customers of Axon’s solutions. You’ll be a member of a global team that supports Axon sales worldwide, responsible for leading the proposal process from bid/no-bid decision through proposal award, including analyzing customer specifications (RFPs, RFIs, tenders, etc.) for appropriate solution type, developing response structure and contents, writing the draft response, finalizing response content, and delivering the final document to the customer. Your strengths in team leadership, business acumen, and technical and proposal writing, will be key factors in ensuring that our proposals are compelling, technically accurate, and competitively positioned.
What You’ll Do
At Axon, the Proposal Manager is viewed as the owner of the proposal development effort, engaging as early as possible in the procurement process and executing on the procurement through submission and into negotiation. This is a highly comprehensive role, requiring the application of expertise in the following areas:
- Bid Strategy: Combine capture knowledge, RFP requirements analysis, and solution strategy to create compliant, strategic, and accurate responses that reflect the alignment of customer needs and objectives with Axon's mission and solution capabilities.
- Team Leadership: Facilitate the collaboration of up to 15 internal subject matter experts, including other members of the Proposal Team, product managers and engineers, professional services personnel, leadership, sales representatives, etc. Ensure that their expertise is leveraged in the proposal development process and reflected in the end submission to the customer.
- Project Management: Manage deliverables and deadlines by planning, setting milestones, and coordinating all aspects of the proposal to ensure proposal compliance with customer requirements, internal review processes, and SME/leadership approval processes. Coordinate proposal printing, submission and delivery.
- Proposal Writing: Develop expertise in Axon’s solutions, services, and business capabilities in order to communicate their unique benefits in meeting our customer’s requirements and objectives, as well as differentiate our offerings from our competition. Write compelling proposals that communicate persuasively to all types of evaluators, whether they are executives, technical program directors, or end users.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Communicate effectively across the organization with all contributors and other stakeholders in the sales and proposal process, from executive leadership to sales executives to product and technical experts. Ensure alignment between all stakeholders on solution, pricing, win strategy, and how each of those elements are reflected in the customer-facing deliverables.
What You Bring
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
- 4+ years of relevant experience in proposal management, responding to public sector tenders and requests for proposal, and/or business development/capture.
- Experience leading and influencing multiple stakeholders within a cross-functional, geo-dispersed team.
- Excellent technical and sales writing and editing skills, with a rigorous attention to detail.
- Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills, with the ability to manage teams and communicate to executive leadership.
- Critical thinking and analytical skills, including the capacity to identify, assess and prioritize competing deadlines and needs.
- Agility and flexibility across procurement processes in different countries and types of tender responses (tender, framework, sole source, market consultation, RFQ, etc.)
- Experience managing tenders in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and/or Central/South America is highly desired.
- APMP Practitioner or higher certification is highly desired
- Mastery of desktop publishing and document formatting tools including the Microsoft stack (Office, Sharepoint, etc.), Adobe, etc. to create visually consistent and structured documents.
- Experience working with Qorus, RFPIO, Qvidian or other proposal management applications is a plus.
- Knowledge and experience using Salesforce is a plus.
Don’t meet every single requirement? That's ok. At Axon, we Aim Far. We think big with a long-term view because we want to reinvent the world to be a safer, better place. We are also committed to building diverse teams that reflect the communities we serve.
Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they check every box in the job description. If you’re excited about this role and our mission to Protect Life but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification listed here, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Important Notes
The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all duties, responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job. The job description may change or be supplemented at any time in accordance with business needs and conditions.
Some roles may also require legal eligibility to work in a firearms environment.
Axon’s mission is to Protect Life and is committed to the well-being and safety of its employees as well as Axon’s impact on the environment. All Axon employees must be aware of and committed to the appropriate environmental, health, and safety regulations, policies, and procedures. Axon employees are empowered to report safety concerns as they arise and activities potentially impacting the environment.
We are an equal opportunity employer that promotes justice, advances equity, values diversity and fosters inclusion. We’re committed to hiring the best talent — regardless of race, creed, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances — and empowering all of our employees so they can do their best work. If you have a disability or special need that requires assistance or accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email recruitingops@axon.com. Please note that this email address is for accommodation purposes only. Axon will not respond to inquiries for other purposes.
