Proposal Specialist (AU)

About the role

DroneShield seeks a Proposal Specialist to own select proposal responses—including RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, and other submissions—across Australia and international defence and security markets in support of regional Commercial Directors.

This role may be in-office or hybrid, with an expectation of generally working at least 3 days per week from our Sydney HQ. This role is ideal for a strategic doer—someone comfortable managing a proposal response while writing the bulk of it.

You will collaborate closely with sales, engineering, legal, finance, and executive stakeholders. You will manage inputs across cross-functional teams to develop compelling, high-quality, compliant proposals. This is a hands-on role suited to someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is passionate about delivering winning bids.

Responsibilities, Duties and Expectations 

• Consult and collaborate with Commercial Directors in vetting and critically evaluating inbound opportunities.
• Own and manage the full lifecycle of proposal responses from initial RFP review to final submission—including internal gating reviews, compliance, scheduling, content development, and delivery.
• Lead the writing effort, developing high-quality narrative content across technical, management, and executive sections.
• Coordinate inputs from subject matter experts, commercial, legal, finance, and engineering to deliver complete and compliant submissions.
• Establish and manage proposal plans, timelines, response matrices, and internal review cycles.
• Run internal reviews and incorporate feedback to improve response quality continually.
• Contribute to building and maintaining a library of reusable content, templates, past performance examples, and standard boilerplate.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills 

• 2+ years of hands-on experience in technology proposal development, preferably in defence, aerospace, or dual-use sectors.
• Familiarity with defence and/or government procurement.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and structuring skills—you’re confident developing core content yourself.
• Outstanding independent organizational and project management skills—you can autonomously manage internal and external stakeholders and multiple bids simultaneously under tight deadlines.
• Skilled at working cross-functionally with local and remote technical and non-technical teams.
• Experience with defence industrial participation (offset) programs is highly desirable, including the ability to assess offset obligations, develop industrial participation strategies, model offset credit requirements, engage with local industry partners, and support compliance reporting for government defence procurements in Europe and other international markets.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and document collaboration tools (e.g., SharePoint, Teams, Jira and Salesforce).

Note for recruitment agencies: We do not accept unsolicited candidates from external recruiters unless specifically instructed.