Role Overview
The Sr Proposal Manager will own Veho's commercial pursuit strategy from first signal to signed contract. This person will bring the process and infrastructure to know what wins enterprise deals — not just what fills out an RFP response — and the operational discipline to make that judgment repeatable and scalable.
This role sits at the intersection of sales strategy, pricing, and commercial solutions, with direct visibility into Veho's most important growth opportunities. Commercial leadership turns to this person when the stakes are highest: a complex negotiation, a re-bid after a loss, a non-standard deal structure that needs a creative solution. The role reports to the Sr. Director of Revenue Operations & Strategy with a dotted line to the CRO, and partners closely with Strategic Finance & Pricing on deal economics.
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Pursuit Strategy
- Serve as Veho's strategic lead on all enterprise pursuits — shaping how we position our network, technology, and service model to win against incumbent carriers and competing bids.
- Develop and own win strategies for every active RFP: identify the buyer's real decision criteria, assess Veho's competitive position honestly, and craft a submission that addresses both — not one that just answers the questions asked.
- Introduce capture management discipline: engage with AEs and CSMs before RFPs are issued to build relationships with the buyer, shape requirements where possible, and develop win themes before the formal solicitation clock starts.
- Work alongside sellers post-submission to maintain momentum, address buyer concerns, and position Veho for award and future expansion.
- Set win rate targets, track performance across bid cycles, and report trends to commercial leadership with clear, opinionated recommendations.
Business Fluency & Commercial Judgment
- Develop a deep understanding of Veho's unit economics, margin structure, and network capabilities — and use that fluency to advise on which deals are worth pursuing, at what price, and on what terms.
- Be the voice in the room that connects deal structure to business outcomes: when a seller wants to offer a concession, you know whether it moves the needle for the customer and what it costs Veho to give it.
- Partner with Strategic Finance & Pricing to translate margin thresholds and pricing models into deal guidance sellers can apply quickly and confidently in live negotiations.
- Bring a point of view on competitive positioning: understand how Veho stacks up against FedEx, UPS, OnTtrack, GoFo, and other regional carriers on the dimensions that enterprise buyers actually care about — and build that intelligence into every submission.
- Advise commercial leadership on structural patterns in wins and losses — not just reporting what happened, but recommending what to change and why.
Negotiation & Deal Structure
- Own Veho's commercial negotiation framework: develop term positions, discount guardrails, and escalation thresholds that give sellers a principled, fast foundation for enterprise negotiations.
- Serve as the strategic escalation point for complex or non-standard deal requests — advising on alternative structures that protect margin while advancing deal velocity.
- Develop standard proposal frameworks by customer segment (Retail, 3PL, Healthcare, Enterprise) that reflect how different buyers make decisions and what they care most about.
- Coordinate cross-functional deal reviews with Finance, Legal, and Operations — ensuring enterprise commitments are commercially sound and operationally deliverable.
- Maintain Veho's approved commercial language library and contract term positions in partnership with Legal and Finance.
Infrastructure & Scalability
- Build the commercial infrastructure that allows Veho's enterprise sales motion to scale: proposal frameworks, negotiation matrices, content libraries, and approval workflows that make every seller faster and every submission stronger.
- Instrument the Deal Desk with the data needed to track proposal quality, deal velocity, and win/loss trends — and surface those insights proactively to leadership.
- Use AI tools (including Claude) to accelerate proposal development and competitive research — applying strategic judgment to elevate output quality beyond what automation alone produces.
- Build SOPs and documentation that allow Veho to compete in a higher volume of enterprise bids without proportional growth in sales headcount.
What You'll Do
Phase 1: The "Player" (First 6–12 Months)
- End-to-End Ownership: Be the primary owner of every high-priority RFP, from the first draft to the final PDF.
- Knowledge Base Construction: Build the first version of our "Source of Truth" library. You’ll interview our founders and engineers to document our technical architecture and core value propositions.
- Security Partnership: Manage the technical "back-and-forth" with our security and engineering teams to ensure our SOC2 and compliance posture is represented accurately.
Phase 2: The "Coach" (Year 1 and Beyond)
- Automation Strategy: Implement and optimize an RFP automation platform to ensure 70% of standard questions are auto-populated, allowing the team to focus on the 30% that requires custom strategy.
- Win-Loss Intelligence: Collaborate with Product and Sales leadership to analyze why we win or lose, using those insights to pivot our messaging and product roadmap.
Required Experience & Skills
5+ Years in Proposal/Sales Operations: Experience specifically within a B2B SaaS or technology environment.- Startup DNA: You have a proven track record of building departments or processes from scratch rather than just managing existing ones.
- Project Management Mastery: Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and tight deadlines without sacrificing quality.
- Technical Literacy: Comfortable working with Salesforce (or similar CRM) and translating complex technical concepts into clear, value-driven prose.
- Strategic Influence: Experience advising executive leadership on "Go/No-Go" decisions based on resource capacity and strategic fit.
Strongly Preferred
- Experience in logistics, last-mile delivery, parcel, supply chain, or enterprise technology — or a clear pattern of developing deep domain fluency quickly when entering a new industry.
- Familiarity with procurement-driven buying processes at large retailers, brands, or enterprise shippers; experience with RFP portals (Coupa, Ariba, MySourcing).
- Experience building a proposal or pursuit function from scratch — you have been the founder of a process, not just a participant in one.
Compensation
The base pay range for this role is $165,000 – $180,000 per year.
