Assistant Proposal Writer & Business Development Associate

Job Title:

Assistant Proposal Writer and Business Development Associate 

Location:

Grand Rapids, MI

FLSA Status:

Exempt

Reports to:

Proposal Writer

Supervises:

N/A

Purpose of the Job:

This position provides administrative, operational, and proposal development support to the Commercial team, with a primary focus on assisting the Proposal Manager in the preparation, coordination, tracking, and administration of proposals, RFIs, RFQs, pricing activities, and commercial systems. The position serves as a key liaison between Business Development, Proposal Management, Estimating, Procurement, Operations, and Finance to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant proposal and pricing development. The role is highly process-oriented and requires exceptional attention to detail, organization, and follow-through.

Job Functions and Performance Standards:

Proposal & RFP/RFQ Support

1. Assist with the preparation, assembly, formatting, proofreading, and quality review of proposals, quotations, presentations, and other commercial documents.
2. Coordinate collection of proposal inputs from estimating, procurement, operations, quality, and subject matter experts.
3. Support the review of incoming RFPs, RFQs, RFIs, and capability requests for requirements, timelines, and submission needs.
4. Assist with proposal document version control, file organization, archiving, and maintenance of proposal folders and records.
5. Support proposal submission activities and ensure all required documentation is completed and included.
6. Maintain proposal trackers, timelines, status reports, and workload dashboards.
7. Assist with maintaining proposal templates, standard content libraries, boilerplate language, resumes, case studies, and supporting materials within proposal management systems.

Pricing & Commercial Operations Support

1. Coordinate with Estimating, Procurement, Operations, and Finance to gather pricing information required for quotations and proposals.
2. Assist in the preparation and population of customer pricing tables, cost summaries, and proposal pricing exhibits.
3. Support maintenance of commercial pricing tools, pricing databases, and pricing documentation.
4. Assist with product, service, and pricing setup within CRM, proposal systems, and related commercial platforms.
5. Support order and opportunity entry activities within CRM and internal systems as assigned.
6. Verify data accuracy and completeness across pricing, proposal, and opportunity records.

CRM & Commercial Systems Administration

1. Support administration and maintenance of CRM data, including opportunity creation, updates, stage progression, and record management.
2. Ensure proposal, quote, and opportunity records are accurately tracked and maintained.
3. Assist with CRM reporting, dashboard preparation, and commercial KPI tracking.
4. Support data cleanup, record audits, and process compliance initiatives.
5. Maintain commercial document repositories and SharePoint libraries.

RFI, Vendor Registration & Customer Portal Support

1. Assist with completion of customer RFIs, supplier registration forms, vendor qualification questionnaires, and prequalification packages.
2. Maintain repository of commonly requested company information, certifications, policies, capabilities, and compliance documentation.
3. Coordinate updates to customer portals and supplier management systems.
4. Assist with tracking confidentiality agreements, master service agreements, and other commercial documentation.

Administrative & Reporting Support

1. Provide administrative support to the Proposal Manager and Commercial Leadership team.
2. Prepare meeting agendas, action-item trackers, and meeting summaries as needed.
3. Assist with reporting related to proposal activity, win/loss trends, proposal volume, response times, and other commercial KPIs.
4. Maintain organized electronic filing systems and records retention processes.
5. Support special projects and process improvement initiatives across the commercial organization.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

1. Work closely with Proposal Management, Business Development, Procurement, Estimating, Operations, Quality, and Finance teams.
2. Support process consistency and adherence to established commercial procedures and workflows.
3. Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, automation, and proposal quality within commercial systems and processes.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Noise level in the work environment is usually medium to moderate

Requirements: Associate’s Degree or equivalent 

Experience: Minimum 2+ years of proposal coordination, proposal writing support, commercial operations, sales support, project coordination, or administrative support experience

Experience working with CRM systems (Dynamics CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar)

Background in life sciences, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, clinical trials, or related industries preferred

Skills:

Strong organizational and project coordination skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously

Excellent written and verbal communication skills with exceptional attention to detail

Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint)

Strong proofreading, editing, formatting, and document quality assurance skills

Experience working with pricing sheets, pricing tables, data entry, calculations, and spreadsheets preferred

Ability to gather, organize, and validate information from multiple stakeholders

Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, cross-functional environment

Self-motivated, proactive, and capable of working independently with minimal supervision

Strong attention to detail, process compliance, and data accuracy

Experience supporting proposals, RFIs, RFQs, RFPs, or procurement-related documentation preferred

Physical Demands: The Physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and color vision. 

Other:     

The above statements are intended to describe the essential functions and related requirements of persons assigned to this job. They are not intended as an exhaustive list of all job duties, responsibilities and requirements. Nothing in this job description should be construed to limit the power of the company to repeal or modify any part of this job description at any time. This document is not intended to create a contract between 5THGEN Inc., or any of its subsidiaries, and its employees.